Man charged with assault after soup thrown at ‘anti-trans’ speaker during Sheffield rally

He was seen being taken away by two officers after pouring it on her head

3 months ago

Max Booth | News

A man has been charged with two counts of assault by beating after a can of soup was thrown at a controversial “anti-trans” activist at a rally in Sheffield on Saturday.

The man can be seen throwing the can at Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, as she was preparing to speak at the “Let Women Speak Sheffield” event.

Kellie-Jay is the leader of the Party of Women, a “radical, single issue”anti-trans” political party.

Videos posted to X show a bearded man in a black t-shirt and jacket running away after pouring the soup on Kellie-Jay’s head and then being apprehended by two police officers.

The moment Ben Lindsay poured soup over @ThePosieParker was captured by @streethawk0 pic.twitter.com/ic3VwBI1cm

— News Now Yorkshire (@NewsNowYorks) September 21, 2024

She then spoke briefly to introduce the first speaker of the event, not commenting on what had happened. She later gave a speech to the crowd to finish the event.

In the speech, she repeatedly referred to transgender women as “men” and led her supporters in chants of: “No woman has a penis. No man has a vagina.”

At one point, she even referred to transgender women as: “Fetishy pervert men.”

Kellie-Jay was helped to clean up her face, hair and clothes by some of her supporters, but when she began speaking, she was still visibly wet.

Her speech was largely drowned out by a large group of counter-protestors, partly made up of students from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam’s LGBTQ+ societies.

“If you have an AGP in your workplace, your workplace is ideologically captured”

Schools…why are you employing AGPs? #LetWomenSpeak #LetWomenSpeakSheffield #ShuDer @StandingforXX @LWSLocals @ThePosieParker @SheffieldPOW pic.twitter.com/2X6c0T8aRN

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The counter-protestors used a large speaker to play music from artists such as Chappell Roan, Vengaboys and the Spice Girls, making it difficult for Kellie-Jay to be heard.

They also disrupted the event with chants such as: “Fascist scum off our streets” and “there are many, many more of us than you”.

The counter-protestors also had been loudly cheering when the man who had thrown the soup was led away by police.

The controversial campaigner directed insults at the counter-protestors throughout her speech, calling them “arseholes”, “degenerates” and “pathetic”. She also insulted the appearances of the group as a whole, and picked out specific individuals from the crowd to target.

The Sheffield Tab contacted Kellie-Jay last week about her views. When questioned whether she believed her or her movement were “anti-trans”, she only said: “Let Women Speak is a women’s right’s rally.”

When further questioned about whether she would call her party, the Party of Women, a “radical, single issue anti-trans political party”, her personal assistant replied: “Mrs Keen founded Party Of Women in order to speak about women’s rights in the political arena.

“This is urgent because women are often relegated beyond any other issue. Women must be able to speak about their concerns in the public and political sphere.”

The Sheffield Tab also asked her whether she believed she spread “anti-trans conspiracy theories”, to which, she said: “Advocating that women don’t have penises is not a conspiracy theory.”