AAWAA presents Local Action — interviews with women Getting It Done across Australia. This week, we turn our attention to Woman Up, a grassroots women’s rights initiative in Brisbane that began in May 2023. QWAA sat down with Sue Clarke, one of the founding members, to talk about her local action and how it all began.
Tell me about yourself. What brought you to feminism? You were severely attacked in the Animal Justice Party (AJP) for your gender critical views — what happened?
I honestly thought I didn’t need to worry about feminism. I believed we were on a good path. I was running for the Animal Justice Party in the federal election. All I did was like a Facebook article about keeping men out of women’s sports due to their biological advantage. Just liking that article triggered a wave of hate — even from my own political party. Rather than be scared off, I decided to tackle it head-on. I’d first heard about gender ideology at the IWD Conference in 2022, and the hate I received made me realise there was something seriously wrong here. Anna McCormack of IWD Brisbane took us under her wing, and we began speaking out. We also appeared on Angie and Stassja’s TERF Talk Down Under. We even got some media coverage. That’s how it started. But why I’m still here? Because I can’t see how we’ll achieve animal rights when 51% of the population — women — are being silenced and losing our rights.
What are your main concerns in Queensland today?
The same concerns women face globally: gender ideology. What could be more important than 51% of the population losing their rights? We’re talking about fair sporting competition, single-sex spaces, even things like beauty pageants being taken away from women. But, most critically, I worry about children. If we don’t stop this now, we’re going to have a generation that is medicalised for life.
Tell me about Woman Up! How did it start, and what’s your mission?
It started with StickerGate — a sticker placed on Shannon Fentiman’s office quoting the dictionary definition of ‘woman’. Fentiman claimed it was transphobic hate speech. That extreme reaction told us everything. We held a protest outside her office, and the public response was overwhelmingly supportive. We realised the average person isn’t fooled by this ideology. So we launched Woman Up in May 2023 to keep the momentum going. Leah said, ‘Women just need to Woman Up!’ — and that became our name and our mission: to encourage women and men to do grassroots actions, even just two or three people for an hour. Our goal? Destabilise the government.
I’ve seen Woman Up doing some amazing actions in Brisbane. What have you done so far?
Since May 2023, we’ve been busy:
- Running the monthly Woman Up Speakers’ Corner and the Woman Up YouTube. These have been incredibly successful with some amazing people attending and speaking including the brave Dr. Jillian Spencer, Senior Paediatric Psychiatric from the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital, Drew Hutton of the Queensland Greens Party and Malcolm Roberts of One Nation
- Protests outside Valley Plastic Surgery after confirming they perform double mastectomies on girls as young as 13
- Working in cooperation with the Australian Affiliation of Women’s Advocacy Alliances in Queensland, IWD Brisbane and the Women’s Rights Network.
- Attending the Conferences for political parties in Queensland
- Protesting outside the Queensland Children’s Hospital on Wear It Purple Day.
Have you been attacked during any of your actions? What do you think is fuelling the violence from TRAs?
Yes. At Speakers’ Corner, Leah was accosted by Aden (Amy) Sargeant. At a Labor Conference, we were attacked by Greens party members. We thought they’d behave like a political party, but it was more like a playbook of intimidation. They surrounded us in a circle, chanting with dead eyes. Water was thrown on one of our group. Police were outnumbered and had to break through the circle to rescue us. In this instance the woman was charged by Queensland Police with assault for attacking one of our group with water. In 2024 two women were physically assaulted at one of our Speakers Corners. One, a local woman with osteoporosis, was punched in the head. Another, a woman, a Lesbian representing homosexual women’s rights, was knocked to the ground. All of this witnessed by officers of the Queensland Police Service who did nothing to protect the women.
Woman Up is on Facebook and X. What can women do if they want to get involved in Brisbane?
Anyone who wants to get involved can join us at Speakers Corner. We advertise regularly on Facebook and X.
Sue Clarke is an animal rights activist in exile — a cancelled woman fighting back, one small action at a time. If you’d like to connect with Woman Up, you can reach Sue through the Woman Up YouTube, Facebook, or X — or simply attend the next Speakers’ Corner in Brisbane. The views expressed by the women interviewed in Local Action are their own and do not necessarily represent or reflect the positions of AAWAA.
