Trans activist, writer and model, Shaneel Lal, has taken to Instagram to reveal that their home was broken into in what they are suspecting is a targeted hate-crime.
After leading the protest against anti-trans campaigner Posie Parker in Auckland earlier this year, founding the Conversion Therapy Action Group, becoming the first trans winner of the Young New Zealander of the Year 2023 award, and most recently releasing a memoir detailing their lived experiences as a trans person, Shaneel Lal has found themselves at the centre of a hate campaign lead by TERFs and transphobes.
The activist took to social media on July 16, one week after the launch of their book One of Them, to spotlight a hate campaign lead by TERFs which involved concealing and destroying the book in stores, as well as trying to get Shaneel deported on false criminal convictions.
Now, the campaign has taken a turn for the worse — targeting Shaneel’s home.
‘My well-being is back at square one’, says Shaneel
The activist took to social media to share the news of the break-in, along with a series of terrifying threats they received following the incident.
“My home was broken into. I felt startled but comforted that my home was a random target,” they said on Instagram.
“Things took an insidious turn when I received a message on Thursday night from a burner account saying they would ‘come back’ for me.
“The account disappeared within an hour, but a new account emerged on Friday, threatening they ‘will get [me] next time’ and ‘will come back for [me]’ and that I should ‘watch [my] back’. The accounts called me a ‘gr**mer’ and a ‘p*do’.”
Shaneel then goes on to explain that they were able to connect the profile picture of the burner account was identical to that of a Twitter account which had been harassing the activist “for nearly a year”.
The post then shows a compilation of posts about Shaneel.
View this post on Instagram
Shaneel goes on to mention that police have been made aware of the incident, but have been “no help”.
Queer stories are under attack
Shaneel also explains in the post that their book has “unleashed an unprecedented level of anti-queerness”:
“My well-being is back at square one. My book has unleashed an unprecedented level of anti-queerness. I hope everyone can see TERFs and anti-queer groups for who they are. These people are willing to break into my home and hurt me for writing a book about my life.”
They also go on, urging for their followers support by buying a copy of their book.
One commentor took issue with the activist promoting their work while getting stalked, to which Shaneel replied:
“hands up if you’d like to pay my bills for the foreseeable future. But that’s not the entire point either. I’m being targeted because I wrote a book about the life of a queer person. What these people want is for me to go into hiding. I’m not giving it to them,” they say.
“The only way I subvert their attacks on me is by selling my books – they very thing they want erased. Queer people and our stories are under attack. I am committed to preserving it.”
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