March 14: Feminist writer Germaine Greer was glitter-bombed in an attack launched by the Queer Avengers at a Readers and Writers Week event in Wellington. Greer was targeted by the group for her transphobic comments, which have included referring to transwomen as ‘ghastly parodies’.

In a written response published in The New Zealand Listener, Greer claimed the attack was the result of a defamatory article that appeared in The Guardian in 1996. According to Greer, the article had falsely accused her of outing colleague Dr Rachael Padman as trans and being subsequently responsible for Dr Padman’s dismissal from Cambridge University’s all-female Newman College.

‘Having unseen assailants throw a bag of glitter over me in Wellington is neither here nor there. It seems a typically masculine over¬reaction, though, when you think about it.’ Greer wrote.