A Māori women’s rights advocate in New Zealand is facing prison time after being reported to police by a trans-identified male for her social media posts. Rex Landy, a member of Mana Wāhine Kōrero, was arrested in December of 2024 after being targeted by a trans activist who took issue with her online commentary.
The source of the complaints against Landy is a fantasy author named Daniel Johnston, a man who identifies as “female” and refers to himself by the name “Caitlin Spice.” Speaking to Reduxx, Landy explains that she first became aware of Johnston in 2019 after she discovered that he had participated in having Broadsheet, a women’s issues magazine, suspended on Facebook.
“All they had done was post some quotes of his where he said things like ‘I am a legal female’ and boasted about being able to use the women’s washrooms,” Landy says. “They had to fight to get their account back.”
Broadsheet had warned their readers about Johnston, noting that he “delights in taunting feminists who are defending women’s rights.”
Landy says that Johnston’s rhetoric, specifically that about using women’s intimate spaces, was triggering for her as a survivor of sexual abuse.
“That’s when I realized he could be in any toilet in Wellington, where I go, from time to time. And I got upset.” Landy explains that she later discovered Johnston had been targeting multiple women critical of gender ideology in New Zealand for insult and harassment.
While it is unclear when Johnston began to “identify” as a woman, he first started attracting attention on social media for making graphic posts about his vaginoplasty and use of women’s restrooms. On his now-deleted X (then Twitter), Johnston would frequently make comments about his post-surgical fluid leakage, dilation, and use of women’s menstrual products.
Johnston would gain popularity amongst his fellow trans activists, with many of his posts targeting women critical of gender ideology going viral in trans circles. On his social media, Johnston also spoke out against the existence of biological sex, insisting that humans can medically change their chromosomes, and fantasized about undergoing a uterus implant so that he might “give birth” to his own child.
Around the same time Johnston had Broadsheet temporarily suspended from Facebook, he was profiled in New Zealand’s Stuff Magazine, wherein he boasted about standing up to “bullies” on Twitter and portrayed himself as a victim of unrelenting transphobia.
It was through social media that Landy had increased exposure to Johnston, and began to both criticize and mock him and his behavior.
“I’ve never once spoken to him, e-mailed him, interacted with any of his accounts online, or wished him harm. Never,” Landy clarifies, acknowledging she often uses “offensive” language to get her point across. “I do not use the language they want me to use. I just laugh at these men. I tell other people to laugh at them. We need to laugh at these people – the naked emperor and his swinging balls.”
But though she hadn’t directly interacted with Johnston, Landy would soon come under his scrutiny. Johnston filed a police report, complaining about social media posts Landy had made indirectly referencing him. In mid-2022, Landy received a phone call from police concerning Johnston’s report.
“The original complaint went through five sergeants,” Landy says, emphasizing the amount of police labor that went into handling Johnston’s grievance against her.
During the call, police advised Landy that she was required to refer to Johnston as a “woman” and respect his self-declared gender identity.
“They told me I had to stop saying what I was saying. I told them I’d take that into consideration, and I said ‘good day!’ The very next day I received a written warning in the post threatening that they had enough to charge me under the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015.”
In New Zealand, police are not allowed to issue formal warnings where the individual being questioned does not offer an unequivocal admission to the behavior being investigated. As a result, Landy was allowed to challenge the warning and was successful in having it dismissed. But her ordeal with Johnston was far from over.
Landy says that she noticed Johnston subscribing to her members-only Substack and following her on other social media channels. “Undoubtedly it was to keep tabs on me and stalk me,” Landy explains, noting that there have been numerous police complaints about Johnston logged by women.
In September of 2024, Landy received a court order instructing her to remove all posts she had made directly or indirectly referencing Johnston. At the time, Landy was in the midst of a family tragedy and felt unable to put up a fight against the order.
“I went and I removed them all, or so I thought. I deleted my entire Gettr profile, and I searched my other accounts for wherever I had mentioned his name and deleted them. But I missed two by accident,” Landy says.
On December 18, 2024, police raided Landy’s home and arrested her.
“They said I had failed to comply with the order because I had missed those two posts. They took my laptops, cellphones, everything,” Landy recalls. She was taken to the station and formally charged with failing to obey a Harmful Digital Communications Act order.
On September 18, just one day before she was ordered to appear in court, Landy was hit with yet another count of failing to obey a Harmful Digital Communications Act order after Johnston told police that she had subtly referenced him during a past Facebook livestream – something she says is untrue.
While in court last week, Landy was told the prosecution was not willing to entertain diversion or discharge without conviction because of her beliefs.
“They said I was not eligible because I was in the ‘grip of an ideology’ and was ‘unlikely to change my mind,'” Landy explains, rejecting the premise that a belief in biological sex is ideological. “So this is an exercise in them trying to get me to change my mind.”
She is next expected to appear in court on December 16, and faces three months in jail or a $50,000 fine. Her current bail conditions include a ban on directly or indirectly contacting Johnston.
While Landy expresses exhaustion at the process, she maintains that her spirits are high and her focus is on protecting right of women to criticize gender ideology. Landy says the issue first came on her radar in 2016, and she became increasingly concerned about its impact on women after witnessing the rise of transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard.
Hubbard rose to prominence in 2017 after beginning to participate in women’s weightlifting championships. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Hubbard’s eligibility came under public scrutiny, specifically from Samoan leaders and athletes who were concerned about their own female weightlifters being displaced by Hubbard. The next year, Hubbard won gold at the Pacific Games in Samoa, prompting backlash from the nation’s Prime Minister, who said: “No matter how we look at it, he’s a man and it’s shocking this was allowed in the first place.” Feagaiga Stowers, an Indigenous Samoan athlete, was denied Gold due to Hubbard’s participation.
Witnessing an Indigenous woman lose her athletic opportunities to a male was a turning point for Landy, who soon after became more vocal in criticizing gender ideology.
Landy is a member of Mana Wāhine Kōrero, an Indigenous women’s rights group active in criticizing the impact of gender ideology. The organization was founded by her sister, Di Landy, and Michelle Uriarau. On their website, the organization states that its mission “seeks to protect, preserve and uphold the mana of Wāhine, Tamariki and Māoritanga from 4th Industrial Revolution developments such as gender identity, transgenderism, transhumanism and dehumanisation which distorts and misrepresents our Reo, our Whakapapa, our Tikanga and our Tipuna.” The group’s name translates to Sovereign Women Speak.
“We are, as far as we know, the only Indigenous group fighting gender ideology today. We are engaged in a battle for our culture,” Landy says. “The rich Māori at the top, who claim to speak for all of us, are just grifters who go along with it. They say things like ‘we have transvestites in our culture, in our genealogy,’ and to them I say: If any man cut his dick off 200 years ago, he wouldn’t be my ancestor, would he?”
“In our culture, women are te whare tangata, which means the house of the ancestors. Only women give birth. Only women can do the karanga, only women can call out to the spirits. Māori know what a woman is.”
On the outcome of the case, Landy makes no predictions but expresses optimism.
“Win, lose, or draw – he’ll never be a woman,” Landy says with a laugh. “I’ve already won. I’m a woman, he isn’t.”
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