Unpacking the Rainbow Agenda at Hobsonville Point Secondary School

A NZ Secondary School's BIG Pride Push For 'Lil Gay Out'. Why Are Our Kids Being Propagandised?

Buckle up for a deep dive into the rainbow-coloured web spun around Hobsonville Point Secondary School - where ideology, funding, and our kids’ identities collide.

Let’s unpack it. Trust me, you’ll want to share this one

Pride Pledge and corporate cash

First stop: The Pride Pledge website. If you’ve been following my earlier work, you know this is where organisations pay to signal their DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) virtue, rainbow-train their staff, and funnel money to rainbow causes. Scroll to the bottom of their “Gold Supporters,” and there’s Hobsonville Point Secondary School, rubbing shoulders with corporate giants like Z Energy.

A school? Paying to join an ideological club? That raised my eyebrows. Schools are supposed to be neutral, right? Not splashing cash on memberships that align them with a specific agenda. So, what’s going on?

Follow the rainbow money trail

Next, I dug into the Rainbow New Zealand Charitable Trust, a hub for rainbow fundraising. Their website lists where their money goes, and guess who’s a regular recipient?

Hobsonville Point Secondary School. From 2022 to 2025, they’ve pocketed $2,000 each year - $8,000 total - to fund their ‘Lil Gay Out, a rainbow festival billed as the school version of Big Gay Out. This event, held annually since 2021, brings together 300+ students from 15 Auckland schools for a day of “celebration, learning, and connection.” Sounds nice, but let’s peel back the curtain...

‘Lil Gay Out: A festival of ideology

The Ministry of Education’s 2023 Education Gazette gushes about ‘Lil Gay Out, describing a rainbow-decked hall at Hobsonville Point Secondary Schools hosting workshops like:

• “Gender Affirming 101” (Auckland Sexual Health Services),

• “Rainbow Safe Sex” (Body Positive), and

• “Navigating the Online World as a Queer Person” (NetSafe).

Partners include:

• InsideOut

• Rainbow Youth, and even …

• The NZ Police’s Diversity Liaison team.

Then PM Jacinda Ardern and Deputy PM Grant Robertson, speaking to students at ‘Lil Gay Out in 2021

High-profile guests like Green MP Chloe Swarbrick and former PM Jacinda Ardern (via video in 2021) confirm just how political the rainbow industry being pushed on school students is.

Anecdotally, a mum and student I spoke from this school estimate 50% of the school’s kids now identify as non-binary or trans. Fifty percent! That’s not natural—it’s a red flag of social engineering, with “love bombing” and peer pressure making it “uncool” to be heterosexual.

Who are the key players

At the heart of this is Victoria Marsden, the school’s head of Student Services and a registered counsellor with a private practice. She’s the driving force behind ‘Lil Gay Out and proudly promotes the school’s rainbow group, which meets weekly. The school’s comprehensive rainbow website, under Marsden’s influence, touts gender-neutral toilets, name/gender change processes (no parental consent needed), and mixed-gender sports teams. They even cite InsideOut’s resources, like the “Ending Rainbow Focus Bullying and Discrimination” workbook, funded by - you guessed it - the Ministry of Education. Marsden’s fingerprints are all over this, and her ties to InsideOut’s policy guides show she’s been shaping this agenda for years.

Then there’s Dr. Torrance Merkle, a GP at Hobsonville Family Doctors, who volunteers at the school and spoke at ‘Lil Gay Out in 2021. His specialties?

• LGBTQ health

• ADHD, and

• Youth mental health

• He’s listed as a PrEP-friendly provider (for HIV prevention) with the Burnett Foundation

• and even pops up on a site discussing ‘poppers’, a drug linked to anal sex in gay communities.

Merkle has a third shareholding of Hobsonville Family Doctors, raising questions about financial incentives tied to gender-affirming care, and medicalisation of minors. In February 2025, he was quoted in New Zealand Doctor dismissing legal warnings about puberty blockers as “ridiculous,” despite global scrutiny (like the UK’s Cass Report). His role at the school, alongside Marsden’s, could be a perfect storm for pushing medicalization on confused kids.

The bigger picture: Targeting the vulnerable

Here’s where it gets heartbreaking. A young autistic man from Colorado, Sven, features in my video, speaking out against Bill HB1312 ‘Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals’ that was passed just days ago, that will strip parents’ rights if they don’t affirm their child’s gender identity.

Sven, who’s autistic himself, nails it: neurodiverse kids, autistic, ADHD, or otherwise - are prime targets for this “rainbow industry.” Why? They’re vulnerable, easily influenced, and often struggle to fit in.

Some parents whose children are on the spectrum know their kids are at risk of being ‘love bombed’ and ideologically captured (but we’re not allowed to talk about it, lest we’re called ‘trans-phobes’!).

At Hobsonville Point, the student who stated the high number of seemingly ‘non-binary’ statistic suggests kids are being swept up in a wave of identity disruption, with ‘health professionals’ like Marsden and Merkle steering the ship.

Media bias and political power

The mainstream media isn’t helping. When lawyer Steven Franks sent letters to 20 GPs (including Merkle’s clinic) in February 2025, warning about puberty blocker risks, outlets like New Zealand Doctor, NZ Herald, and Radio NZ spun it as “intimidation.”

They quoted pro-trans voices like Merkle and Gender Minorities Aotearoa’s Ti Ahi-Wi Hongi, who get government funding via Jacinda Ardern’s 2019 rainbow seed funding (see post below) and many other sources. Meanwhile, balanced coverage from The Centrist was a rare breath of fresh air. This selective reporting keeps the public in the dark, normalising an agenda that’s anything but normal.

Why this matters

This isn’t about hating anyone - it’s about protecting our kids. The rainbow industry, backed by corporate cash, government funds, and political heavyweights, is creating a pipeline from social transition to medicalization.

At Hobsonville Point, it’s in overdrive, with policies that sideline parents and prioritise ideology over biology. The outcomes for kids - especially neurodiverse ones - are grim: confusion, medical harm, and fractured families. In New Zealand, laws like the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Act 2022 could mirror Colorado’s, threatening parental rights.

What can we do?

We can’t stay silent. If you’re a parent, grandparent, or concerned New Zealander, check in with your school. Are they pushing rainbow groups (many are ‘student-led’ and appear to be cut-copy-pastes of the format directed by InsideOut).

Is your school inviting students to make ‘gender identity’ changes and hide them from you?

Visit Let Kids Be Kids to connect with others and share your story. We need support networks for families and clear voices to push back. Let’s safeguard our kids from this ideological takeover and let them grow up safely and innocently as kids, not pawns in a rainbow-branded game, where the medical industry and pharmaceutical companies win, and families and children lose.

Keep digging, keep talking, and let’s stop this before it’s too late.

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