Controversial religious leader Brian Tamaki and his Destiny Church are being sued for defamation by two drag performers in the High Court in Auckland.
Event and entertainment company Haus of Flash are suing the group for just over $2 million, after numerous alleged attacks by the church on their Rainbow Storytime drag-queen events.
Tamaki has posted frequently on social media targeting drag performers, accusing them of child grooming.
One of the performers behind Haus of Flash, Sunita Torrance, said she hope the legal action would encourage others feeling targeted to speak up.
She goes by the stage name Coco Flash, and performs story reading session at public libraries and centres with her co-star Daniel Lockett, named Erika Flash.
Speaking outside the High Court in Auckland on Thursday, with her lawyer Christopher Griggs, Torrance said she would be suing Tamaki, the church's trustees, and a number of pastors for inducing breach of contract, conspiracy to injure, unlawful means conspiracy, and defamation.
Sunita Torrance outside the High Court in Auckland with her lawyer, Christopher Griggs. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
"As performers, we dress up in colourful outfits, entertain, and read magical stories to children and their parents, and promote a message of kindness, anti-bullying, and inclusion to all people," Torrance said.
"We were in great demand, and were always very popular with our audiences."
Torrance said Tamaki and members of Destiny Church had launched a crusade against them and their act, leading them to cancel shows.
"It's badly been impacting my business."
She said Christianity and religion were not bad, but that people should be wary of who they followed.
"In your heart of hearts, you know that Christianity does not believe in hating other people, and hoping that people don't exist," Torrance said.
Torrance and Lockett allege that Tamaki referred to the pair as "an underground satanic movement to deconstruct civil society, to deliberately eliminate the whole foundations of Christianity", in a sermon delivered earlier this year.
"I, for a very long time, have been labelled with all sorts of things that aren't true," Torrance said on Thursday.
"The emotional toll has also been the threats, the publishing of my home address all over the internet and my own safety."
Torrance said they will be crowd funding and fundraising for legal fees.
They have had support both locally and from overseas.
Destiny Church has been before the courts already this year, with members charged for painting over rainbow crossings in Gisborne and Auckland.
Tamaki also announced his plans to sue the councils of Auckland, Wellington, Gisborne, Rotorua and Hastings over what he calls a "misappropriation of ratepayers' money" for rainbow initiatives.
In response, Destiny Church released a media statement on behalf of Tamaki, in which he said he and the church had not been formally served with any papers relating to the claim.
"Without proper legal notification, it would be premature for us to comment on specific allegations or details surrounding this matter," Tamaki said, adding they were not afraid of a potential court case.
He accused the New Zealand Herald of promoting crowdfunding for the drag queens to mount their legal case, exposing "the woke media bias we have in New Zealand".
He said the church would continue to advocate for the wellbeing of children.
