Ireland will no longer be providing single sex toilets in primary and secondary schools!!!

Yes agreed. The GRA made a mockery of this. In theory it only applies to those who have a GRC but the IHREC say that transgender is included in the gender ground.

I still think it’s worthwhile writing to them on the toilet issue. They can’t ignore this

www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2000/act/8/section/3/enacted/en/html#sec3

Section 3 (2)(a):

As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are:
(a) that one is male and the other is female (the “gender ground”),

@MnaWomanIreland
But does gender actually protect girls though?
When the Equality Act was written it presumably meant sex. However, it actually says gender which I expect TENI would argue gives priority to how you identify.

[quote rivierliedje]@MnaWomanIreland What was the ICGP debacle at the beginning of the year?[/quote]
The ICGP write a guide for their GPs. It was written by a doctor who specialises in substance abuse and Vanessa Lacey (TENI). Vanessa has a phd in loss PhD exploring the experiences of adult transgender women and their families, in relation to grief and loss.

It stated that puberty blockers were reversible and hormone treatment was partially reversible. In children

Women wrote many many emails to them. They pulled it in a few days and have replaced it now. It is more accurate now with respect to blockers and cross sex hormones but is still misleading in other areas.

@MnaWomanIreland What was the ICGP debacle at the beginning of the year?

Write to the IHREC and push this mixed sex toilet issue to be worked through. In a proper manner

Gender is protected. So make of that what you wish.

*Equality Act

Are girls rights actually protected in the Equality though?

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission can investigate this. They can force an Equality Impact Assessment to be undertaken.

Write to them at [email protected] asking for an inquiry to be undertaken and that girls rights and religious groups are negatively affected.

The more people that write in the more likely they are to do this.

I think we need an Irish branch of Transgender Trend. I know ‘The Countess’ has a schools working group and I don’t know if the Irish Women’s Lobby can help but it feels very much like there is nowhere to have our voices heard.

Hi @irishmom7 I have been apoplectic with rageabout this survey since my school principal asked all teachers to encourage all our primary pupils to fill it out. Have mentioned it here previously. I don't know what to do about it. Between that and his article in the Sunday Indo I think we can forget about safeguarding here if this is what the Ombudsman for Children thinks.

*legally,( not LEGAL).

Ffs!! How confusing for children :(

A couple of weeks ago the Ombudsman for Children sent round a questionnaire to Irish children via their schools. The first question was “are you a boy, a girl, or non-binary?”
This was sent to primary schools too. There is no “non-binary” gender in Irish law. This is who the department is answerable to, and he is completely captured.

Does anyone know if we can complain about the department to anyone? If they haven’t looked at the effect of these toilets on girls or religious groups is there someone we can appeal to - or is the department answerable to no one?

Mna thanks for linking to that article.
And very very well said, Dr Saidléar.

"Girls will still go to the toilet in groups because changing the signage won’t have changed their lived reality — that they get to escape for five minutes in the girls’ toilets before they re-enter the fray of a culture that is violently misogynistic; five minutes to armour themselves again to run the gauntlet that is everyday sexism".

The head of Rape Crisis Network Ireland, Dr Cliona Sadlear has written this excellent article in the Irish Examiner. An intelligent and highly informed woman.

I’ll write to my TD and the Minister for Education on this. Dr Sadlear is correct. This guide is a mistake.

“On their own terms, these recommendations [the new guide] make a lot of sense. But there might be a problem with the terms"

“at no point are the characteristics that might be associated with who gets targeted, where and how, explored or named.
For illustration, one might argue that the single biggest change proposed (there are many) is to move away from single-sex facilities to unisex facilities. Yet at no point is sex itself (or indeed other intersectional characteristics) and the impacts they have on adolescents’ lived experiences, referenced”

“perhaps one of the most compelling reasons girls and women go to the toilet in gangs is not because of what happens inside these places but because of what is happening outside of them.”

www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-40292030.html

Facebook has 9 and Google 6 last year.

[quote PopcornAndWine]TENI's returns on the Lobbying Register, just FYI: www.lobbying.ie/app/home/search?currentPage=0&pageSize=10&queryText=Transgender%20equality%20network&subjectMatters=&subjectMatterAreas=&period=&returnDateFrom=&returnDateTo=&lobbyistId=&dpo=&publicBodys=&jobTitles=&client=&responsible=[/quote]
There’s something off about the search results. Seems to pull in anything that includes network or Ireland. That’s why the number is so high.

If you just put in transgender there were 7 this year and 6 last year.

Interesting results all the same
Sports participation
Model of healthcare (especially in light of the ICGP debacle at the beginning of the year!)

I'm very gc but my daughters will go to high school with toilets like these and I won't have an issue with it.

I would have thought the same as you but when they were installed at my DD's school she stopped drinking water and was doubling up on sanpro. She didn't say anything and I didn't realise for a long time. When I asked why she said they made her feel uncomfortable and the boys were messing around. (She is not GC though!)

We have a similar toilet design in a couple of schools close to us. They are community campus' so house the local swimming pool / public library. Relatively new buildings in the last ten years or so. Honestly the toilets are not a problem according to those with teenage daughters who attend. Yes sinks are open to the corridors but there seems to be a minimum of messing around. All toilets have a sanitary bin, also locally to combat period poverty every toilet has sanitary supplies and wipes in a clear bag with lots of pockets hanging on the back of the door.

I'm very gc but my daughters will go to high school with toilets like these and I won't have an issue with it.

1561 results! I have nothing to compare it to but that seems huge