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

Sorry just realised that link didn't work properly. Just put Transgender Equality Network into that search bar.

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=

Have anyone done anything further on this?

There was a Parliamentary Question last week by an Independent in Galway, Sean Canney. Well done to the Irish mammy (making an assumption here) who encouraged him! www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2021-04-29/71/#pq_71

I’ve gone to my TD to ask him to ask a PQ question on my behalf.
I’ve written to the Minister and the Secretary General too.

We need to push hard on this. We have to.

In terms of Self ID (and I guess the broader implications such as gender neutral toilets), if you look at the Denton's report for the IGLYO (it's available online if you search for it), some of the suggestions of tactics for lobbying government are:

• Target youth politicians
• Get ahead of the Government agenda and the media story
• Tie your campaign to a more popular reform
• Avoid excessive press coverage and exposure

Obviously these are just guidelines, but it mentions Ireland as one of the countries that has been successful in this regard. It shows a very deliberate, covert lobbying of government to get these measures pushed through.

If you think about the abortion referendum and same sex marriage, these were grass roots campaigns that took years to get any traction in political circles. And even then had rigorous public debate before any vote took place. It's very telling that this issue has had none of that, instead it was very deliberately done out of public view. This is because they know well that the voting public would be very against it.

fireproofwitch the only name that springs to mind is TENI

@fireproofwitch your point above about where this came from is so important... I wish an Irish journalist would do a FOI request to find out the sequence of meetings, when they occurred and who was involved in coming up with and then signing off on this toilets madness. Similarly why is the Omb for Children currently asking Irish children are they a girl, boy, non binary, or prefer not to say in the current survey... Who came up with this idea? Who was consulted? It has me apoplectic with rage, that question.... the way it normalises and gives credence and support to gender ideology.

I suspect Muslim representatives are afraid to speak out as they will likely be targeted and attacked along with their places of worship and anyone visibly Muslim.

In the UK it is a clear contradiction of equalities legislation if a protected group's needs are not met and they are negatively and disproportionately affected by a particular policy. But I am not familiar with the legislation in Ireland.

What will it take for them to acknowledge the problems with all this?

Yes. I’ve gone back to him on the religion point. Brought up girls again (not that they matter!). Added that the disabled toilets being offered to anyone not wanting to share in the mixed sex toilets is horrendously backwards for disabled children’s rights.

If I get back another “nothing to do with me” from the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Islam isn't cool like trans-identification is so clearly it hasn't been given any thought or consideration. I am surprised that there have been no letters to the papers from any representatives of the Muslim faith though.

Surely in Ireland Muslims are a much larger minority than trans people? Why have their needs not been considered at all? Sinks in full view mean a Muslim girl cannot do the required washing before prayers, as this involves revealing parts of her body she would normally keep concealed in public. I'd be very interested to hear how this concern could be explained away from a legal point of view by mixed sex provision propagandists.

And a response back from the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality.

Apparently it’s nothing to do with him! It is. And I’ve gone back to him to tell him to do his bloody job. Advocate on behalf of children!

I got a response from the department. Apparently there’s no instruction or diktat to install gender neutral toilets.

And more blurb from them about passive supervision. Well it might help bullying but it will increase sexual harassment and assault.

“Diktat”: "an order or decree imposed by someone in power without popular consent". As can be seen here this change in policy is indeed without popular consent.

The toilets in a certain restaurant/bar in Dublin are unisex (or at least they were when I was last there yeeears ago). I was with my friend and she got such a fright as a man tried to force his way into the cubicle she was in. I remember he stuck his foot in between the door and the wall so she couldn't shut it. He was drunk and probably just "messing" but still it could obviously go the other way. It was so loud as well that I didn't work out what was happening straight away. So fecking dangerous

My worse time in a public toilet was wondering if the young woman we were trying to get to was alive or not. Her foot was sticking out of the bottom gap (which is the reason to have a door gap). Of course in unisex toilets we wouldn’t have seen her because the toilet door would go right down to the floor to make sure men didn’t film women in the loos.

Worst time I had in a public toilets once was having to remove my blood stained white trousers and then take them to the sink to wash and then dry them under hand dryer. I had no other clothing so had to do this as I had a huge obvious blood stain at back of my trousers the size of a cup saucer. So embarrassing as it was with women wandering in and out standing there in my knickers but would have been impossible for me if a unisex toilet. I would have feared being assaulted by a man standing there half exposed. I just don’t know what I would have done - walk around with blood on view all day being laughed at 🤷‍♀️

Much easier to be preachy about how women should feel than it is to address the realities of sexual assault and sense of threat.

Neither has any bearing on women's rights to just say "No thanks. We don't want mixed sex toilets and we shouldn't have to justify that with stories of managing periods, awkward adolescence and sexual harassment and assault".

More letters today! I find a stark contrast between the letter telling girls to get over their embarrassment of periods versus the other two about sexual assault.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/uni-sex-toilets-in-schools-1.4553580?mode=amp

A few years ago Irish universities were teaching consent classes. The aim was to teach men that when women say no to having boundaries crossed, when they say no to a situation that makes them feel uncomfortable, when they say no to having their privacy and dignity compromised, that they must be listened to and have their voices respected.

As women, we try and teach our daughters that in Ireland of 2021 the opinions of women matter.

It appears that the government disagrees.
Women saying "no" is transphobic, hateful, hysterical etc etc.
Stand aside women and know your place.

Thanks for the links. The comments are great. This government appears to forget that the last election showed both FF and FG have being losing popularity and there is a strong possibility neither of them will be in power after the next election. Perhaps they should start looking at the things people really care about.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4233825-Toilets-article-in-Times-Ireland-edition