NB - extracts only
... The bill would place “gender identity” in Northern Ireland’s criminal law for the first time, but doesn’t define it beyond saying that it is “what the victim considers it to be” and “what the [defendant] considers it to be”.
Essentially, the bill leaves the issue of gender wholly subjective. As well as male and female, an individual could claim to be anything under the sun, and if someone sought to “suppress” that, they could be in trouble with the law.
In relation to gender identities already in use, DUP MLA Brian Kingston claimed there were 72 genders. Party colleague Deborah Erskine said she believed there could be more than 100. Buckley said it could be 136.
The most extraordinary aspect of the Assembly proceedings was an attempt to shut down debate on this aspect of the bill. When Tennyson was asked how many genders it would cover, he wasn’t allowed to either answer the question or refuse to answer.
Instead, principal deputy speaker Carál Ní Chuilín interjected to block the question. The veteran Sinn Féin MLA said that “to pre-empt a raft of questions”, she wanted to make clear that the bill defined gender as “what the victim considers it to be” and so “it is not for Eóin Tennyson or anyone else to talk about how many genders there are”.
This is a deeply problematic way in which to make criminal law. If someone is potentially going to be jailed for two years — as they could be under this bill — they surely have a right to know what gender even means.
If gender involves something amorphous which is beyond definition, then do we want the courts to be jailing people in this area and can the courts realistically enforce such legislation? Suppressing such questions in a legislature is indefensible. ...
To read the article in full go to https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/amid-myriad-crises-stormont-is-spending-three-days-debating-if-someone-can-invent-their-own-gender/a/162151085.html
And also https://archive.is/i4R8O