Gender Critical in Ireland Part 4

[MaeveofConnaught]

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/craicnet/4777231-gender-critical-in-ireland-part-3?page=40&reply=139277391
Last thread was full so starting a new one.

For sure there will be some homophobes that are happy to latch onto any issue but that is totally on the fringes in Ireland. Trans organisations are trying to make out that any criticism of the 'T' is an attack on lgb and that is just not the case and is especially ironic considering the homophobia that is baked into transgenderism.

Trans latched on to lgb like a parasite and has been using them as cover but has already ended up consuming them. Every lgb organisation has now turned into an organisation that is all about the trans. Just like the have done with many women's organisations.

In a weird way that makes sense! All you have to do to be lgb is to be same sex attracted and then go live your life! It's not a big deal nowadays. Trans however requires massive resources to push the ideology and gaslight everyone to make them comply. It can't exist without everyone affirming like the emperor's new clothes.

I'm glad to see that logo LBG✂TQ✂and hope I see more of it!

If anyone is a Trinity Seanad voter, just saw Laoise de Brún is on the ballot
(I'm a humble NUI voter so I can't give her a vote unfortunately)

I had my knuckles rapped metaphorically for daring to bring the F word - feminism - into the McGregor rape case thread, so I'm hoping that this is a safe space to refer to the Pelicot rape case.
Specifically, the RTE coverage of the verdicts and sentencing [and Virgin Media etc probably, but I mostly watched and listened to the RTE news].

Does anyone else feel that RTE has given it the minimum of coverage, whereas both BBC and Sky in the UK suspended normal programming to cover the entire sentencing/verdicts/Gisele Pelicot's statement live, with lots of very forthright analysis of male violence against women in the 'downtime' between events in the courthouse.

It's almost like it didn't register in Ireland as the huge news story it was elsewhere.

I know this is vey cynical but - is it too difficult to spin it so male violence against women is neutralised into 'gender-based violence' ?

PS in fairness to RTE they have the video of Gisele Pelicot's statement in full on their website. It's only 1mins18 long, but in that time she shows all the dignity and strength she has shown consistently since September.

Just doing my Seanad ballot and there is a GC candidate on the NUI ballot too, Sandra Adams who has represented the Countess about the new SPHE curriculum www.nui.ie/elections/seanadelection2025/Biogs_2025/Adams_Sandra.asp

Paddy O’Gorman reporting interesting things, as usual - Fine Gael is backing away from WPATH x.com/paddyjogorman/status/1885974624007004541?s=46

That is such interesting and hopeful news.

Delighted to see Hazel Chu failed to be elected to the senate.

This is a woman who screamed die die & c**t for daring to speak in Merrion Sq in September 2023.

Great to see Paddy O’Gorman reporting

I hope they keep Katherine Zappone out - there's a threat of her being appointed despite failing to be elected. In fact if anything is done to empower it will be clear signal that the lessons of the referendum were not really learned.

She seemed to get a lot of publicity compared to other candidates.
The Seanad elections are viewed as being quite elitist at the best of times. Appointing Zappone would really reinforce the perception that the Seanad is "jobs for the boys".

It's very hard to warm to Chu. I really took a dislike to her when she joined the pile on the teachers in the Carlow school but skulked away quietly when the story turned out to be false.
She seems like someone who likes to virtue signal but doesn't really have any substance.

I'm glad Katherine Zappone didn't get elected.
The mileage thing really annoyed me.
She came across "holier than thou" and then the mileage and the big job appointment - Simon Coveney controversy.

Anybody watched the rugby? There were HSE ads running aimed at HIV positive women saying you can still have a baby. Laudable until you think how many hiv positive women of child bearing age are there in Ireland?

Google tells me 2400 over 15, so a guess at how many under 45, 1200? So very expensive tv ads aimed at a maximum audience of 1200 women? What’s going on?

Do hiv positive women have access to medical advice?

Spreading the remaining USAID money around before it runs out, so as to have something to put on their CVs.

All those children still on waiting lists & wasting money on ‘normalising’ HIV

I really don't understand this push to make it seem like HIV is no big deal. Its not the death sentence it once was but at the same time a health service should be trying to promote prevention above all else. You would assume for such a small cohort the best way to give out information like about still being able to carry a baby etc would be information to the people directly effected. Without any scientific evidence to back me up, I think the Western world is going to have a major public health crisis on their hands with PREP, HIV/AIDS is such a smart virus and it will not surpise me if it mutates and spreads among people again.

The State seem to have all manner of money to piss away on certain things. They ran a series of ads on podcasts last summer that made me so irrationally angry last summer the message was basically if your on holidays and you're friend is drunk you should take care of them

The money wasted spent on PR/advertising, along with all the other wastage, by the government and its agencies makes me mad.
We have huge waiting lists for Health care.
Housing is a joke.
Children with Special Educational Needs not getting the help needed.
Elderly people awaiting care in their own home.
Waiting lists for CAHMS assessments etc but we waste money on ads etc
Oh how the Ad agencies, PR companies etc must be rubbing their hands in glee

Women who have been diagnosed HIV have good care and advice from our clinics.
The ads are targeted at people watching in the stands and on TV who might be unaware of the facts around the virus and to promote testing. This is part of the global strategy/push to reach zero new HIV infections, zero stigma and all people with HIV living well by 2030.
In Ireland the number of women diagnosed with HIV has doubled over the past few years and about a third of people living with HIV are women (globally over 50% are women). Many are diagnosed late and it can be a massive shock to find out for the first time in pregnancy.
The stigma and lack of awareness of the facts around HIV can be the biggest stumbling block to getting tested, hence the ads. Of course an HIV diagnosis is still a big deal and the mental impact can be far harder to come to terms with than anything else. “Normalising” it means sharing information about up to date facts – that it is no longer a death sentence, rather a chronic manageable illness and that when on effective medication it can’t be passed on to partners or when having a family. It also means that people like me can talk about it with others without fear of being ostracised or discriminated against, which unfortunately still happens for many women I know.

Stormont today, women ask for the bare basics and are told they are disgraceful for doing so.

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/alliance-and-nationalists-criticise-language-of-womens-group-asking-for-single-sex-spaces-in-tense-stormont-session-4988505

https://archive.is/e8AEE

"There have been repeated clashes between committee members on the issue in recent months – with the chair criticising the use of language on sex and gender with which she didn’t approve.
However, their contribution on Wednesday afternoon prompted consternation from the nationalist parties and Alliance. Sinn Fein’s Carál Ní Chuilín said that the contribution was “disgraceful”."

"Committee chair Paula Bradshaw, said she was more afraid of a man who presents as a man, than as a trans woman – and asked for evidence that “there are a proportion of crimes that are carried out by trans women”. WRN said they were happy to provide the figures afterwards.
Alliance’s Stewart Dickson objected to the use of the word “pretend” being used to describe men who identify as women – saying that trans people would be “traumatised and offended” by the language.
SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin said that not everyone “fits neatly” into male and female categories – and also objected to the language used.
The DUP welcomed the contribution and thanked WRN for “taking a stand” on women’s rights. “We must have tolerance across society on how people wish to live their lives, but that doesn’t mean we try to rewrite the basics of the human species”, the North Belfast MLA said. "

I don't often feel sheer rage but I felt something like it when I read this article:
Political parties that supported puberty blocker ban in Northern Ireland barred from some Pride events

WTF have puberty blockers got to do with Pride? Apart from being just downright illogical, it is yet another example of lesbian and gay identities being force-teamed with trans issues on the island of Ireland. So if you disagree with this ban on political parties - Sinn Féin, the DUP, UPP, and Alliance, so quite a spread! - you are by definition 'anti-LGBTQ++'.

Personally, I would shed no tears if 'Pride' disappeared off the face of the earth. It not only fails to represent the original spirit of Pride - 'Gay Pride and Lesbian Strength', as the marches used to be called. at a time when being gay or lesbian was either illegal or dangerous or both - but it actively excludes swathes of people alienated by the extreme pro-trans stance - e.g. the support for prescribing puberty blockers for non-medical reasons to under 18s. And in some cases lesbians have been so excluded they've been physically removed from Pride marches.

Unlikely though it seems in 2025, there was a time when the sight of a rainbow flag was rare, welcome and heartening to people who could lose their jobs, their children or their lives for being lesbian or gay.

Now the rainbow flag, or the even less authentic 'Progress flag', represent so much that is questionable, that I feel nothing but coldness towards it.
When it is waved by people campaigning under its colours for things like puberty blockers for children with no medical need for them - definitely not my flag.
LGB✂T

I've now seen another article on journal.ie bemoaning the removal of all the trans paraphernalia from the Stonewall Bar site - both actual site and websites.
Further rage - this is NOT good for my health🙄

Anybody with any knowledge of history knows that the whole 'transgender women started the Stonewall Riots' narrative is recent, and is typical trans re-writing of history - nobody identified as 'transgender' in 1969.
And it's interesting that the trans-washing of history has erased the Black lesbian who was previously credited with being 'the first to throw a punch' - Stormé deLarverie. Even a butch drag king is just too much of a real woman not to be replaced!

Interestingly, I had to do a lot of digging, via a couple of search engines, to find this image, which used to be widely available:

It's that 'winning the argument' versus 'getting to the truth' dichotomy again. I'm seeing it everywhere now that it's been pointed out.

Put it up on the women's rights, general conversations thread - it's relevant.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5132652-womens-rights-general-conversations-thread-9?page=15&reply=142164576

Thanks Deano, I'll edit it and post it on FWR tomorrow, glad you agree with me about it. I seem to have spent most of today being furious at one thing or another😠

Happy IWD. Irish times features a woman to inspire us….Linda Foy. Linda feels the state treated Linda worse than the Magdalen women & the state owes an apology.

Lydia started the whole mess here, with the slogging away for years to get a birth certificate with a falsified record on it. Typical Irish media. Did they show the photo of Lydia with Zappone?

No,IT did a cutesy interview with lovely Linda a few weeks ago. Linda that’s that Linda was treated worse the the Magdalen women & would like a an apology from the state