TD (Irish MP) asks if GRA means that men can access women's spaces

[Mermoose]

On 24th February, Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth asked the following questions in the Dáil:

To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the Gender Recognition Act 2015 means that a man who self-identifies as a woman is entitled to access any and all female-only spaces and services; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the Gender Recognition Act 2015 means that a man is entitled to have their transgender belief that they identify as a woman outweigh the right of a woman or girl to object to their presence in a female only space; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the Gender Recognition Act 2015 means that a man who self-identifies as a woman is perceived by this legislation to be safe to access female only spaces irrespective of the physiological differences between male and female bodies; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

I've emailed Deputy Smyth thanking her for asking these questions, and pointing out how the proposed hate speech legislation will further stifle vital conversation on this issue. I'm also going to contact my local FF representatives with a copy of the email I sent her. I have never voted FF in my life but recently there isn't a single left wing party I have any respect for.

I hope so too.

It's funny, the whole argument could be summed up as What Would The Neighbours Say

@7Days

It's a disgrace the way they are whipping up anti British sentiment, when things are getting so touchy again with the border after Brexit, and more and more talk about reunification.

All these Repeallers (and I'm of that generation) are clapping themselves on the back, but are too young to remember the British feminists waiting at the other end of the boat to being frightened women to clinics.

I just cant get over the ahistoricism ( a word?) Of the current woke- feminist crew

I regularly try to hammer this home to my early teens children, the need to look at historical context, to take a broader view, to not look at every issue purely through the lens of what are currently the hot button issues. And do you know what, they mostly get it. They at least have the excuse of youth and an idealistic desire to do the right thing. What excuse does the likes of this author and the editors who publish it have?

I know this will sound like academic snobbery (it isn't meant to be although I work in an area where it is rife) but I first went to see who she was when I read the headline and then I went . Although it is great that this generation don't let something as archaic as qualifications or experience or expertise get in the way of giving their opinion in a national newspaper / or on national TV / or on the airwaves

@Annasgirl

I know this will sound like academic snobbery (it isn't meant to be although I work in an area where it is rife) but I first went to see who she was when I read the headline and then I went . Although it is great that this generation don't let something as archaic as qualifications or experience or expertise get in the way of giving their opinion in a national newspaper / or on national TV / or on the airwaves

I know, I don't want to be mean or an intellectual snob either but I simply don't get how her area of expertise qualifies her to be given such a platform in major newspapers. And I'm sorry but I also find it irksome that she can write with such a sense of confidence, even arrogance about life and developments in a country in which she is not resident.

Comments are flying in on that IT column, 117 at last count which is a lot for the Irish Times

Thank you for this OP, I wrote to my TDs for international women's day asking about what they are doing to safeguard women in prisons as they are now housing male bodied people in the women's prison in Limerick, got some replies that were passing the email along to someone else no actual reply that even hints they read what I wrote. I will email Niamh Smyth to thank her

This comment

If you have not become a Julie-Bindel-hugging Trans-Exlcusionary Radical Feminst by about (5) or (6) you are insane.

Excellent a comments there on the article. IT would usually put this kind of thing on the their FB page. Not this time, I wonder why?

All these Repeallers (and I'm of that generation) are clapping themselves on the back, but are too young to remember the British feminists waiting at the other end of the boat to being frightened women to clinics

I am always struck by the shortness of their memories (or the fact they're too young to know) about the support Irish women got from the UK for decades. Or maybe those British women are just no longer useful and so can be dismissed.

I find it hard to understand the xenophobic zeal of these self-styled spokeswomen. There were so many nationalities active in the Repeal movement. The anti-British sentiment is like a step back in time and makes my skin crawl. Maybe they're too young to remember what it was like to live with the fall-out of sectarian division.

So many levels of ignorance.

It's pretty outrageous that a Canadian-based academic (her specialty is theatre, by the way, and she's very Butler-indoctrinated with gender-as-performance) is lecturing Irish feminists on not listening to the mean Brits, when her own take is so... Canadian.

I've noted this in the other Ireland thread but the bringing in of self-ID is so misrepresented. It was intended to facilitate Lydia Foy and others who had undergone full surgical transition, and had been in the works for years. Anyone who was vaguely aware of it presumed, quite rightly, that there were safeguards in place to prevent abuse, and there were until quite late in the process when it seems to have gone a bit mad and free-for-all, and what was passed by law was self-ID. Its portrayal in the media was 'another win for LGBTQ rights' on the heels of same-sex marriage passing, and it was not scrutinised in any meaningful way.

"For trans-exclusionary feminists, there’s a lot riding on being able to show that Ireland is not fine at all." Because it's NOT all fine. If it were all fine, there would not be a problem!

What Kathleen Stock actually said was 'how would they know?' (if it wasn't fine) - and she was right. If the media is not able to or encouraged to report accurately on violence committed by transwomen and is expected to say 'women', then there will never be a problem.

The Times knows where the support really is and it is in the business of journalism, so they wont stand aside from a good story. The Times England has been building up momentum. They have both sides of the story but are seeing overwhelming support for women. One or two spectacular articles have really opened a few eyes so hopefully this will happen in Ireland too

I'm not sure I have the same confidence in the Irish Times based on its performance to date.

So, HH as a legislator does not know the answer to the question. This effing Bill passed through the Oireachtas. Did HH vote for it? If she did, does that mean she hasn't an effing clue what she was voting for. That is scandalous.

This did not go to referendum. It is a representative democracy. The legislators were it.

So do Irish women have to go to court?

Whoop whoop. I’m delighted to see this. Thanks for highlighting it. Off to email her tonight.

Ok that IT article, bad Irish women thinking they're allowed to use Irish symbols. They've been listening to bad British women and have been contaminated and are now only lip service Irish. Who the heck does that writer think they are?

Then without irony, using quotes those British trans activists which have left their Westminster adviser positions two weeks early 'cos they weren't able to stomp all over women's rights. Hmm, who is importing activism IT writer? Reminds you of the people who basically forced bad women back to Ireland from the UK if they had escaped a horribly oppressive and abusive situation.

IT comments are heartening. Terrible piece of journalism regardless of subject. Can't believe people get paid for such vague shite. Is it an opinion piece? Is it a report? What is it meant to be?

The Irish times have been consistently woeful at reporting on trans issues. I wonder might this backlash wake them up a bit (or are they too woke to wake up?)

Remember the wailing and gnashing of teeth when FO'T tentatively suggested there may be concerns on both sides.
He hasn't made that mistake again

That article!

Self ID positive feminists = true Irish patriots who can also lay sole claim to Repeal the 8th

Gender critical feminists = imperialist westward expanding colonialist oppressing jackbooted huns and their bootlicking collaborating lackeys

Yay the goodies! Boo the baddies!
I'm glad feminism is so simple.

powershower

@Cailleach1

So, HH as a legislator does not know the answer to the question. This effing Bill passed through the Oireachtas. Did HH vote for it? If she did, does that mean she hasn't an effing clue what she was voting for. That is scandalous.

This did not go to referendum. It is a representative democracy. The legislators were it.

So do Irish women have to go to court?

That jumped out at me. Our politicians passed something into legislation that they don't understand. And the only way to understand it is to take it to the courts? So we now need a string of women to take take cases relating to prisons, schools, sports, DV refuges, rape crisis centres, Girl Guides, women's awards, women's quotas, changing rooms, toilets etc etc etc and possibly multiple cases to account for different types of institutions?

FFS.

Four letters in today's Irish Times in response to Emer O'Toole' article:
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/feminists-must-avoid-transphobia-trap-1.4508914
And not a word of support for O'Toole in any of them.

@Rubidium

Four letters in today's Irish Times in response to Emer O'Toole' article: www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/feminists-must-avoid-transphobia-trap-1.4508914 And not a word of support for O'Toole in any of them.

Thanks for posting, cheered me right up to read the letters.

Great letters ❤️❤️❤️

Brilliant letters and fantastic brave women.