Anyone know much about TENI?

[alwayswithhope]

I work in a large organisation in Ireland. For pride week they sent around an email talking about trans rights etc. They have made bathrooms for ‘anyone who identifies as a woman’ but have also designated single bathrooms previously for disabled employees as neutral bathrooms anyone can use so can’t complain about that as there is a space for those who feel uncomfortable using the new ‘women’s bathrooms’ (not sure disabled employees will be happy but no one seems to care ) anyway there was also a voluntary training online on the whole thing of gender identify given by TENI. Sign up must have been poor as there was a reminder sent around to ‘sign up to attend one of these sessions at your earliest convenience’ so it feels to me like this will become mandatory.

Just wondering if I have to go? And if anyone knows anything about TENI?

The National Community Development Officer with the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland (TENI) mentioned above also retweeted this thread, advising that people LIE to HCPs to get transition treatment.

Here's an article from Lilith.

the-beacon.ie/2020/12/19/a-dangerous-upsurge-of-transphobic-narratives-in-irish-media-is-putting-trans-lives-at-risk

Are they from the Americas? Or in hand in glove with activists from the Americas? Funny they don't mention that when they go all anti foreign on behalf of Irish men.

I've heard recently of a tech company in the US that has lost a huge number of engineers over woke HR stuff like this. Engineers are difficult to replace, there's stiff competition among IT companies as demand is greater than the number of candidates available. Sorry for not giving specifics, I know about it via a friend and not sure I can say anything more. But I'm not surprised that the backlash is happening in areas where the employees can easily move to another good job. But as it starts to be seen as a liability, companies will eventually drop it, I think. Hang in there, basically.

That's interesting mermoose

Dunno.

I know that at 25:43 minutes in on this podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8yMWNmZGU1OC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/NzcxODY1ZDMtNzQyNy00MGQ1LWJjYzUtODJlZjU0MzFhNzgx?ep=14

they say something like "TERFs in Ireland.... We're talking about between 50 and 100 people.. There's so few we literally know who they are. We keep tabs on them"

Pretty sinister right?

TENI...
No 1 - finances

TENI's finances, to say the least are opaque. They are not a charity, even though people assume they are so only file very abridged financial statements. Their annual return for 2018, which was due on 30 Sept 2019, was filed 15 months late. There was a feeble "staffing"explanation provided which IMO is rubbish, it's not that hard to find an accountant.

“Note 16 from the 2018 financial statements:
The impact of the issues arising in the previous 2 years has meant that 2020 has been a year for reset. Funding streams have been stabilised. Core funders needed to be reassured to the organisation stability. With the end of the Department of Health Dormant accounts funding, new funding streams needed to be sourced. Staffing structures needed to be rebuilt However, we did recognize a need to strengthen the robustness of all processes and we are working on ensuring issues arising in the past will no longer arise. We have highlighted our weaknesses and are now addressing them
We now find ourselves in a buoyant position with a broad and bold workplan and higher expectations from a demanding growing community. The Board must continue to demand improved governance, improved processes and ensure the organisation goes from strength to strength."

They didn't highlight what weaknesses there were. I was none the wiser having read through their financials.
Their 2019 financials would have been due on 30 Sept 2020, but due to Covid all companies with a return of that date are due to file this Friday. Women's space Ireland have a great thread, one Irish senator (who as luck would have it I cannot STAND), did raise it in the Seanad and was told 2019 accounts were complete. This was in March so if true I'm surprised they are not filed.

twitter.com/WomensSpaceIre/status/1397193462655725575

@alwayswithhope

I work in a large organisation in Ireland. For pride week they sent around an email talking about trans rights etc. They have made bathrooms for ‘anyone who identifies as a woman’ but have also designated single bathrooms previously for disabled employees as neutral bathrooms anyone can use so can’t complain about that as there is a space for those who feel uncomfortable using the new ‘women’s bathrooms’ (not sure disabled employees will be happy but no one seems to care ) anyway there was also a voluntary training online on the whole thing of gender identify given by TENI. Sign up must have been poor as there was a reminder sent around to ‘sign up to attend one of these sessions at your earliest convenience’ so it feels to me like this will become mandatory.

Just wondering if I have to go? And if anyone knows anything about TENI?

Making bathrooms mixed sex is against the law.

Regulation 20 of the SHAWW Act covers this. These are legally binding Guidance documents from the HSA based on the SHAWW Act - see regulation 20 for details.

www.hsa.ie/eng/Publications_and_Forms/Publications/General_Application_Regulations/gen_apps_workplace.pdf

There's a thread "threats from transactivists in Ireland" from a year back. The TENI employee has form, as Rooby Tuesday posted, in terms of threats,. I know certainly complaints have been made to the DPO regarding the show where "we keep tabs" was broadcast. TENI get a fair bit of cash from the HSE, and also a grant for Mna na HEireann from Rethink Ireland. Rethink are a government funded charity who, while they didn't sign the letter back in November, they retweeted the link on twitter.

Good article below
www.theburkean.ie/articles/2021/01/14/whos-funding-the-irish-trans-industry-tenis-ambiguous-accounting

@alwayswithhope

Hi all, I actually haven’t been in the office - we are all still full time from home so I’ve no idea what labels are now on toilets just read this policy that disabled toilets are being made neutral and anyone who considers themselves a woman / man can use the changing rooms and toilets of how they identify. So I don’t know the impact yet. There are no transiting people in my team of 70. I know as I’ve worked with them all for years - pretty much all are married with kids. I haven’t spoken to anyone about this at all. I just noticed a distinct change in tone of signing up for these ‘voluntary’ seminars given by TENI so wanted to arm myself with some information in case they become compulsory. We’ve also been told we should use pronouns on our emails but again not compulsory yet. I have been following what’s been happening in U.K. on this board and just waiting for it to be introduced in my work place.

Afaik the "gender ground" is defined as between male and female in Irish legislation (see Equal Status Act 2000). However the government is planning to add gender identity to our equality legislation. Contact the IHREC which will explain to you the exemption currently provided under gender in our equalities legislation which you should be able to call on now before the change takes place. Another poster has pointed out that you may be entitled to single sex toilets in the workplace.

However the government is planning to add gender identity to our equality legislation. This is horrifying, so we won't be able to object to men in our spaces without being accused of discrimination...can we not protest this - or do something.

It seems as if our government don't give a crap about women at all. I'm so angry that they want to push all this through without public consultation. They know full well the voting public would not go for this, which is presumably why the media are not talking about it.

How on earth do they plan to have Gender Identity in the Equality Act?
Do they feel that they didn't do enough when they introduced Self ID, where they redefined the meaning of the word Woman without the knowledge of the vast majority of people in the country.
Now they plan to protect gender identity, which basically re-enforces gender stereotypes?
The future really looks sh*t for women, doesn't it?

@fireproofwitch

How on earth do they plan to have Gender Identity in the Equality Act? Do they feel that they didn't do enough when they introduced Self ID, where they redefined the meaning of the word Woman without the knowledge of the vast majority of people in the country. Now they plan to protect gender identity, which basically re-enforces gender stereotypes? The future really looks sh*t for women, doesn't it?

See womensspaceireland.ie/articles/the-ihrec-and-teni/ Members of the Oireachtas need to be contacted on this

my nieces friend (i think mtf but dont quote me) went to them for advice when s/he was transitioning at work and they were very helpful as far as my niece knows

@fireproofwitch

How on earth do they plan to have Gender Identity in the Equality Act? Do they feel that they didn't do enough when they introduced Self ID, where they redefined the meaning of the word Woman without the knowledge of the vast majority of people in the country. Now they plan to protect gender identity, which basically re-enforces gender stereotypes? The future really looks sh*t for women, doesn't it?

i agree fireproof but unfortunately there was qutie a lot of stuff on self id for lots of months in the media and politics before it came in, beacuse it was lgbt rights it was mentioned whenever someone mentioned the marriage referendum (which was talked about a lot over here). it would have been very hard for someone to not know about it.

i was going to go to one of the public meetings about it but thought i'd be the lone voice of reason

@DeeKavCoffee

my nieces friend (i think mtf but dont quote me) went to them for advice when s/he was transitioning at work and they were very helpful as far as my niece knows

I bet they were! One of their employees issued that tweet about getting your hormones any which way, didn't they?And not quite having to act with honesty to do so.

Wonder if they're so helpful if you want to detransition. Or if like another one of their employees tweets, their official position is that gender critical (heretical) feminists should have their teeth knocked out.

Hmm. Was there a lot of media discussion about this? Really? Their approach to LGB is very much centred on belief in the T, isn't it? TENI think LGB groups which advocate against discrimination for people who are same sex attraction are hate groups. Do they want political representation removed from them too?

I'm sure the practically 80% male Dáil doesn't see a problem. The same 80% male Dáil who are also treating the women and children casualties of another misogynistic and brutal time with contempt. They are so sensitive towards other men's wants. Even if it trumps women's safety, privacy and dignity. Why are the women being denied justice from these blokes? Because they are men's rights advocates first and foremost.

Some of you may remember the distress that was caused when the charity SANDS, which supports parents after stillbirth and baby loss, referred to "birthing parents" on twitter.

MNers affected discussed why this was so devastating here, and women on twitter also responded there www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4059473-sands-sorry-if-upsetting

Scrolll down on here, to see what the Company Secretary on the board of TENI had to say: grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/the-woke-stasi-is-always-watching

www.teni.ie/the-board/

@DeeKavCoffee “i agree fireproof but unfortunately there was qutie a lot of stuff on self id for lots of months in the media and politics before it came in, beacuse it was lgbt rights it was mentioned whenever someone mentioned the marriage referendum (which was talked about a lot over here). it would have been very hard for someone to not know about it.

i was going to go to one of the public meetings about it but thought i'd be the lone voice of reason”

That’s very disingenuous of you.

There were no public meetings about the final version of the GRA. It was a medical model when it went through a consultation process when experts were asked to comment on it. The Seanad passed it as a medical model and the Dail changed it to self ID over a few weeks. How is that clear and transparent?

Also Aoife Martin from TENI states that it “somehow slipped under the radar” www.gendergp.com/ireland-trans-rights-aoife-martin/

The Denton’s/IGLYO document tells Trans Rights Activists to “Tie your campaign to more popular reform
In Ireland, Denmark and Norway, changes to the law on legal gender recognition were put through at the same time as other more popular reforms such as marriage equality legislation. This provided a veil of protection, particularly in Ireland, where marriage equality was strongly supported, but gender identity remained a more difficult issue to win public support for.”
www.iglyo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/IGLYO_v3-1.pdf

Would you like to provide evidence for your position?

@DeeKavCoffee

my nieces friend (i think mtf but dont quote me) went to them for advice when s/he was transitioning at work and they were very helpful as far as my niece knows

I know of a parent of a child who is transitioning who also said that she found them very helpful and they were the only support she got, as the HSE were useless. The child's school also got advice from them it appears. The Department of Education and the HSE appears to be quite happy to allow this lobby group free rein.

murrayblackburnmackenzie.org/2020/02/25/from-medical-assessment-to-affirmation-legal-gender-self-declaration-in-ireland/
The move to Self ID was only introduced to the proposed legislation in the final weeks.

Alwayswithhope, I think reaching out to a colleague might be a good idea. You could also point out to your employer that TENI have given discredited information to the doctors and send the links. And hint about whether your employer ought to be worried about that. Particularly if you are in the HSE (Irish equivalent of the NHS) You can also say some people on TENI speak disturbingly on Twitter, linking to some relevant Tweets, and asking the employer whether they might be damaged by association. That would be the sexualised Tweets. But you can also use the 'racist' angle where the Teni people use anti British language (black and Tans/West Brit etc - that UK readers on here wouldn't all understand, but your employer would). I'd be also wondering in your email about women's right to privacy - you could point to the furore there was over girls bathrooms in schools last month, a helpful link to the minister's comments and the backtracking. You'll have your superior in a tizzy !

i agree fireproof but unfortunately there was qutie a lot of stuff on self id for lots of months in the media and politics before it came in, beacuse it was lgbt rights it was mentioned whenever someone mentioned the marriage referendum (which was talked about a lot over here). it would have been very hard for someone to not know about it.

At the time I was in a political party and this is not my impression at all. I did hear mention of it but there was no discussion, only a conflation of the measure with lgb rights. Absolutely no critique of self ID, or GRCs in general. I remember hearing of a UK group that wanted to visit and give a talk but they were hounded and labelled a hate group. When any criticism or open discussion is strangled and the little you do hear is one-sided propaganda, no, people did not know what was being introduced. As was acknowledged in the Denton report.

@Cailin66 I would love to be this person but I don’t think I’m brave enough especially at the minute when they could just come back to me and say but you just have the option of attending a session for more information.

Re the bathrooms the issue is I would have to come out and say that trans women aren’t women if I was to say they must provide single sex bathrooms and obviously they have bought into the whole thing as the document says that if you self id and have no intention of a medical transition you can still use whatever bathroom/changing rooms you want. I think they will also say they are providing single cubicle bathrooms for women to use if they feel uncomfortable so what’s my problem. If I was in work I might be able to see if for example multiple women were now not using the women’s bathrooms due to this and have a point to make but we are all out of office at the minute.

It’s sad it’s come to this but honestly I’d be worried about losing my job or being brought up in front of HR as the whole policy is around not being allowed to discriminate against trans people and if I kick up a fuss could they use that policy against me - especially like I said I don’t have any evidence of it negatively affecting women until we are back in the office. There are over 2,000 people in the organisation so it’s a big company to go up against.

I have bookmarked the info on this thread however in case it does start to be a problem. It’s sad that society had come to this. I am quite a confident person but I wouldn’t feel strong enough to put myself out there on this. I’m sorry this is likely why we are being trampled over so easily.

alwayswithhope don't apologise. Lots of women are in positions where they can't speak up. The people to blame here are the idiots - politicians and others - who adopted TENI's policies without question.