Irish politician who supported the GRA now discovers he's expected to learn about 58 genders, he's not happy!

[Fenlandia]

Gerard Craughwell is an independent senator:

"Has the entire country gone stark raving mad. We passed the Gender Recognition Bill. I fully supported it. I never expected to be handed a sheet defining some 58 genders"
https://twitter.com/GCraughwell/status/1687416588608094208

Link to Irish Times piece "Government departments hold pronouns workshops to support colleagues’ gender identity"
https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/08/03/government-departments-hold-pronouns-workshops-to-support-colleagues-gender-identity/

It's both hilarious and tragic - I actually he doesn't get too much ridicule/abuse as he needs to work through exactly what he's enabled

He's just discovered that the GRA means young girls have to share sleeping areas with boys, thanks to Brandubh (who's spoken at Let Women Speak events I think?)

https://twitter.com/brandubh4/status/1687515903670292480
https://twitter.com/GCraughwell/status/1687516815675576327

I'm glad he is speaking up - so many aren't in Ireland, which is frustrating. But I have to ask, what did he think the GRA actually meant? Did he really not think there would be wide ranging consequences to it?

These are the people enacting laws - surely they do their due diligence? Why did he (and others) not critically analyse whether or not it was a good idea to allow people legally change sex.

Precisely. The damage they've caused, and now they're bewailing the fact that they didn't actually understand the implications? Fucking muppets.

Ha! Is he only speaking up because he has to take work home.

Also, 58, fifty eight
That seems so random. And so many more than I can think of. I can think of male female, self consciously non binary.
And 55 more 🤨

The GRA doesn't mean that because it is only in effect for adults currently. It also has absolutely nothing to do with 58 genders. Should he have done better due diligence about what it did mean? Yes absolutely. Though it was 2015 and it was attached to the very popular, voted in by landslide referendum, Marriage Equality Act that most of the country was delighted about. It was hidden like that for a reason. But it currently only means that adults can legally change their sex to the other a maximum of two times.

I have no respect for people who supported this shit and are now like, ‘hang on, you mean it means…!’

It’s not like we haven’t been making our case clearly and calmly and with logic and evidence. They could have read some of that, engaged in conversations with us.

What the fuck happened to understanding all sides of an issue and informing yourself before making a decision?!

like that woman in Scotland after the Isla Bryson case who was like, ‘ I’m appalled! I supported the GRA, I celebrated when it was passed and now this.!’
what on earth did she think it would mean to say men were women in their say so?!

When you pass laws like this you set a social signal which means the other shit happens and is harder to put the brakes on. Because the Irish government has now says, ‘yes, males who say they are females are and in all and every circumstance’. That makes it pretty impossible for schools in practice to say, ‘no they are not, we separate sleeping, changing and toilets by sex’.

Linking it to the referendum was so dishonest - there was nothing in the referendum about gender.

And it's not just the GRA, it's the Equality Act, too (is it the same there as in England?). There's no age limit in the EA on the "Gender reassignment" PC and as we saw with the Haldene judgement, if it's not 1000% nailed down, people will use the most lax interpretation. Plus, as uou rightly say, the fudge for adults, facilitates the fudge for kids.

Also, I obviously echo those saying wtf did he think he was supporting?! And further, what's he going to do about it now that he knows the truth?

I'm tired of the dancing around the wording of the GRA whenever the wording suits.
One moment the GRA does not apply to kids, the next we have to respect the kids choices because we are not supposed to ask or assume that they will or will not want a GRA in future.

Which one is it? It applies or it doesn't apply? Because if it is not the root cause of stating boys can share dorms with girls in TQ+ guidance, which legislation is?

Well put Asunnyspot.

This senator reminds me of Robert Wintermute who devised the Yogyakarta Principles and didn't consider how it would negatively affect women until years later.

He must feel a bit foolish now. He's probably no more idiotic that pols all over the world who've been enabling thus snx possibly a bit less since he's prepared to see it now but...it's hard not to feel a bit exasperated with these people.

Argh.

I constantly wonder: are the people busy enabling all this stark raving bonkers, malicious, or naively stupid and haven't bothered to inform themselves properly?

It is almost depressing to discover it's the latter. Fgs, no one at any stage of this shit show has done any due diligence, whether it's a school doing a basic background check of the qualifications (and sexually exciting social media antics) of the person about to deliver training and influence school policy, or apparently the people running the bloody country.

I’m just glad he’s not digging his heels in. A lot of people were suckered by BeKind and RightSideOfHistory and while the best time to stop this was yesterday, the second best is today.

I'm glad the Germans gave us the word

Schadenfreude

Came across this lower down the first Tweet thread. I am English in England, but take an interest in what's happening over there.

But a referendum to remove the word "women" from the Constitution?

twitter.com/PoliticsWatch14/status/1687465309119148032?s=20

Good that he’s speaking out. But for goodness sake, if men like him had properly listened to and engaged with women in the first place…

His replies are hilarious.

I'm always amazed how people who vote on these laws have absolutely no thought about what the consequences of them will be.
Anyone with half a brain could have foreseen the consequences of the GRA for prisons, sports and single sex spaces.
I remember mentioning in a forum when the GRA was being put forward that it would mean men in womens prisons and being told that would never happen and I was being hysterical.

Well, think this shows that Dentons report in a new light... not only did they get it passed under the radar of public knowledge - they managed to escape the notice of the very politicians who passed it!
You couldn't make it up.

Credit where it's due though.

Has he been living under a rock with men passing him things to sign while speaking in high pitched voices?

I'm getting that impression from him.

A lot of politicians (and political parties) outsource their opinions and reasons for voting for specific legislation to SPADs & lobby groups/govt-funded NGOs. Sounds like Craughwell is another such a one 🙄🤷‍♀️

I’m constantly gobsmacked at how little many of our TDs & MPs know about legislation they promote and/or vote in favour of.

I think the politicians and the media simply assumed that trans women were sad, bullied, unassuming individuals who would just be so happy and thankful to be socially accepted as women that they would never ever rock the boat by doing unreasonable things like insisting that all rape support be mixed sex, getting naked and proud of it in communal changing rooms, taking up high profile women-only political and professional opportunities and so on, raping women then claiming the need to be in a woman's prison etc.

They knew women were saying it would happen, but they thought they knew better.