Ireland - Political party stance on trans issues for local elections canvassers

[OchonAgusOchonOh]

I'm not sure whether to post this here or on craicnet. I'm afraid it might get derailed into other election issues in craicnet so I'll try here first.

I just had my first canvasser for the local elections from Sinn Féin. I told her I couldn't vote for SF given their stance on women's rights. She was a bit taken aback until I explained I meant their stance on TWAW and allowing males into female spaces if they declared themselves to be women. We had a discussion on it. She actually agreed with me, particularly on puberty blockers but doesn't believe Sinn Féin policy supports males in female spaces or PBs for kids. She asked had I seen any specifics and I said only TWAW statements, but the general support for TWAW and the lack of speaking out against the likes of Barbie Kardashian in a women's prison suggests they don't support women's spaces.

I was caught on the hop a bit and couldn't remember specifics. Afterwards, I remembered SF support 16 year olds being allowed to self-id and an MLA recently supporting easy access to PBs for children who are gender questioning.

So I thought, why not have a thread where we can include talking points for local canvassers, preferably with links to specific statements by the parties on their stance. If you have anything to add, I would appreciate you adding a reply as I would like to be informed when talking to canvassers.

Abortion is here That won't be reversed.

Any party who tries would not get it through government, it won't be voted through.

All other parties would use it as leverage in next election.

Aontú won't waste time trying to reverse the abortion legislation. They are very clear where they stand regarding trans ideology & that alone is enough for my no 1 vote.
They are also a party which appears will be impossible to capture.

Peadar Toibín & Aontú were fantastic throughout the referendum & never wavered from their stance even though they appeared to be going against the grain completely if the mainstream media were to be believed...

I share the issues regarding abortion with Aontu, but I also believe that, since the referendum, there's nothing they can do now. So they can think what they want on that issue, it's done.

I am now a single issue voter. I simply cannot use my vote for any party that endorses the obscenities that the Cass report highlights - and that's before we even get stated on the casual degradation of the status and rights of women and girls in law and in society.

Let's forget the call to defund any female deserting female voices

Oops should be let's not forget

That's mostly how I see it, though if I was to consider myself a single issue voter, the most pressing issue would be the hate speech laws. Because as pressing as the trans identifying men in women's spaces and the rushed transing of children is. The hate speech legislation is even more serious as it stops us talking about it and about a myriad of other issues that should always be possible to discuss.

So I will probably vote for Aontú, specific independents and possibly (unlikely but possibly) for members of the mainstream parties who genuinely commit themselves to working against it.

Yes, I think the Hate Speech Bill is the big thing. This needs to be highlighted as a must be scrapped

That is designed to stop conversations.

The bill if it goes through allows the TDs canvassing to block any descent at the door.

I agree, to me the nefarious tentacles of gender ideology in our laws and institutions is the most pressing issue. So I am a single issue voter. I will vote for whoever recognises this threat and promises to push against it.

I want the GRA law to be repealed, I want Sex to be a protected characteristic instead of Gender in our equality laws, I want this Hate Speech nonsense to be kiboshed, I want gender identity out of schools. Whoever will promise to deliver on that will get my vote.

Unfortunately, Aontú don't have enough candidates to make much of a difference in the general election - but I think it would send a strong message if they got a good number of votes.

I have the same concerns as others about Aontú but while I don't think legalisation of abortion is at risk as, like others have said, it's here and it's not going away, I would have concerns about tightening up access.

As it stands, there are areas where it is not readily accessible and this needs to be addressed. An anti-abortion party will not facilitate this.

@HornyHornersPinkyWinky That is an excellent, succinct list of what I will be voting on too.

Another good was the deep dive@MarieDeGournayI think it was on a thread in craicsnet did re the TDS and Senators and their adulation of the GI bill.
Yep thanks DublinFemale, that was me, a couple of long posts on
Self ID in Ireland was 'sunk in by the back door' | Mumsnet
TDs and senators of all parties [I haven't found any dissenting voice, yet] were tripping over themselves to urge extending gender recognition to children, quoting WPATH, demanding access to 'pathways' via the Tavistock etc etc.
The role of TENI as the only source of 'expertise' in this area was key. Everybody deferred to them.
I'd love to wave the Cass report under their noses now...

There's one more 'deep dive' I'd like to do into one of the earliest Dáil committees on gender, which includes an actual definition of 'gender' which I've always accused them of never defining. Probably a useless definition, but fair dues, I'll stop saying 'and they never defined gender!'
'Hate', on the other hand, remains defined just as ...'hate'.

The Countess team have done what I would have liked to do, if I had the time, knowledge, research skills, ability, background, etc etc
The Erosion of Sex-based Language in Irish Legislation and Public Discourse - The Countess

Aontú would / will not emerge as the main party anytime soon. They will the smaller support party which won't get any restrictions to accessibility to abortion any time soon.

That is for me a next election battle. I feel the pressing issues currently are hate speech bill and GI in that order.

The GI issue becomes a non issue if hate speech comes as the conversation/debate will not be allowed.

It will be shut down as hate speech and threats of police reports .

@DublinFemale that's an excellent point. I never thought about that re the hate speech. You're 100% correct it completely overrides the GI issue if passed as there will be no debate/opinion allowed.

The good thing about the Hate Speech thing is that in the last few months several TD's have come out publicly and criticised it.
I'm not sure that will stop it in it's tracks, as it seems Helen McEntee is dead set on implementing it no matter how unpopular it is...

Aontú would / will not emerge as the main party anytime soon.

I sincerely doubt they even have enough candidates ready, so even if all of their candidates were elected, they still wouldn't be a main party.

Would love if they could band together with the Independents.. Then they would have enough if all Independents elected too!

I don't know, some of those independents are far too extreme. Much too rich for my blood.

I had a man from Independent Ireland call. A farmer in the autumn of his years. The leaflet is big on Farming , Climate Change , Water quality, Planning permission and....Immigration. On all of which he advocates Common Sense. Was too busy to ask him about trans issues. But i suspect he wouldn't have ' bull's notion' what it even means.

My guesses as to what the common sense approach is (I haven't seen II's stuff at all, guesses partly in jest based on what I imagine a farmer might consider common sense):

Farming: Don't cut the national herd, if anything increase it!

Climate Change: Ah, don't be worrying about that kind of thing, sure it's not much hotter now and it's always raining! What are they on about?

Water quality: My father and my father's father did the same thing with the oul effulent - sure it's all going into a river isn't it? Never harmed a soul. Be grand.

Planning permission: Sure let the young fella build on the back field. It's our land!

Immigration: Ah now, it's getting a bit much these days. I'd say put a stop on it and see.

😂 @StephanieSuperpowers !

I'm guessing you're right.

Planning Permission for my nephew 😉.
Not for that new estate - are ye mad or what ? Ruining this scenic area. Which has ...scenery.

Immigration. The lads I'm putting up in the oul convent are decent out in fairness. But enough is enough.

Climate is always changing, isn't it up to God as Mr Healey Rae said? No better man I say!
Another oul cod to squeeze money out of the plain people...( continue for 9 hours of grievances going back to Cromwell)

Actually he looked like a nice old fella. Running for European Parliament. I voted for Grace O Sullivan last time . Greens. Talks a great deal of sense ....except she is TWAW. Sigh

Sandra Adams from the Countess wrote this excellent article on the Cass Report which was published by Gript

https://gript.ie/how-the-uks-cass-review-eviscerated-the-irish-governments-record/