Ireland - "Transgender childcare worker sacked for offering child 'a free kiss' as a prize"

[ItsCoolForCats]

A nursery hired a man called Aleena Starshine (🙄) and 4 days into his employment he offered a child a kiss from him as a reward for winning a game. He was suspended for this and other safeguarding concerns, and then tried to claim gender discrimination. Thankfully, he lost.

https://businessplus.ie/news/transgender-childcare-worker-sacked/

I'd say you're right about no-one dared... Mr Starshine would have had his antennae out for any hint that he was not offered the job because he is trans, nobody wanted to #beunkind and/or get sued.

But did anybody ask the basis questsions: Does he have impressive qualifications? references? Was he Garda vetted? Did they look at his social media profiles?
Or was all that due diligence waved away because of the magic of his transness?

There are so many questions to be asked.

It's ironic that there is an investigation into a case of historical sexual abuse of children going on at the moment - a basketball coach who abused boys in the 1980s, but wasn't convicted, and imprisoned, until 2016.
All the usual comments about 'dereliction of duty' by the police and safeguarding authorities, and lessons learned.

Meanwhile, the case of a man presenting as a woman getting a job with small children and engaging in unacceptable behaviour with them, going on now, in 2026, is largely ignored.

If was the local Catholic priest who was kissing children, it would be all over the media, and rightly so; because it's a trans IDing man, it's too awkward to even mention.

There is still a sacred caste, it's just a different set of men.

Never ceases to amaze me how naive, stupid and ignorant some people are, if course he broke all the rules of safeguarding and decency. Men who pretend to be women are acting out a sexual fetish, breaking boundaries and doing what they know they should not is the point of a fetish, so why would any sane adult allow such a male to work with children? Let's hope that his behaviour was no worse than what is reported here, though tbh I'd be surprised. Whoever runs that nursery had bettet hope that too. Or get sued by furious parents for their crass ignoring of all sensible safeguarding.

Briefly de lurking to say this gives me the cold shivers and makes me feel a bit better about the fact I can't get any childcare.

But to those talking about "choosing candidates" and a "selection process" etc you do need to know that Irish childcare is in crisis. Like no places at ALL crisis.

The only ideology in play in hiring him may be the ideology that says childcare workers must be paid the minimum wage so someone can make a profit. The idea that multiple people would even apply for a job in childcare when so many other options pay significantly more is probably not realistic. I think many places will take literally anyone. It's just a matter of time until we have a childcare crime like those with the paedophiles in Australia and in UK.

One chain of centres apparently just calls parents up every Friday and says "no staff, so. no toddler room next week" and the mothers (always the mothers) then have to take annual leave to stay home and mind their kids. This is due to the utter inability to attract and retain staff.

Also the parents may not be "cool with it" so much as "desperately need to keep paying the mortgage or rent to keep their family housed". Childcare is just totally inaccessible for many of us right now and many women (always the women) are being forced to leave the workforce entirely. An impossible choice when that may mean you lose your housing as a result.

Yet another way that the failure to adequately fund childcare is harming women and kids.

Gosh that shocking. My nieces and nephews in Ireland are all past childcare age, so I had no idea things had gotten so bad.