It seems the spirit of the Bishops is alive and well in Ireland. The liberal leaders who have assumed the mantle of moral leadership happily carry on the twentieth-century crusade against all influence from Britain. In Ireland, it seems we don’t need ‘outsiders’ telling us what to do. The current keepers of Irish morality are adept at spotting an idea which has wormed its way into Ireland from the UK because no Irish person could possibly have a thought of their own which runs contrary to that which is sanctioned by the powers that be. Opposition must, therefore, be of foreign origin
The latest in a growing trend of censorship in Ireland comes in the form of a letter signed by the Trans Equality Network Ireland (TENI). It starts with a litany of how they like to position themselves in the history of the Lesbian Gay and Bisexual struggle for equality. Culminating in transing a gay leader because it suits their narrative. The fact that when this man was alive he repeatedly stated that he was male doesn’t deter them. They are so used to just saying stuff and then setting out to make it true that reality is never a factor it seems.
The authors refer to ‘the transgender community’ several times, they even open their letter with that phrase. Yet they denounce any mention of an LGB community. Indeed the letter is, in part, a response to the formation of LGB Alliance Ireland, a group which advocates for the interests of same-sex couples. The philosophy of LGB Alliance Ireland is that biology is real and that people are attracted to the physical body of another, not to the idea that a person holds as to which gender they are. I would imagine LGBAI would not be in a minority in holding this view.
The other groups which have irked TENI to such ire are the recently formed Irish feminist and gender-critical women’s groups. These women also argue that, in the real world, biological sex and not ‘gender’ is the determiner of maleness and femaleness. For TENI biology has no significance whatsoever and they positively seeth when people ‘seek to defend biology’. They hold that the ‘wider Irish community’ do not support this defence of science despite the fact that they are doing all they can to ensure that this debate never reaches the wider public.
They go on to gloat of having ‘dealt with these pseudo-feminists before’, a reference to the cringeworthy ‘Terfs Out, Brits Out’ letter penned to intimidate a group of feminist from the UK who intended to speak here. This is where the letter flatters what its adherents like to call ‘feminism’ in Ireland.
Our feminism is an odd home-grown entity, not part of the international struggle for women’s rights in which women from different countries support and encourage each other, share information and ideas and mourn together as we lose our sisters to the rampant wave of femicide sweeping the globe.
It is worth noting that the brand of ‘feminism’ TENI is supporting here has worked out, all on its own, thank you, that pornography is empowering, that prostitution is a plucky career choice and that surrogacy is a lovely way to help other women. Clearly, we are not in need of advice or ideas from outside agitators.
Now we get to the heart to the matter. The letter says this, “We call on media, and politicians to no longer provide legitimate representation for those that share bigoted beliefs, that are aligned with far-right ideologies and seek nothing but harm and division.” This is a clear call to silence those who ‘seek to defend biology’ and an attempt to smear them as far-right plotters against the house of straw that is the prevailing creed among our liberal elite.
The perceived ‘attacks’ on gender adherents cited to encourage our media and politicians to silence people who disagree, are actually the legitimate concerns that anyone should be free to raise given that gender theory is being introduced to our schools, our HSE clinicians are told to follow a ‘(trans) affirmation approach’ instead of investigating other sources of trauma in troubled youngsters and our young lesbians are being told, in their own communities, that their sexuality must include fully anatomical males.
The letter goes on to claim that the Gender Recognition Act of 2015 which allows for people in Ireland to ‘change sex’ by simple declaration was brought in with the knowledge of the public. The truth is that most people in Ireland still have no idea that our government decided to abandon the idea that biology determines sex and adopt instead an ill-defined and bizarre theory around gender. Indeed most politicians at the time likely saw this legislation as the latest necessary move to grant the LGBT community full rights because that was the way it was presented to them. There certainly was no public debate. A public debate would have looked something like the Marriage Equality Referendum, we would all have noticed. Indeed a public debate is the last thing TENI want to see. Hence the demonising of gender critical feminists.
So far all of the above is par for the course. Gender extremists are pushing the usual agenda in the usual manner of seeking to bully and silence. It is what comes next that is truly chilling. The other signatories.
This call for gender-critical Irish people to be silenced and to have political representation stripped from them was signed by Amnesty Ireland, the National Women’s Council of Ireland and BeLong To, in addition to other major groups and well- know liberals. This is what we should all be worried about. How can Amnesty possibly justify advocating for the right of people to speak out against the prevailing orthodoxy in other countries and at the same not only denounce gender-critical women in Ireland but call for political representation and free speech to be denied them?
How can the NWCI call for feminists to be silenced because they do not agree with a theory which advocates for fully anatomical males to enter all and any female-only spaces including prisons and refuges and changing rooms? We currently have two violent male-bodied sex offenders housed in a women’s prison and we have seen images of women in changing rooms being posted on the internet by Irish men. Yet the NWCI would rather silence the women who bring these issues to the fore than engage with their concerns.
How can the Irish media ignore such a blunder on the part of Amnesty and the NWCI? This should be a major story in the Irish media but they are ignoring it. The only articles I have so far seen about it come from abroad.
The truth is that a well funded organised lobby has hijacked the idea of social justice, twisted it so that ‘intrusion’ means ‘inclusion’ and used the new lie to influence Government, political parties, NGOs, national organisations, media, etc who are so eager to adopt anything that seems popular that they rely solely on a few chosen groups to steer them into the prevailing trend.
The notion that sex is determined, not in the womb but in the thoughts of an individual at some point in their development is not one that I adhere to. Like many other Irish people, I believe that sex is determined by biology. I have a right to say this out loud. LGB people have a right to defend same-sex relationships and feminist have a right to oppose a theory which attacks the very basis of feminism.
Supporting the rights of women and same-sex attracted people is not anti-trans and framing it as such is disingenuous and purposefully misleading, as is the repeated claim that criticism of gender theory is not native to this country. Such accusations are the part of the process where groups are denounced before their rights are taken away and we have seen where that leads all too often.
The plain truth is that the rights of women and same-sex people are infringed by gender theory as espoused by TENI. That is not to say that trans people should not have rights, of course they should but the organisations that represent them should not be allowed to frame any discussion of their goals as hatred. Especially as their aims not only impact on the rights of other groups but demand that those other groups alter their perception of themselves, disregard long-standing protections and change their sexuality.
TENI evoke the rhetoric of social justice and place their movement at the centre of all recent progress in Ireland but the fact remains that they have shown no regard for the rights of women and LGB people who question them. Seeking instead to silence them and then claim widespread support in these sectors all the while cheered on by people who should know better.
No group should be afforded the power to silence those who disagree with them. Those groups and individuals who have the privilege of a wide public platform from which to air their views should be ashamed of using it to silence those who have no such luxury. We should be done with all that but it turns out that we haven’t defeated the hierarchy we have only replaced it. New doctrine, same tactics.
You can read the letter here. https://gcn.ie/irish-lgbtq-community-stand-irishsolidarit-transphobia-trans-day-remembrance/