A network of players, coaches, volunteers and parents involved in Gaelic Games associations say they will be contacting the Minister for Social Protection to raise concerns about the policy of allowing “male players” from age 12 compete in the female category, after the Minister said she would rule out changing the law to allow under-16s legally change gender.
Their statement came as Independent TD, Carol Nolan, said that she believed the delay in publishing research around gender self-declaration for children could be because it had not delivered what was considered the “right answer”.
The Gaels for Fair Play group, who “believe allowing males to play in the female category is unfair and unsafe”, posted its intention on X after it was revealed that Minister Heather Humphreys was opposed to allowing a change to the law take place before the general election to allow persons aged under 16 to legally change their gender.
The group says that it believes “the transgender policy of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) breaches equality legislation (North and South) that upholds the right of females to single sex sport. Inclusion of males in the female category is harmful to women and girls and is, therefore, exclusionary and discriminatory”.
Former Inish Times sports editor, Mary-Anne McNulty, who has been an outspoken critic of the policy, said in the wake of Minister Humphreys’ statement that the LGFA policy, “that permits males to play in the female category, applies to underage players (12 upwards). This was done without consulting a single parent. They must be held to account.”
And yet the Ladies Gaelic Football Association's transgender policy, that permits males to play in the female category, applies to underage players (12 upwards). This was done without consulting a single parent. They must be held to account. https://t.co/5FWmGdEeAy
— Mary-Anne McNulty (@Mary_A_McNulty) July 14, 2024
Minister Humphreys’ statement on the matter seems to put her at odds with the Minister for Children, Roderic O’Gorman, who has previously supported plans to allow children under 16 undergo a legal process to change their sex.
Both Ministers had jointly undertaken to commission research on gender change for u-16s in order to examine the experiences of other countries.
Last November, Independent TD Carol Nolan had asked the Minister Humphreys “to provide details on the research commissioned by her Department to examine issues of concern relating to children aged under 16 years of age being able to access a gender recognition certificate and/or self-declare their gender”.
In response, the Minister said that while “the research was commissioned jointly by my Department and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, that Department undertook the lead in relation to the detailed procurement and contract management arrangements for the research. Accordingly, the question is proper to my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.”
Minister O’Gorman subsequently told Deputy Nolan that “the Programme for Government contains a commitment, in terms of gender recognition, to examine arrangements for those aged under 16.”
He confirmed his Department had jointly commissioned research with the Department of Social Protection in order “to identify the mechanisms used in other countries which govern legal gender recognition of children aged under 16 and to provide practical advice in relation to recognition for this age group.”
“The research will provide practical advice to inform consideration of how the issue may be approached in Ireland,” he said, adding that the research had been awarded to Cambridge University Technical Services Limited in September 2022 and that the total cost of the research was €35,000 ex VAT.
At the weekend, the Independent reported that an FOI request showed that the “final report” from Cambridge University Technical Services was received five months ago – on February 14 – but that neither Minister O’Gorman nor Humphreys cleared it for publication.
Minister Humphreys said the report “has not been finalised and there are no plans to introduce changes in relation to the provision of gender recognition to children aged under 16 years.”
Gaels for Fair Play said that in light of her comment, they would contact the Minister because the LGFA transgender policy applied to players from age 12.
The issue of biological males playing against women and girls in Gaelic games has been a matter of public controversy since Na Gaeil Aeracha beat Na Fianna ladies E team in the Dublin Junior J Shield, in a match where the presence of transgender player Giulia Valentino became a major news story.
The Tavistock Scandal alone should be enough to bring down the Government, if we had a country that wasn't cowering in fear of an increasingly insane transgender lobby, writes JOHN MCGUIRK:https://t.co/lvGCSt3WJE
— gript (@griptmedia) August 7, 2022
While Na Gaeil Aeracha’s captain insisted Valentino was a trans woman, the referee said: “this is the Ladies’ Gaelic football association”.
Currently, under the Irish Gender Recognition Act, any adult can change gender by swearing a statement of intent and receiving a Gender Recognition Certificate. Those aged 16 and 17 can also legally change gender if they have permission from a parent or guardian once two medical professionals have signed off on the decision.
In 2020, Sinn Féin’s spokesman Fintan Warfield said that Sinn Fein in Government would allow children under the age of 16 to take their parents to court in order to change their legal gender without parental consent.
Last year, Senator Gerard Craughwell, who voted for the Act in 2015, said the consequences of the legislation horrified him.
“The latent effect of the Gender Recognition Bill, which I fully supported during its passage through Seanad Éireann, now horrifies me,” he said, claiming that he supported it initially out of “compassion.”
A major review of the issues around gender dysphoria in Britain, the Cass Review, found that some of the treatment being offered to children who said they wished to change gender was unsafe and that it overlooked other mental health problems in children, failed to collect data on the safety of puberty blockers, and did not subject the treatments administered to children to normal quality controls.
Carol Nolan, who is an Independent TD for Laois Offaly, said: “she is “completely opposed to allowing children, who in the majority of cases in this context are developmentally, psychologically and emotionally vulnerable, to ‘choose’ their own gender. Children deserve better than to have adults endorsing and affirming their temporary gender dysphoria as a permanent and otherwise unresolvable phenomenon.”
However, Gay Community News celebrated the GRA last weekend, marking its passage on 15th July 2015 by saying “After years of campaigning, the Gender Recognition Act is passed. The legislation is based on self-determination, removing medical criteria from the legal recognition process for those over 18.”