The Lord Mayor of Dublin has been criticised for failing to answer questions from parents as to why she promoted an initiative where Dublin City Council are sending a pack to schools with a transgender pledge to “normalise the respect and display all pronouns”.
Parents on social media were furious at what they see as an attempt to undermine the scientific fact that there are two genders – male and female – with many believing the programme is seeking to make students conform to the controversial claim that gender is fluid.
The issue of schools introducing materials on changing or choosing gender at primary level, and activists pushing for non-gender toilets in schools, have caused concern amongst parents recently, one mother told Gript.
“Now we have the Lord Mayor telling us that the Dublin City Council is sending ‘pledge packs’ on the use of pronouns and other nonsense to schools. Are our kids expected to stand up and take this pledge? It’s very concerning. Kids have enough to deal with after Covid and with social media, without being told by schools that there’s no such thing as gender,” she said.
Women have repeatedly clashed with trans activists in recent times over what they see as a bid to rewrite biology and “erase women” – claiming the insistence that gender is fluid damages women’s progress, and pointing to the inclusion of violent transgender prisoners in women’s prisons as evidence of the ideology posing a danger to women.
Lord Mayor of Dublin, Labour’s Alison Gilliland, tweeted that she had “popped in to commend our fantastic @DCCcomhairle as they were packing their LGBTQIA+ pledge packs being sent out to secondary schools next week.” DCC Comhairle is a body of 47 young people set up by Dublin City Council to represent young people in Dublin.
Popped in to commend our fantastic @DCCcomhairle as they were packing their 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ LGBTQIA+ pledge packs being sent out to secondary schools next week.
Find out more about their work at https://t.co/JHXHwOFdhp pic.twitter.com/bSc06pywZR
— Lord Mayor of Dublin (@LordMayorDublin) September 4, 2021
The packs, according to Dublin City Council, contained pledges including one which require a pledge to “normalise the respect and display of all pronouns’ . Parents say this would require students and teachers to state that they use she/her and he/him pronouns when their gender is self-evident. Transgender activists insist that men and women are in fact ‘cisgender’ and have their gender ‘assigned at birth’ – and that gender is a spectrum.
As of Monday morning, most of the almost 500 responses to the Lord Mayor’s tweet were wholly negative, with parents expressing anger at what they saw as the imposition of gender ideology on students, and describing the ‘zero tolerance’ approach of the pledge as “bullying”.
“Children should not be signing any sort of pledge”, wrote one mum. “It’s not right”
Children should NOT be signing ANY kind of pledge. It’s not right.
— Liz May 💚 🤍💜🍪 (@ziltam) September 4, 2021
“I do not want this self-indulgent zealotry given to my teenage daughters.. they will not pledge to normalise untruths,” wrote another.
I do not want this ⬇️ self-indulgent zealotry given to my teenage daughters.. they will not pledge to normalise untruths. pic.twitter.com/A5HkazWDHA
— Mags @Dublin (@Dublin_Woman) September 5, 2021
“Were the parents in these schools consulted about this programme, have they had an opportunity to examine the contents for approval before being signed by any students, or are they deliberately being excluded by the schools. Did the school board authorise this programme?” asked another mum.
https://twitter.com/IrishMammaBear/status/1434527344337764356
“What happens if you don’t [take the pledge],” asked one woman – with responses asserting it would “incentivise bullying.”
One woman said that the pledge forced children to accept “nonsense”. “Forcing kids to accept that male people are female if they say so is – and well done for managing this – actually worse than the nonsense we were forced to say we believed by the Catholic Church,” she wrote.
Forcing kids to accept that male people are female if they say so is – and well done for managing this – actually worse than the nonsense we were forced to say we believed by the Catholic Church.
— Sheena 🧙♀️🧹🌘⭐️ (@S_h_e_e_n_a_) September 4, 2021
Others said that they would be contacting their schools, Dublin City Council and their TDs.
“I spoke to my son (a minor) about this and told him to bring the pack for us (his parents) to decide on. I will also be contacting his school tomorrow (Monday) and forbidding them to request his signature on ANYTHING without our express approval,” wrote one.
I spoke to my son (a minor) about this and told him to bring the pack for us (his parents) to decide on. I will also be contacting his school tomorrow (Monday) and forbidding them to request his signature on ANYTHING without our express approval.
— Global_Diary_Network (@Globaldiarynet) September 5, 2021
https://twitter.com/allovernow2010/status/1434618727681732609
Others asked Minister Norma Foley if she had approved the measure, while one mum said the pledge would be going “straight into the bin”.
@NormaFoleyTD1 Are you standing over the legality of telling children to sign pledges of allegiance? Do we have to seek an FOI on who authored & approved this document & who signed off on its dissemination in schools. #NoPledgeOfAllegiance
— Helen 💜 T 🤍 S 💚 P (@HelenTerfSwerf) September 5, 2021
Straight into the bin.
My daughter won’t be pledging anything. She’s Catholic and if teachers start infringing on her religious beliefs without my consent best believe there will be hell to pay.
Leave our children alone & stop pushing this ideology on them.
— Saoirse ♱ (@iamsaoirse_) September 5, 2021
Parents complained that they had been blocked by Dublin City Comhairle for answering questions
As a parent of school children I would like to ask why the hell have I been blocked? Wtaf 😡 pic.twitter.com/GjiNT417zi
— Liz May 💚 🤍💜🍪 (@ziltam) September 4, 2021