On 27th November 2021, Radicailín, alongside the Irish Women’s Lobby, The Countess, The Irish Resistance, Socialist Democracy, LGB Alliance Ireland, Women’s Rights Network NI, and Deep Green Resistance Ireland, gathered outside Dáil Éireann to call for the rights of women and girls to female-only, single-sex spaces and services in line with the public consultation of the Equality Acts proposed by Minister Roderic O’Gorman.
Attended by people from various backgrounds, the demonstration asserted the importance of having single-sex provisions and services, including medical care, intimate care, nursing homes, rape crisis centres, domestic violence and homeless shelters. The protest ultimately called for a clear definition and distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ in Irish legislation. We also wanted to highlight the lack of safeguards to protect biological women from male violence as well as distinguishing their sex-based rights.
‘Sex’ refers to whether one is male or female, man or woman, boy or girl. ‘Gender’ refers to the social roles and stereotypes assigned to each of the sexes. Sex is the basis on which women have been oppressed throughout history and across the world. Women could not avoid being placed in a Mother and Baby home simply by verbally denouncing the reality of their femaleness. Little girls facing FGM in Somalia cannot do this either.
Women could not have won the basic right to vote had they not been allowed to denounce the gender stereotypes that labelled them as illogical, irrational and unfit to participate in public life.
Now we are facing the insult of being told that we are defined by these stereotypes and that our biological reality means nothing.
The introduction of the Gender Recognition Act in 2015 has enabled any adult to be legally recognised as the opposite sex. The administrative process no longer requires the person to undergo any form of medical transition, or to have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. In simpler terms, any biological male can be recognised as female in law so long as he fills in the form that would allow him to identify as a woman. This law allows biological males to enter and use female-only spaces where women and girls are vulnerable, to compete against women and girls in sports, to record male crimes as female, thereby skewing data of male pattern violence, and more.
Currently, there are biological males who identify as women in the women’s ward in Limerick prison. The prisoners are monitored heavily and are accompanied by two male officers at all times due to the risk they pose to the women housed there. The current legislation places more importance on gender identity (how a person feels) than on facts and accuracy.
The protest, organised by Radicailín, was hosted by Radicailín member Nuala Gallagher and included the following speakers: Graham Linehan, well-known writer of Father Ted and activist on issues relating to gender identity; LGB activist Ceri Black; Laoise Uí Aodha de Brún from The Countess; and Rachel Moran from Irish Women’s Lobby.
The aims of the protest were:
There is a culture war around gender identity and, while most people in Ireland might not be aware of it, it has captured NGOs in the country, and is cemented in Irish law. Any criticisms or concerns raised of potential conflict, or with regards to adding safeguards for women and girls, are immediately shut down with accusations of ‘transphobia’ because in this current political climate, the mantra goes: ‘trans women are women’. Refusal to parrot said mantra or to voice anything that may contradict it could soon be considered a hate crime in the future.
Radicailín’s submission to the public consultation of the Equality Acts can be read by visiting our website. Although the deadline for the review has since passed, this submission can still be used as a reference, in correspondence with their elected representatives. Radicailín urges anyone concerned about women and girls’ rights to write to their local TDs, and to raise this issue with their friends and relatives.
This op-ed was written by members of Radicailín.