"Over the line - No one should discipline children for asking honest questions or telling the truth" this week in The Critic magazine is about the case of the 17 year old girl in which
Her “crime”, which has resulted in a six-match ban, was to ask a player on the opposition team during a match, “Are you a man?”. The player was in fact a man, reportedly sporting a beard, but claiming he is a woman.
It was raised at the NWCI (National Women's Council of Ireland) and Oxfam Ireland hustings last Thursday. But when the panel were asked about protecting the rights of women and girls if "gender identity" is to be protected the response from a few including Sinead Gibney, former Chief Commissioner of IHREC, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, was a dismissive remark that her party supported trans rights.
The point of the question is the plan which was clearly well advanced in the lifetime of the last Government to protect "gender identity" in our equality legislation as promised in the 2020 Programme for Government and promoted by then Minister Roderic O'Gorman.
At the moment we have exemptions provided in the 2000 Equal Status Act which protect single-sex provision in certain circumstances under the "gender ground" which is defined by sex (that one is male or female).
In 2013 the General Scheme of the Gender Recognition Bill included a provision, Head 26, that some participants could be excluded from certain sports in the interests of safety and fairness. This was obviously to protect the interests of women and girls:
But this protection was opposed by TENI, the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland which submitted that:
The Irish Human Rights Commission which later amalgamated with the Equality Authority and is now IHREC, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, also opposed it and clearly did not consider the rights of half of the population, namely women and girls.
We already have men/boys in women's sport here in Ireland too (e.g. golf, ladies gaelic football). We need protections for women and girls in the interests of safety and fairness and to protect the category of women's sport.
