Replies to conversation on Twitter on 9th April 2023
"Avoid giving opinions on new transgender policy," LGFA tells captains (article by Mark Tighe in The Sunday Independent, 9th April 2023).
What legal advice exactly?
They are not binding on the State - although regularly cited as if they are - unlike the UN CEDAW which is.
In addition: the General Scheme of the Gender Recognition Bill 2013 contained Head 26 which allowed sporting bodies to exclude participants in the interests of safety and fairness. Who opposed it? TENI of course but also, unbelievably, the IHRC, now the @_IHREC.
Here's the link to that document: (above) and Head 26 in the General Scheme of 2013:
Is the legal advice @LadiesFootball has obtained along similar lines to that obtained by @ibec_irl?
In a Sample Gender Identity and Expression Policy IBEC says that “All employees have the right to use the bathroom/changing facilities which corresponds with their gender identity, regardless of the sex that they were assigned at birth [insert details about gender-neutral bathrooms if there are any in the workplace].”
But under the 2000 Equal Status Act there are exemptions provided from having to treat people equally. Under Section 5 it is not discrimination to have “(g) differences in the treatment of persons on the gender ground where embarrassment or infringement of privacy can reasonably be expected to result from the presence of a person of another gender,”.
The “gender ground” is defined under Section 3 (2) “As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are: (a) that one is male and the other is female (the ‘gender ground’),”
Asked if IBEC is confident that its advice to members is legally correct IBEC didn't reply. @MarkLTighe @DrGavinJennings @thisweekrte
Well he would say that, wouldn't he? Especially since he was one of the signatories of the updated Yogyakarta Principles, the YP+10. The term "Independent" in his title doesn't indicate lack of bias.
Also: Michael O'Flaherty, ex-NUIG, was rapporteur of the original 2006 Yogyakarta Principles and a signatory, along with former Irish President Mary Robinson. O'Flaherty is now director of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency.
Robert Wintemute, another signatory: "Admitting he 'failed to consider' that trans women still in possession of their male genitals would seek to access female-only spaces..says: 'A key factor in my change of opinion has been listening to women.'”
Robert Wintemute became a trustee of the LGBAlliance.
For more on the Yogyakarta Principles see: