AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
Some cities now have pedestrian crossing lights showing the LGBTQ+ sign in green for go and in London, I noticed recently, there are ‘go’ transgender signs on crossings. Since the UK’s Supreme Court ruling last month, though, trans women– men who identify as women – will not have the green light to go into women’s spaces or be admitted to female services or sports.
Lord Hodge’s ruling on the Equality Act last month, confirms that legal protections intended for women are reserved for women and defined by their biological sex (rather than by gender identity). The ruling, simply restores the balance of law to where it was supposed to be, by ringfencing legal protection for women already in existence in the Equality Act. It clarifies a situation where organisations have been misled to believe that they must treat trans women, (born biological males) as women.
Among other things it means that workplaces and schools must offer single sex facilities and that it will be unlawful for girls and women to have to play on football teams that include biological males or for men identifying as female to be allowed in women’s prisons.
In Ireland though, male-born sex offenders, have been jailed in women’s prisons and biological males who have self-declared as female can access women spaces and sports. Don’t we need similar legislation here to protect women’s spaces?
Such a move would be welcomed by Laoise de Brun BL, CEO of the Countess. De Brun, who grew up on a farm in Co. Carlow and attended St Leo’s College, founded the Countess in 2019 to advocate for the safety of women and children following the passing of the Gender Recognition Act 2015.
“There is huge confusion across organisations about this issue, and we should take seriously the need to protect intimate spaces. The Act has had an impact across Ireland by blurring the boundaries. The Gender Recognition Act has acted as a catalyst eroding women’s rights.” It should, de Brun suggests, be amended so that existing rights for women and children are protected.
A Bill to amend the Gender Recognition Act, in relation to biological males being jailed in women’s prisons, introduced by Peadar Toibin TD, leader Aontu, has already passed the first stage. Deputy Toibin has pointed out that one of the many unintended effects of the Act has been a reversal of the policy of sex separation in prisons which has been in place since the Prisons Ireland Act 1826. No man should ever be housed in female prison regardless of how they identify, he believes.
Named after Countess Markievicz, the Countess holds that women’s right to privacy and dignity should be upheld. They have eight pillars of concern: these are around single sex provision, prisons, sport, legislation, lesbian erasure, safeguards, language and schools. On the latter point there are already plans for schools to have mixed sex toilets and the organisation holds that the practice of mixed sex wards should be stopped. On the language front the HSE have attempted to remove women from medical terminology, replacing breast feeding with chest feeding and referring to persons instead of women with cervixes.
The trouble with gender neutrality is that it sidesteps the reality of biological sex and, where misinterpreted, can end up eroding the rights of women. Look at the misguided attempt to amend the Constitution, (ironically on International Women’s Day,) where the two amendments to Article 41 would have struck out the words ‘mother’, ‘women’ and ‘home’ and in relation to care would have replaced ‘marriage’ with the words ‘durable relationships’. The proposed amendments were roundly defeated.
If a similar test case were to be taken here. the UK ruling could set a legal precedent.
