I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2015 to make provision for single-sex accommodation in prisons; and to provide for related matters.
I thank The Countess, especially Laoise de Brún and those in the Gallery, for their help on the Bill and the other women’s rights campaigners who have been working on this Bill over the past while.
I thank the nine other TDs who have signed this Bill: Deputies Seán Canney, Noel Grealish, Willie O'Dea, Carol Nolan, Mattie McGrath, Michael Healy-Rae, Danny Healy-Rae, Richard O'Donoghue and Michael Collins. I also note that other Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party representatives have said they support this Bill.
Aontú believes in a compassionate, pluralist republic. All citizens are valued regardless of their identity, ethnicity, religion or orientation. Everybody should be treated on the basis of their own individual character. Gender dysphoria is real and is not easy for anyone. We need to treat all of our citizens with respect and decency.
It is also important that we have a society based on logic, science and evidence. Evidence and science are not optional extras in a democracy. They are critical in the development of a just and fair society. A woman is a female adult. This sentence is based on logic, science and evidence. It is a sentence that comes with great ease to the vast majority of our citizens but incredibly it is not a sentence that many in the Dáil can say and many in the political establishment are refusing to answer that question.
Over the past ten years, governments and campaign groups have embarked upon significant campaigns of social engineering. Incredibly, the Government has tried to delete the word "woman" from many parts of our society. Most recently it tried to delete the word "woman" from maternity legislation. The HSE has used words such as "chestfeeding" instead of "breastfeeding". In HSE literature on CervicalCheck services, the term "people with a cervix" has been used instead of the word "woman". Teachers have been told on in-service days that they should not use the words "mother" or "father" in classrooms because they are not inclusive enough. The NCCA has links on its website which show that teachers should not use the words "boys" and "girls" in classrooms because they are not inclusive enough. The Taoiseach put pressure on Irish rugby to reverse its decision to make women's rugby female-only despite the scientific evidence that male-born players can cause serious damage to female players in rugby and it negates fair competition as well.
Professor Donal O'Shea of the National Gender Service, which is deeply committed to supporting people with gender dysphoria, stated at an Oireachtas committee that activists are "brainwashing" politicians and HSE management when it comes to proposals for the new gender recognition laws. Those who speak out are often shut down. JK Rowling could wallpaper her home with the number of death threats and threats of rape she received because she stated the simple sentence that a woman is a female adult. The Government seeks to introduce the hate speech Bill to create a chilling effect on those who want to say the same sentence.
Young gay and lesbian people are told that they are not gay, they are simply in the wrong body. The Government's policy with regard to gender affirmation is ignoring the fact that many cases there are co-morbidities that may lead to young people questioning their gender. Gender affirmation can put young people on the pathway to chemicals, puberty-blockers and irreversible surgery. Those co-morbidities that are causing the problems never get treated at all. They can destroy a person's fertility, cause serious health damage and in many cases lead to people to de-transition after that damage has been done. Ireland remains wedded to the policy of gender affirmation even despite the fact many European countries are reversing that damaging policy.
Women and girls are losing their right to safe spaces. This is a really important issue. I am not saying for one second that a person experiencing gender dysphoria is more likely to be a threat to a woman than anybody else from the general population but I am saying the Gender Recognition Act has no gatekeeper. There is no doctor or psychiatrist who determines that a person is transgender. Anybody can get a gender recognition certificate.
The consequence of the Gender Recognition Act is that it allows male-born criminals to be placed in women's prisons. This has led to the incredible situation that people jailed for horrific sexual offences have been located in women's prisons. The most famous is Barbie Khardashian. Barbie Khardashian threatened to kill, rape and torture his mother. Khardashian was granted a gender recognition certificate and placed by the Government in a women's prison. I believe this is a horrendous dereliction of duty by the Government in terms of the protection of women. This Aontú Bill simply seeks to prevent male-born criminals being placed into women's prisons. Our Bill provides that a gender recognition certificate does not affect whether a person is deemed male or female for the purpose of applying the existing rule as to single-sex accommodation in prisons.
