Aontú believes in a compassionate, pluralist Republic. We believe all citizens are equal and should be valued no matter their identify, religion or orientation. Everybody should be treated on the basis of their individual character. Gender dysphoria is real, it is not easy for anybody and citizens who have gender dysphoria should be treated with respect and decency. It is also really important that, as a society, we base our approach on science and evidence. For far too long, this debate in this Chamber has been driven by ideology, and that ideology has been damaging to both children and women. Evidence and science are not optional extras. They are critical in the development of a just and fair society. A woman is a female adult. That sentence is based on logic, science and evidence. It is a sentence that comes with ease to most citizens in this country but, incredibly, very few TDs in this Chamber are able to say it. Over the past ten years, this Government, its predecessors and campaigning groups have embarked on a significant campaign of social engineering. Incredibly, the Government has tried to delete the word "woman" from many different aspects of society. It has even tried to delete the word "woman" from maternity legislation. The HSE has used words like "chestfeeding" instead of "breastfeeding". Among the HSE literature, it has produced a document highlighting issues around cervical checks, saying that "people with a cervix" need to come to the HSE. Teachers have been told on in-service days not to use the words "mother" and "father" in class because it is not inclusive. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has links on its websites to materials for teachers that talk about not using the words "boys" and "girls" in classes for the same reason. A former Taoiseach put pressure on Irish Rugby in the Dáil to reverse its decision to make women's rugby female only, despite significant evidence that enormous damage is done by male-born players to female players in that competition. Professor Donal O'Shea of the National Gender Service, which is deeply committed to people with gender dysphoria, stated at an Oireachtas committee that activists are brainwashing politicians-----
Sentiment score: 0.04
-----and HSE management-----
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-----when it comes to proposed new gender recognition laws.
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Young gay and lesbian people are being told that they are not gay but that they are in the wrong body. A consequence of the Gender Recognition Act-----
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-----is that it has actually allowed male-born prisoners to be put in women's prisons in this State. It is an incredible situation that we have had individuals who were jailed for horrific sexual offences being located in women's prisons. Barbie Kardashian was found guilty of threatening to kill, rape and torture his mother. Kardashian was granted a gender recognition certificate by the Department of Social Protection and he was put in a women's prison, an absolute dereliction of duty by this Government. The Government's policy on gender affirmation is ignoring the potential comorbidities that can often exist with children and lead them to question their gender. Gender affirmation puts children on a path that can lead to chemicals, puberty blockers and irreversible surgeries and it never deals with the other comorbidities they may be dealing with. They can destroy a person's fertility and cause serious health damage, in some cases leading to children de-transitioning afterwards. Ireland remains wedded to this policy despite the fact that most other western countries are reversing from this ideological approach. The debate in Ireland is actually stuck in the past in this regard. Most of the rest of the world is moving on. The International Olympic Committee is moving to a ban on transgender athletes competing in female Olympic events because it is deeply unfair to women. The NHS in Britain has significantly changed its approach, particularly for minors, by ending gender-affirmative care models in youth in England. The US, Denmark, Sweden and Finland have all left WPATH because WPATH is not a clinical protocol. The two most experienced clinicians involved in transgender healthcare in Ireland, Professor O'Shea and Dr. Moran, have made a formal complaint to HIQA about the HSE treatment of children with gender identity issues. They say the HSE has been directing children to potentially damaging overseas affirming services. They have been given leave to carry out a judicial review into HIQA. Logic would dictate that we would listen to that judicial review so that we can understand the best way to approach healthcare in this space. What does it say about the echo chamber of this Dáil that practically every single other party in this Dáil will swap science and healthcare for gender ideology? What does it say when every single adult in this Dáil, other than a handful, is putting the healthcare of children at risk to follow an ideological approach? We need to make sure that science is at the heart of everything we do in terms of healthcare.
Sentiment score: -0.22