Tag Archives: Miriam Cotton

This afternoon.

Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

A ‘Save Our Spaces’ protest outside Leinster House organised by Radicailín calling for the rights of women and girls to ‘female-only, single sex spaces and services’.

Miriam Cotton writes:

Women from all over Ireland gathered to speak in defence of the preservation of women’s safe spaces. Speakers included Nuala Gallagher of Radicailín, the organisers of #SaveOurSpaces, Laoise Uí Aodha de Brun, spokesperson for The Countess.ie, Ceri Black of LGB Alliance Ireland, Rachel Moran of The Irish Women’s Lobby – and Graham Linehan of Father Ted Fame.

Previously: Gender  Questioning

Pics: Miriam Cotton

The Prohibition of Conversion Therapies Bill 2018

Miriam Cotton writes:

Sexual orientation and biological sex identity are different things. They are, however, persistently and disastrously conflated by way of an elision now popularly known as ‘gender’. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the draft Prohibition of Conversion Therapies Bill 2018 – (CTB) – deceptively brief and cleverly ambiguous as it stands.

The horrible practice of gay conversion had thankfully become a thing of the past in Ireland. No organisation or professional condones or practices it. Given our popular constitutional and legal support for equality, many are wondering what can have brought conversion therapy into such urgent focus that a dedicated bill is being ushered through the Dáil.

The background to this development is ‘gender ideology’, a theory of human existence that alienates and even denies our essential biological male and femaleness in favour of a subjective definition of ‘gender identity’. This is perhaps typified most controversially in the claims that ‘transwomen are women’ or ‘I am what I say I am”.

Under the new Bill’s draft provisions, what gender ideologists call the ‘affirmative model’ seems set to become a gateway to legally-sanctioned, gay conversion therapy, the very thing it purports to want to prevent. The model treats a child’s claim to a male or female sex identity as instantaneously immutable regardless of their actual biological sex.

We know that Gender Dysphoria, a conviction that one belongs to the opposite of one’s biological sex, which can set in from a very young age, reverses in 80% of children.  Most emerge as same-sex attracted or bisexual. Premature, inadequately explored ‘affirmation’ of gender dysphoria can therefore be a form of conversion therapy itself.

We also know from many professionals and from the personal accounts of detransitioners (people who revert to their biological sex identity) – that for many, their conflict about same-sex attraction, or their failure to conform to regressive sex stereotypes (girls who like soccer, boys who like knitting) – can seem more ‘socially acceptable’ to themselves if they think of themselves instead as being in ‘the wrong body’.

This ‘wrong body’ idea has been proactively and widely encouraged by affirmative model advocates, despite that it entails a potentially dangerous and often intractable psychological rejection of self which bedevils sufferers of all forms of body dysmorphia such as anorexia, bulimia, and body integrity identity disorder.  We do not distort reality to accommodate those conditions. A lot of effort has gone into ‘proving’ that gender dysphoria is different – and that reality must instead be distorted to accommodate it.

The latent homosexuality of the gender dysphoric child may thus be buried, with catastrophic consequences for them by the time they realise their mistake. The case of Kiera Bell in the UK is a high profile example. Bell is a now 23 year-old woman who has challenged the NHS Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS)  for facilitating the removal of healthy breasts at age 20, by which time she had been on a path to transition from the age of just 16, when she was prescribed puberty blockers.

Bell is seeking to establish that no child below the age of 18 is competent to make such life-altering decisions.  “I felt male, thought I was trans, but realised I was gay…I couldn’t sit by while so many others made the same mistake” she says.

To add to this confusion children are increasingly encouraged from early years at school to accept the existence of a veritable sweetie shop of rainbow-coloured, frequently sexualised ‘gender identities’ divorced from the binary sex reality of human existence (By the way, who sanctioned this? The vast majority of parents certainly were never consulted – and yet schools are being pressured to make ‘pledges’ to adopt gender ideology.) Unsurprisingly Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) is a new and exploding phenomenon, particularly among teenage girls – a lucrative, global niche market for ‘medical transition’.

Under the affirmative model, the change process begins preferably without consultation with the child’s parents where the latter are perceived as being likely to raise any concern or objection.  A name change, or the use of alternative pronouns in the first instance may seem relatively safe but they are far from that.  The first steps on the path to hormones, puberty blockers, breast binding, testicle tucking and surgery, they are a public declaration to peers and others from which it is emotionally and socially difficult to turn back, particularly if adults and gender therapists regard the dysphoric identity as confirmed and unquestionable.

Detransitioners say they are frequently shunned by their former friends in the ‘trans’ community.  There is ample evidence of children who have been put on blockers and hormones within just weeks or months of referral to gender clinics in some countries. Some report being prescribed hormones after a single consultation.

Puberty blockers are thought to affect multiple body systems, not just sexual and reproductive function and feeling. They are not fully reversible, as is frequently claimed. They do not ‘buy children time’. You cannot go back to being developmentally eleven years old if you change your mind at seventeen or twenty five. Your body moves on, adapting as best it can to the derailment of normal, inter-connected, developmental processes.

The NHS in the UK has removed the claim on its website that blockers are reversible but the HSE and other medical and therapeutic bodies in Ireland appear alarmingly reluctant to revise their approach, despite international awareness that research about their effects on immature bodies is seriously inadequate. We have failed children before in Ireland. Are we seriously about to let it happen again?

Many concerned professionals, such as Stella O’Malley of Genspect (a voice for people with gender questioning kids) – are concerned that therapists and parents should not be prevented from ensuring – before, during and after puberty –  that both adequate time and sensitive, impartial exploration of a gender dysphoric person’s state of mind, any possible trauma and their true sexual orientation have been explored.

The minority whose gender dysphoria persists into adulthood must be supported if they decide to try to better align their bodies with their dysphoric feelings. This caring approach is, paradoxically, what this writer believes is the real target of the CTB. Why? Because it gets in the way of applying gender ideology from cradle to grave, no questions asked or allowed.

Supporters of sex identity change on demand have form here, as the introduction of ‘self identification’ in the Gender Recognition Act 2015 attests. Ireland has been explicitly cited by its proponents (in the now infamous Dentons Document – full analysis here ) – as a successful example of where the introduction of gender theory and practice, under cover of unrelated issues such as same sex marriage, diversity training and now conversion therapy, has exceeded expectations.

Most people have no idea that Irish law now permits any man, regardless of motive or past record, to declare himself a woman with all the licence and access that entails – into womens’ and girls’ sports, changing rooms and quotas.

The mention of these facts is invariably howled down by the gender theory apologists as ‘transphobia’ – a tactic that is wearing thin – and which itself must be firmly faced down before further harm is done. It is emphatically not ‘transphobic’ to question any of what is happening, nor to deem it wrong when the evidence clearly demonstrates that it is.

Gender ideology and ideologists are in full denial about all this, providing bad faith actors with all the impunity and encouragement they need – even in the face of abusive and criminal behaviour. Lesbians are now being told they are ‘transphobic’ if they do not wish to sleep with male-sexed people who claim to be lesbian, as a disturbing BBC report has shown. Violent sex offenders are held in women’s prisons. Children are being told they ought not to look or complain if a man exposes himself in women’s changing spaces, as the writer Laurie Penny asserted recently on Twitter.

Vulnerable people are being confused in the name of ‘inclusion’. Perhaps the pervasive Transgender Equality Network (Ireland’s Stonewall) could explain to them why, If their biological sex isn’t real or relevant, how their sexual orientation is real, whether homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual? How can they claim to be champions of LGB rights if they don’t believe in the biologically-sexed basis for those orientations?

The refusal to acknowledge the glaring contradictions of gender ideology should be a red flag about the CTB and our thus far extraordinarily naive response to the gender theory movement. Legislators (and many others who should know much better) have seemingly been swept along on the hubristic tide of well-meaning if woefully misguided clamour for inclusion, tolerance and diversity.

Those qualities are absolutely to be desired and pursued, so let’s be sure that they are in fact what we will get.

Alas, those who would redefine biological reality for everyone else in the name of ‘inclusion’ demand we do so on exclusively gender ideological terms – or be shunned. No other movement has so successfully captured so much of the body politic with so little public debate or information.

Amnesty Ireland and The National Women’s Council of Ireland have embraced gender ideology with such reckless vehemence that they have openly called for those who express concern to be denied democratic representation, no less. Intoning meaningless mantras such as “trans rights are human rights” or “our existence is not up for debate” offers nothing to an understanding of the many and complex issues at stake for gender dysphoric people, for gay and bisexual people – nor for any child, woman or man who dares to believe in the material reality and full significance of their own biological sex.

Miriam Cotton is a Cork-based freelance journalist.

Pic gov.ie

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Sinn Féin deputy president Mary Lou McDonald

The ‘Ra ‘under the bed’.

Recent poll setbacks.

Jeremy Corbyn.

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald talked to Miriam Cotton last night for the ‘sheet about all that and why few understand the troubles she didn’t see.

Miriam Cotton: “[Garda Commissioner] Noirin O’Sullivan and [Minister for Justice] Frances Fitzgerald have clarified the situation with regard to the IRA and have confirmed that it has been disbanded. But concerns remain, they say. Isn’t it true that Sinn Féin hasn’t done enough to distance itself from former paramilitary associates? Surely the party has intelligence about suspected or known criminal and vigilante activity among these former associates that it could share with the PSNI, for example?”

Mary Lou McDonald: “The position as regards the IRA has been clarified in the way that you describe but I have to say that, for anybody like me who grew up in Dublin at a distance but with the troubles, as they were called, as background noise – and certainly for people living in the North of Ireland – it is manifestly the case that the IRA has gone away. Its military structures have been disbanded, its weapons have been decommissioned and there is a process of peace – an imperfect one, albeit. We are on an incomplete journey as of yet, it is true to say, but nonetheless a very robust process has been put in place.
As regards what Sinn Féin can do, the record of the party and the party leaders stands on its own merit over the last 20 years or so. Certainly, in the here and now, I think it is most unreasonable and really a bit of a try-on for other political parties and other entities to demand that Sinn Féin be answerable for the criminal actions and misdemeanours of those who may have had an association with the IRA at some stage in the past. That is not a reasonable ask if you consider that thousands – or tens of thousands – went through the prison system in the course of the conflict. Are we therefore saying that Sinn Féin is to be answerable for any misdemeanour or criminal act that any one of these individuals might have been involved in? That’s absolutely crazy. The job of keeping the peace and enforcing law and order and of upholding the law in general rests in the hands of the PSNI, An Gárda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners where appropriate. And we, like any other citizens, expect those agencies to carry out their tasks and their functions.”

Cotton: “Why do you think [northern Sinn Féin boss] Bobby Storey was arrested?”

McDonald: “Bobby Storey has set out in no uncertain terms his deep, deep concern and indeed anger at his arrest. He has said categorically that there was no evidence produced, not a shred, no intelligence produced – again not a shred either to him or to his legal representatives as to why he was arrested and detained. As you are probably aware, that will now be the subject of a legal action by Bobby Storey who has instructed his legal representative. Obviously this will also be raised within the accountability mechanisms that oversee policing arrangements in the North. As a political leadership we are seeking a meeting with [PSNI chief] George Hamilton to put our very deep concerns to him and equally will be raising them with the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister. I can’t answer as to why this arrest happened. What I can say is that the persons arrested were released after the 48 hours unconditionally and certainly in the case of Bobby Storey – I can’t speak for anybody else – but in his case his arrest appears to have had absolutely no foundation in fact.”

Cotton: “Is there anything Sinn Féin could have done differently to avoid the latest collapse in the Stormont government?”

McDonald: “Well, bear in mind that long before the atrocious, cold-blooded murder of two men on the streets of Belfast – in the Markets and in East Belfast – before they were seized on by those who wished to posture for their own political advantage, there were problems within the system and within the Assembly and the Executive and they largely centred on and remain centred on issues of a budgetary nature. There has been a very substantial cut to what is called the Block Grant. Further cuts are envisaged – swingeing Tory austerity and a part of that are proposals to introduce what are euphemistically referred to as welfare reforms but in fact amount to welfare cuts. Certainly the British government was very keen to strong-arm the Assembly and its parties, including ourselves, to administer and introduce these cuts and we have refused to do so.”

“Sinn Féin led the charge in that regard as had the SDLP. Unionism had to an extent joined our efforts to face down the British administration. We did arrive at an accommodation in Stormont House last Christmas if you recall, but unfortunately when it came to implementing that particular agreement, what we understood to have been agreed in respect of protecting current recipients, Unionism was not prepared to honour. Therein lies the immediate, if you like, wrangle in respect of budgetary matters. But there is also a longer term issue and it relates to the fact that the Assembly and the Executive don’t enjoy fiscal powers and this is something that we have been raising consistently. We have been saying that where the Executive and the Assembly are to run public services, ensure their smooth and efficient operation, engender a climate of enterprise, create job opportunities and so on, it’s illogical to make that ask of an Executive with both hands tied behind its back. So our view is that every sensible person who wishes to see a dynamic economic environment, who wishes to see fully resourced and quality public services must surely understand that the sensible, pragmatic thing is for fiscal powers to be vested in the Assembly. We have made progress in respect of the issue of corporation tax although that discussion is not fully complete but we believe very strongly that the full range of tax-raising powers must be vested in the Assembly. I know that is a long answer but there are certainly short-term, immediate budgetary issues in respect of so-called welfare reform and in respect of getting a workable budget for the North as a community coming out of conflict and in a very particular, special case confronting very specific issues. There is also then the much longer term trajectory of creating a scenario in which economic dynamism and growth and quality employment and job opportunities are made and created. You have to be given the toolkit to make those things happen.”

Cotton: “What efforts have Fine Gael and Labour made to work with Sinn Féin to resolve the present situation? They have spoken with other parties in the North – have they approached you with any constructive suggestions?”

McDonald: “No, not so far and over the last four and a half years we have been raising, particularly our leader Gerry Adams has been raising, with the Taoiseach the fact that the Taoiseach has been very disengaged from developments in the North. The government as a whole have not demonstrated any appetite or any understanding for developing the peace process and moving it forward. They seem to forget that they are guarantors of internationally binding agreements. In respect of the most recent turn of events, I think they made a number of very clumsy and ill-conceived interventions. I attended a meeting alongside Gerry [Adams] with [Minister for Foreign Affairs] Charlie Flanagan where he tried to sell the idea of an adjournment of the institutions. We absolutely rejected that and subsequently the Assembly Business Committee very sensibly rejected that proposal.”

“We had to explain in some detail that you cannot allow events in the criminal justice system and criminal acts on the streets of Belfast to be used and manipulated in such a manner – to destabilise, to undermine or to adjourn and suspend democratic institutions and democratically mandated representatives. We are not going backwards to that place, it’s not going to happen. I very much hope that in the time ahead the Taoiseach and the entire government will be constructive and will understand now the seriousness of where things are at – and the depth of their own responsibilities in respect of things in the North.”

“Needless to say some of the comments over the last number of weeks from the likes of Joan Burton, from Enda Kenny – and from Micheál Martin perhaps most notably, demonstrated a really craven level of political opportunism. They seem to misunderstand entirely the implication of their posturing. It seems to me that there is almost an irresistible temptation in the mind of Micheál Martin and Joan Burton – and sadly it seems Enda Kenny to play fast and loose with the institutions for the sake of a couple of percentage points in the opinion polls. That to me is no way to govern.”

Cotton: “What is your response to Arlene Foster in her role as First Minister in particular to her comments about the trustworthiness of nationalists?”

McDonald: “Well, I think they are very, very obnoxious on one level and they represent very unacceptable commentary. When I heard what Arlene had to say I was reminded of that old phrase ‘not a Fenian about the place’. That seems to be the place where they are coming from. I suppose Arlene needs not just to understand but to start articulating very clearly that the days of single party rule, of unionist domination and so on are gone. They are not coming back ever and those with democratic mandates, including Arlene by the way and her party, and those in unionism, nationalism and republicanism – are there absolutely, correctly on a democratic basis and really to start that kind of nonsense and that kind of lowest common denominator politics is certainly not helpful. I would have to say I don’t think her comments do her any credit as the acting First Minister.”

Cotton: “What do you think will happen to the investigation into NAMA-related activities and the issues that have been causing concern there.”

McDonald: “Because the institutions have remained live and have remained up and running – certainly our ministers are at their desks and will be working in the days ahead – as is the finance committee which as you know is chaired by my party colleague Daithi McKay. Evidence has been heard by that committee. And of course here in the South, NAMA are due to appear in front of the Public Accounts Committee on the 1st of October so we will be following all of these matters with great interest and what is an unfolding scandal, we believe. I think we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. It’s on one level a very complex story that’s emerging but the concerns that arise around the governance of NAMA, I suppose close political circles, concerns about corrupt or corrupted process, suggestions of corrupt payments. All of these are of the utmost concern and it’s very important that those of us living in the southern jurisdiction understand that, although much of the intrigue has played out or centred on the North, this is a national story because of course NAMA is in the final analysis a creature of the Oireachtas. It is the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan and indeed An Taoiseach who ultimately are answerable for any flaws, for any malpractice or for anything more serious which might emerge in the coming period . It is still a matter of astonishment to me that although Michael Noonan knew that the initial bid for Project Eagle’s Northern loan book had been compromised and corrupted in a most serious manner where backhanders were sought essentially from a bidding entity but he still went ahead and didn’t suspend the process. He allowed the process to continue albeit with different bidders. That to me is an astonishing way to carry out your business – and also that Michael Noonan didn’t deem it necessary, or the southern government didn’t deem it necessary to inform the Office of First and Deputy First Minister as to what had happened. Astonishing, astonishing stuff.”

Cotton: “You were born in 1969 and were saying earlier that you had no immediate or direct involvement in the war that went on in the North and that the peace process is moving on for people like you and for everyone involved. By the same token isn’t it true that while Sinn Féin is led by people so closely identified with its paramilitary past that the party is unlikely to lead a government? Given the sensitivity of the situation for people who were personally affected and the political capital that your opponents in Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil in particular are able to make of the situation while Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and others are still in charge, wouldn’t it be better for everyone if they moved on too?”

McDonald: “Well, the prerequisite for Sinn Féin being in government is enough votes and a sufficient mandate for that to happen. So, actually, in real terms that decision is in the hands of the people not in the hands of Enda Kenny, Joan Burton, Micheál Martin or anyone else. It’s a democratic decision that the electorate has to take. I do take your point that there are those in politics and I would also have to say that in politics and in the media and in particular in Independent News and Media there are people who view the past and the conflict and all the rest of it as fertile ground to have a go at Sinn Féin and to have a go at republicans. You know they absolutely forget or omit to give all of the other dimensions of what happened in the course of the conflict in respect of the British state, the RUC, Loyalist paramilitaries who as we know colluded with the British state and were their proxies in many cases. None of that gets any airing.”

“You’d imagine that the conflict was entirely one-sided and of course they will seek very cynically, I believe, to make hay with that. But what they cannot do though is to deny what is self-evident on the streets particularly in the North and that is that the situation has been utterly, utterly transformed. Nor that the process although very challenging initially and challenging to this day is now embedded and that Sinn Fein and Irish republicans right across the country and indeed beyond are absolutely wedded to this process and determined to make it a success. The propaganda attacks from the outside will not deter us from this course. If someone was to leave Sinn Féin it’s not the case that the negative elements would simply give up the ghost and go away. There are certain people who have a particular view which is hostile to us and to the politics that we represent, to the challenge that we represent to the status quo and to the project that we have for a United Ireland, a democratic Ireland, an equal Ireland. They will come at us with whatever they can reach for to try and stop us in our tracks. That’s the reality of it. Would that change irrespective of who was leading the party? I don’t think so. I would also say that as you cited specifically Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness I’m very proud that they are our leaders and I think they are two outstanding leaders and I think that when the history books are written that will be well recorded.”

Cotton: “Fine Gael has seen an increase in popularity according to the latest Red C poll. Would you be concerned that this is the beginning of a slide in Sinn Féin’s popularity and what do you think accounts for the poll?”

McDonald: “Well I suppose with opinion polls you have to read them on trends and I still believe the trend for us is extremely strong and that we’re in a good place. Obviously I don’t underestimate that we need to get out there and get our message across and win every vote that we can and convince every voter that we can. I take no vote bar my own ever for granted and I’m reluctant to read a single opinion poll in isolation but I do note that when the Dáil isn’t sitting that you tend to see a recovery in the polling performance of government parties because obviously the Dáil isn’t in session and they are not being held to account for whatever the goings-on whether it’s Fennelly, or whether it’s the manner in which they have bungled and mishandled the crisis in the North. I think that’s an element of it. But look, without wishing to sound clichéd the only poll that will actually matter is the poll on the day whenever the Taoiseach calls the election and people finally make up their minds. There is of course a danger that people lapse into the traditional patterns of voting but given everything that has happened over the last number of years I think a huge number of people have become politicised. I think a huge number of people now look at Irish politics differently than they would two or three or four or five years ago. I think there is a real appetite for change but I think that people want to know that this change is real and concrete and that it’s not simply pie in the sky or rhetoric and that is the challenge for the likes of us in the election, to demonstrate that change is possible, that change can be real.”

Cotton: “There’s definitely a concern abroad that whatever politicians may say in opposition if the opportunity presents itself to get into government with Fianna Fail or Fine Gael, despite all the promises they are prepared to abandon all their principles to get there.”

McDonald: “That’s a huge problem and it’s at the root of an awful lot of people’s cynicism. I understand that, I completely get that. When you heard, for instance Pat Rabbitte saying as regards the Labour Party’s broken promise ‘oh sure that’s what you do in an election’ – when senior figures from the Labour Party are saying that out loud sure little wonder that people are cynical so I understand that. I would see it as our job during the course of the campaign – and after the campaign whatever the outcome is to demonstrate that in fact there are those of us in political life who put a premium on not just making promises but on holding to them – and being held to them after the fact. I think that’s absolutely essential.”

Cotton: “What do you think is the significance for people in Northern Ireland of the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the UK Labour Party and could he help to resolve the present crisis?”

McDonald: “Well, Jeremy is a longstanding friend of Ireland as you know. He is certainly a person who has never been afraid to take a principled stand on issues that he believes to be right and to face down, even when it wasn’t popular to do so, things that he believed to be wrong. So I believe that Jeremy is an extremely honourable man and I’m very pleased and indeed delighted for him that he has come through and that he has won this great victory.
He will now in the first instance I suppose have to sit down with his colleagues and take stock and then set out their priorities and their stall. I would of course hope that the British Labour Party would be extremely supportive of our efforts starting [today] to straighten matters out, to ensure that we achieve a workable budget for the institutions and then moving forward to look specifically at the issue of the transfer or devolution of powers.”

“I would hope that the Labour Party would be a helpful, proactive and positive influence in that regard. Bear in mind also that whatever the differences, and they are quite considerable between Jeremy and his predecessor Tony Blair, it would have to be said in a spirit of fairness that the contribution of the Labour Party under Tony Blair’s leadership to developing the peace process was very, very considerable. So I suppose the Labour Party has more skin in the game than the Tories in respect of building peace in Ireland.”

FIGHT!

Miriam Cotton is a freelance journalist and founding editor of MediaBite

 Pic: RollingNews.ie