The gendrification of Ireland
by Colette Colfer, The Critic:
How gender identity theory has become embedded in Irish society.
The Irish Government has adopted a once-obscure academic theory and is rolling it out through national strategies which have wide reaching consequences for all sectors of Irish society including prisons, sports, health and education. These strategies have enormous implications for human rights in Ireland.
Gender identity theory involves the idea that a person’s internal sense of gender is different from, and often more important than, their biological sex. The theory can be recognised by language (such as “cis”, “sex assigned at birth”, “everyone has a gender identity”), by questions such as “what gender do you identify as?”, and by pronouns in email signatures and social media profiles. Although the theory is contested, it is now being taught as fact in the Irish education system. The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, the largest teachers’ trade union in Ireland, has an online video learning-resource which teaches that boys can change into girls and girls can change into boys.
The theory is being embedded in Irish society through two Government strategies — the LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy 2018-2020 and the National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy 2019-2021. These strategies involve “whole of government” approaches and their implementation involves government departments, national agencies and LGBTI+ organisations.
The strategies, on casual perusal, seem laudable. They have the noble aim of ameliorating challenges faced by the LGBTI+ community. However, adoption of the strategies has far-reaching consequences that may not have been considered or envisaged at the time they were drawn up.
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