S Uí Seireadáin/Adult Human Female! #XX

August - She’ll come at dusky first of day, White over yellow harvest’s song. Upon her dewy rainbow way She shall be beautiful and strong - Francis Ledwidge

[Carol Nolan TD @CNolanOffaly]

My Speech on Sinn Féin PMB seeking a removal of the 3 Day Wait Period for Women Seeking an Abortion:

[Aontú @AontuIE]

Disappointing to see a leaving cert exam paper question ignoring the scientific reality that only women can get pregnant. Well done to Aontú's Senator Sarah O'Reilly for calling this out in the Daily Mail today 👏

[Stella O'Malley @stellaomalley3]

@salltweets You’re brilliant, they’re wrong. One day the truth will out, until then men will still be men and women will still be women.
Xxx

[GaelsForFairPlay @GaelsFairPlay]

Naively, we thought "Inclusion of male athletes in the female category cannot be balanced against fairness and safety for female athletes" would have been enough to make the LGFA see sense.
Yet still, @LadiesFootball refuses to listen.
Still, it recklessly exposes women and girls to risk of serious injury and knowingly denies them fair play.
Still, the Gaelic Games hierarchy tells us 'it's complicated" and "we need more time."
Women have been physically injured on our pitches by male players.
Young girls have pleaded with their coaches and parents not to make them play against juvenile males.
Parents attempting to raise legitimate safeguarding concerns have been stonewalled by LGFA management.
What is it going to take to make the LGFA see sense?

[GaelsForFairPlay @GaelsFairPlay]

We will never know for sure why the LGFA not only drove through this policy but is stubbornly clinging to it in spite of everything. Probably one, or a combination, of the following: self ID prevalent in Irish organisations; lobbying from special interest groups; no understanding of the issue; reluctance to accept that the policy is underpinned by shoddy scientific evidence, or acknowlege the U-turn in sport globally, because then they'd have to admit they got it wrong; inclusion policies are an important feature in the increasingly corporatised nature of the three Gaelic Games associations, but they are mostly performative and buzzwordy so nobody has bothered to get into the granular detail of this policy and the clear conflict of rights; some decision makers and influencers in the association belive in gender ideology; some decision makers may think government funding is dependent on having this policy in place; legal advice was sought and they say they had a legal obligation to bring in the policy because of the GRA; fear they would be sued if they didn't accept trans-identifying males.
Whatever the reason, the LGFA will never, ever walk this back. The issue has now been kicked down the road: a new transgender participation policy covering all three associations is in the early stages of being formulated. It will likely not be finalised and ratified until integration is complete, and if a comprehensive and independent consultation of the players and grassroots members is not conducted (which is our fear) then we belive it very likely, sadly, that the new policy will be no different from the current one.

[GaelsForFairPlay @GaelsFairPlay]

We are feeling very despondent tonight. On the same day the International Olympic Committee spells out, in black and white, that the inclusion of males in female sport is unfair and unsafe, @LadiesFootball announces it is introducing new rules that will not only give a greater competitive advantage to males, but which will allow them to tackle female players even more robustly. And here's the real kicker:
"From 2027, the new playing rules must be implemented across all competitions from Under 13 to adult."
Children - girls - as young as 13 will now be exposed to even greater risk of injury as a result of the LGFA's policy of male inclusion. This is a blatant failure to safeguard. Where is the Irish government? Where is Sport Ireland? Why are the three Gaelic Games associations so slow to act on overwhelming scientfic evidence?
Why does fairness and safety for women and girls who play Gaelic football and camogie matter so little?

[GaelsForFairPlay @GaelsFairPlay]

Two comments in the statement on the IOC policy by Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) that we'd like to address:

1. "TENI will continue to work with sports bodies and clubs around Ireland to ensure that sports are inclusive, safe and fair for all."
While TENI continues to lobby for the inclusion of males in the female sport category, there cannot be safe and fair sport for women and girls. Will TENI acknowledge this and lobby the GAA to ensure men's Gaelic football and hurling are safe, welcoming and inclusive spaces for all males, regardless of how they present or identify? Or will TENI continue to demand male inclusion at the expense of fair and safe sport for women and girls?
It is time for Gaelic Games to show leadership - as Irish Rugby did in 2022 - and prioritise safety and fairness for its female athletes.

2. "We want everyone to be able to head off to GAA, or soccer, or swimming, and know that they will be accepted as part of that community no matter who they are."
We are in complete agreement with this. Male and female players who are trans-identifying should be made to feel safe and welcome, playing in the correct sex category. This is the version of inclusion that is truly 'inclusive, safe and fair for all'.

Incidentally: the GAA doesn't have a policy that allows trans-identifying women to play men's football and hurling. Why is TENI not outraged by this, as it is when men are excluded from the female category?
We know why.

[Mary-Anne McNulty @Mary_A_McNulty]

Meanwhile, in Ireland, our Gaelic Games custodians are at least a year away from deciding whether or not males should be allowed to continue to play @LadiesFootball and camogie. Another season where the safeguarding of women & girls matters less than male feelings.

[Mary Kenny @MaryKenny4]

@Berlinnaeus Yes, I’ve noticed that my native terrain, Sandymount in Dublin 4, is very similar to Kabul, and the native Irishwomen, with their doctorates and masters’ degrees, are on a par with Afghan girls, denied all education.

[Sandra Adams @AdamsSandr4794]

Cop on @Independent_ie and Tanya Sweeney.

There's nothing 'lighthearted' about @DublinZoo representing mothers with a drag queen. This is not panto or a TV comedy. It's an example of a beloved national institution beclowning itself.

My piece today for @IrishCathNews

#HappyMothersDay

[The GAA @officialgaa]

BREAKING NEWS: Derek Kent was elected Uachtarán Tofa of the #GAA at Annual Congress this evening.
The @OfficialWexGAA native will become the 42nd President of the Association at next year’s Annual Congress. #GAABelong

[LoulouD @maccadoo8]

@Mullins77David @john_mcguirk @OdohertyI64991 @markhumphrys #Noticensorship We don't want our sport censored. People won't be forced to watch football, it's a choice! Watch, don't watch. In a democracy we expect choice!!

[Róisín Michaux @RoisinMichaux]

Let me be absolutely clear about what has just happened:

The EU had declared its intention to change the status quo *globally* so that sexually violent crossdressing fetishists can be allowed to access women’s domestic violence shelters.

[Dr. Dr. P: No human is 'trans'. It's a lie. @Psychgirl211]

@KirstieMAllsopp as a DClinPsych with over thirty years' clinical experience I can categorically tell you this.

It is never 'kind' or 'polite' to collude with someone's cognitive distortions and/or their psychotic beliefs.

True kindness lies in what we psychologists call 'reality-testing', whereby we challenge people's maladaptive thinking patterns.

The goal of this is for the people we treat to become grounded in reality, so that their behaviour becomes more adaptive and, eventually, their mental health improves.

A man thinking he is a woman (or vice-versa), is about as maladaptive as it gets.

Whether we like it or not, we are all rooted in the physical reality of our bodies:

I for example am Black woman, and you are White woman.

We were both born within this genetic 'envelope', if you will.

And each of us lives, and we will die within, the genetic envelope of our race.

(And, I'm sure the idea of 'Blacking up' would horrify you).

This is exactly the same with sex.

It's not a matter of having 'sympathy' for 'trans' people.

We do them no favours by lying to them and colluding with their dysfunctional thinking, because inevitably they will run out of cognitive distortions.

The lies will wear thin and biological reality will 100% catch up with them.

This is inescapable.

The truly 'sympathetic' thing to therefore, is to be honest to 'trans people'.

They have not changed sex.

They cannot change sex.

They will die exactly the same sex as they were born.

The truth is kindness.

Not your lies.

[Christian Concern @CConcern]

Victory for the Darlington Nurses

BREAKING: The Darlington nurses have WON their landmark Employment Tribunal case.

A judge has ruled that the NHS policy allowing a biological male into the women’s changing rooms was unlawful harassment and discrimination.

Historic moment for women’s dignity in a landmark case supported by the Christian Legal Centre

See more👇

https://t.co/M8NydGZzkc

[GaelsForFairPlay @GaelsFairPlay]

Dear @MaryLouMcDonald,

Hello. We read your comments in today's Sunday Times in which you advocate for the inclusion, on a 'case-by-case' basis, of trans-identifying males in spaces reserved for women, with dismay.
Dismay, Mary Lou, because we wrote to you in May last year to bring your attention to the Ladies Gaelic Football Association's policy of including males, on a case-by-case basis, into our sport. We pointed out that the case-by-case model on which the LGFA's policy is based cannot be balanced against safety and fairness for women and girls.
That this model was trialled and subsequently abandoned by Irish rugby after reviewing medical and scientific evidence and guidance from World Rugby.
That esteemed sports scientists and sports ethics academics have asserted that case-by-case assessment is unlikely to be practical or verifiable for entry into gender-affected sport and therefore undermines the principles of fairness and safety.
You didn't respond to our letter; now we know why.

You say in the article that 'lived experience matters'. May we tell you about the 'lived experience' of female athletes who have been forced to play Gaelic football against males?
Namely, the women (from a senior ladies team which we will not name here) who were forced off the pitch after being injured by male players. Though upset and distressed, these women and their coaches chose not to raise a concern for fear of being labelled 'bigots' and because they had no expectation that the LGFA would listen to them.
Then there's the woman who quietly quit the sport she loves after being injured by a male player because she, too, feared stigmatisation and was terrified her employment would be negatively affected if it became known she had raised an objection.
And then there are the parents involved in coaching an underage girls' team who stood, helpless, on the sidelines as they watched their daughters struggle to compete against juvenile males with a clear physical advantage. We spoke to one of those parents - a mother - and will never forget the terrible catch in her voice when she told us she felt she had no option but to tell her own daughter, who had come to her in distress during the game, to 'play on regardless' because those male players had been given the right to play by the LGFA and therefore no rules were being broken. 30 parents involved with that team have since signed a letter urging the LGFA to rethink its policy in order that their daughters can be afforded fair and safe sport. They have sent it to the GAA, the LGFA, the Gaelic Players Association and Sport Ireland. These parents have not done this because they wish, as you say in your article, 'to divide, demonise and marginalise'; they have done so because the first duty of a parent is to ensure the safety of their child and they are unable to do so while a situation exists where their child is being exposed to physical and social injury. Because, as you quite rightly say, 'everybody is concerned about children and protecting children'.

So, Mary Lou, if you truly mean it when you say you 'reflect on things, and assess things', please take the time to consider the overwhelming medical and scientific evidence available to you.
Your @sinnfeinireland colleague Michelle O'Neill, along with others in your party, have already done so and have taken the unequivocal position that including males in female sport undermines fairness and safety for women and girls.
Please don't put your personal relationship with your sibling ahead of your duty as a public representative; please act on behalf of those whose best interests you have been sworn to uphold.
#savewomensport

[AnSealgaire @AnSealgaire]

@FineGael @CllrNoelODon You sent my mother who cares for my father suffering from Alzheimers a letter informing her that her carer's allowance will be taxed from now on. You're literally taking €70 a week from an elderly woman & her disabled spouse - that you post this is an obscenity.

[Patrick Dexter @patrickdextervc]

The Wexford Carol, music from 12th century Ireland, the oldest Christmas Carol still sung today. Happy Christmas from the west of Ireland 🎄

[James Dreyfus @DreyfusJames]

Unless you’ve followed or paid close attention to what @jk_rowling has been saying, extremely courteously & politely for 10 long years now, & witnessed the decade-long, non-stop onslaught of the worst possible abuse, threats, lies & slander…

UNLESS you’re 100% aware of how civilly & calmly she has conducted herself in the face of such vitriol, hatred & aggression & actively involving family members…

UNLESS you’ve watched, time & time again, men telling her to “sit down & shut up”, “control yourself, woman” or “I don’t think that’s very nice. Why can’t you just be kind & accept what we are telling you?”,
I’m really NOT convinced that it’s your f***ing place to pop up NOW & instruct her to exercise ‘basic common decency’…

SHE’S BEEN DOING THAT FOR 10 YEARS.

So, I’m sure all you bleating, barking men, out there, who’ve suddenly decided she’s “crossed a line”, you, embarrassingly, HAVEN’T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION, have you?

She’s done the whole “being kind” schtick. (For many more years than most of us would, to be honest).

Where has that got her?

TRA’s don’t CARE about that. They are going to hate her regardless. They want the hate. They crave it. Nevertheless, she continued to debate with grace & courtesy, whilst others raged at her from basements etc, worldwide.

But, to you, watching from the sidelines, now popping up like f***ing whack-a-moles, you might have failed to notice that she is out of fucks to give & has said so. Clearly.

And believe it or not, she has the unwavering gratitude & support of a HUGE (& ever-growing) number of women, girls, gay people, transsexuals, detransitioners, parents & children.

Why?

Because she took the fall for those who felt they had no voices nor a chance to say “No”.

Well, they do now. And if that bugs the heck out of you, you’ll have to find a better coping strategy. Because our voices, loudly & given strength because of her, will NEVER deny the truth & always speak up for those who are TRULY vulnerable & marginalised.

And shame on all the Q+ organisations for turning your backs on her, after all the help & financial support she gave to those with HIV. Shame on you.

Thank you again @jk_rowling for standing tall & for NOT “staying in your goddamn’d place!” ❤️

(Please RT. Account restricted. As per.)