LGB Alliance Ireland and Ireland’s New TERF Wars

Few could have ignored the sanguinary factional dispute among Irish progressives during the past few weeks over the apparent emergence of liberal TERF groups dedicated to overthrowing Ireland’s inordinately lax transgender laws. Not ones to take political dissonance lightly, the Left has been responding to these groups with the same childlike insolence that they treat even the slightest moves on questioning the sacred cows around migration by affiliates of the nationalist Right.

To recap, beginning since this summer, Ireland has seen two TERF groups (essentially liberal feminists who oppose transgender ideology) emerge from the woodwork, much to the disgust of our progressive NGO garrison class and hangers on.

The two groups in question are ‘The Countess Didn’t Fight For This‘ and ‘LGB Ireland‘ both seeking the removal of the Gender Relations Act of 2015, and a rollback on some of the excesses of the transgender lobby in Ireland around language, prisons and childhood gender transitions.

While unbeknownst to most of the public, the passing of the Gender Relations Act resulted in Ireland legislating for arguably the world’s most liberal transgender laws; allowing those over the age of 18 to pursue gender transitions without a prerequisite medical assessment. For children seeking to transition, they still must pursue a token medical check, with moves underway to streamline the process for under-16s. 

Following the expected baptism of fire on Twitter, invective commentary against Ireland’s new TERF lobby moved to print. The Irish Independent’s Emma Kelly scorned the LGB Alliance for transphobia, and for simply being a branch of an imported British organisation seeking to transplant the controversy here. Rather mercifully, the Indo approved a right of reply, with Ceri Black, a spokeswoman for the Alliance, defending their corner.

Perhaps Kelly would like to remind herself that pro-transgender activism isn’t exactly native to us Gaels. The various pro-trans organisations astroturfed here are largely funded through corporate charity in the form of tax write-offs, and that the Irish trans lobby is a part of a wider global effort to push for transgender legislation.

Similarly the UK-based LGBT website ‘Pink News‘ pushed a similar line, lacking a certain degree of self-awareness to its own origins with GCN, the masthead publication for Ireland’s LGBT Mafia community questioning some of the group’s claims. Unsurprisingly Ireland’s embattled TERFs came under fire from the country’s fatcat Trans lobby with Noah Halpin and others leading the charge.

Prior to this Ireland’s trans lobby has not been without its criticisms, from loopholes in the legislation that have allowed male-to-female identifying sexual predators into female prisons, to question marks over the funding and accounting methods of certain prominent trans NGOs.

In October, prison officers demanded clarification on protocols to do with transgender prisoners due to the habit of prisoners suddenly identifying as female before they are searched. Similarly, the conservative publication Gript has incurred the legal wrath of TUSLA, and aspects of the trans lobby, for their highlighting of a rather problematic fiasco relating to Ireland’s lenient rules of self-identification.

To an outside observer it would appear the wheels are slowly but surely coming off the global transgender agenda, with Ireland merely playing catch up. Historians may note that the pursuit of reckless legislation and intimidatory tactics towards opponents in the public sphere was a bridge too far even for some liberals.

While commanding the high ground in the Oireachtas and online, transgender activists in Ireland lead a rather charmed life. They are buoyed through the medium of monied lobby groups and protected by the cultural purchase accumulated by the broader LGBT movement over the past few decades. Regardless, their political avarice and incautious attitude towards attaining their goals will be their downfall.

The price Ireland and the rest of the Western world will pay for humouring such a lobby will be the ghastly spectre of sterilised individuals. Many of them will be children, and many will detransition following botched transitions; a tragedy which we will see play out on our streets and in our suicide statistics. 

Many cultural conservatives were willing to let homosexuality slide, however the effective grooming of vulnerable children towards gender transitioning, and the resulting hardship, will do irreparable damage to the trans cause by the end of this decade.

Instead of apprehending that a mistake has been made, the trans lobby fixates on destroying professionally those brave enough to stand up to the state-sanctioned mania. While perhaps not of the same political flavour of many reading this publication, kudos must go to those aiming to combat Ireland’s vicious trans lobby and their many appendages.

For rightists, the spat has a certain degree of importance in observing how alienated certain quarters of liberalism have become with the rapid social change of the past decade. Eventually, and regrettably after much suffering and trauma, the trans lobby will be held accountable for the harm they have caused our society. The past month’s schism is perhaps a small but important step towards proper accountability.

Images from Twitter used for reporting purposes