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Updated: 10.35 pm
TRANS PEOPLE IN Ireland will now not have to rely on testimony from psychiatrists or endocrinologists to have their gender recognised by the state.
Instead, their self-declaration will be accepted, for the purpose of updating passports, driving licences, obtaining a new birth cert, and getting married.
Tánaiste Joan Burton announced this evening that the Cabinet has agreed that, under the Gender Recognition Bill currently before the Oireachtas, changes of gender will be effected by a “statutory declaration,” for those over the age of 18.
A person who transitions gender will have their preferred gender fully recognised by the State for all purposes – including the right to marry or enter a civil partnership in the preferred gender and the right to a new birth certificate.
Following today’s Cabinet decision…amendments will be made to the Bill at Committee Stage to ensure there will be no need for a supporting statement from a medical practitioner.
The Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) has applauded the change, calling it a “hugely significant move” that makes Ireland an “international leader.”
TENI’s Chair, Sara Phillips added:
This is a momentous moment. To be given the respect to self-determine our gender is true equality.For once I can believe our community are seen as full equal citizens. Today I am so proud of our country.
The medical testimony requirement had been a controversial element of the bill, with Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan describing it as “an insult to transgender people.”
A person’s gender identity is a matter for each individual. Transgender people know their own identity. They don’t need medical evaluation to prove their identity to anyone.
The requirement will, however, remain in place for those aged 16 and 17, the Tánaiste has confirmed.
The government has also dropped a section of the bill that would have forced trans people who are married to either get divorced or not have their gender transition recognised.
Minister of State Kevin Humphreys explained:
As the marriage equality referendum has been passed there is no Constitutional barrier to a person in a marriage or civil partnership having their preferred gender legally recognised.
Originally published: 8.54 pm
You know this subject has been around for so long, it’s about time. The first time I ever saw it was Hayley in coronation st, how long ago was that?
without a referendum…. not on my watch!!
Kenny, u better make sure FG votes no or else….
Richard fails to understand the purpose of a referendum
eh lads I was having a laugh
The red thumb brigade has no sense of humour!
Why would you make a joke about an important piece of legislation that affects all trans people , that this community has been fighting for. ?
Unfortunately the internet has no tone. Also this isn’t a laughing matter, it is about doing the right thing by the Trans community….Grow up lads.
You are confusing England with Ireland now, I believe but TV does that even with reality for some lol.
I should know better than to read the comments but too all the haters out there:
I am Trans. We are real people. We are not insane but our lives are made more difficult by the levels of bigotry and ignorance that is directed our way. This is not a new phenomenen and some cultures have accepted & valued us throughout history. If this issue doesn’t affect you why do you feel the need to harass and insult trans people? A little tolerance and respect would be a far more enlightened place to start from…
How can people dislike this reasoned, human and patient comment?!
What those who throw insults fail to understand is that trans people are PEOPLE. Like you or I. It’s not an us and them scenario. ‘They’ aren’t something else that are fair game to label harass and cast judgement on regarding their mental well-being. ‘They’ are have the same feelings and emotions we do, and deserve the same respect as ‘us’.
Put yourself in the shoes of a trans person for 5 minutes, you would learn a great deal.
@Luca
Unfortunately, there are people out there who don’t do change very well, they are trapped in a past time where others made choices for them and they accepted those choices. Ireland, admittedly slowly, is responding to that irrepressible demand for equality by marginalised groups. Along that bumpy road to acceptance by the morality police and the de-bunking of bigotry will be many painful, hurtful and ignorant charges made against the Trans community. Remember the comments that the Gay, Lesbian an Bi communities had to put up with during the Referendum debates?!?
Luca, stay true to yourself! I wish you love, respect and dignity in your journey!
“Put yourself in the shoes of a trans person for 5 minutes, you would learn a great deal.”
I don’t think being a woman would work for me. I’d just stay home and play with my breasts all day
People seem to think that I “want” to be female, that I “choose” my gender.
No,
They’re certainly like you Ailbhe. But speak for yourself.
I feel like a Japanese person. I demand “equality” and the governments of the world should recognise me as a 234 year old Japanese female. Also, I feel like a doctor. When can I “Dr. Lyons” start practicing?
In all seriousness, why do with give in to these ridiculous demands. IF YOU’RE BORN A MALE THEN YOU ARE STILL A MALE. Being in denial about this fact of life is fine, by all means do so, but don’t expect me to pander to this stupid and childish behaviour. Don’t expect to be allowed into the restrooms of the opposition sex. It’s ultimate stupidity and needs to be met head on.
@Tony
“don’t expect me to pander to this stupid and childish behaviour” – There is only person here coming across as stupid and childish…
This is real. We exist. We are not asking you to pander to anything, guess what though the Irish state is going to recognise us so we probably don’t need to worry too much about you.
How exactly are you going to police the toilets, you probably wouldn’t notice if a trans man was in the same toilet as you & it may have already happened. No one has ever had an issue with me using the female toilets – EVER & I use them every day. Probably if I used male toilets as you suggest I would risk abuse or worse, you might be ok with that but as long as toilets are gendered spaces I will use the one for my gender.
Tony – yes – if you are born a male then you are still a male. And if you were born transgender then you are still transgender. How difficult is it to understand?!
very difficult actually. can you be more scientific? How is somebody born transgender? Are you referrring to Hermaprodites?
I send it back, was it Dunnes or Tesco’s… lol.
No one is born wanting to wear a certain form of clothing or look, that comes from psychological reasons and trans is about copying the ideas about what makes a gender have a certain look in society. That is from fashion and therefore psychological in nature?
@John – The correct term is intersex.
To understand you need to know the differences between sex, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation. There is a lot of info out there, try google… This explains some basics:
http://www.teni.ie/page.aspx?contentid=139
@ Michael – You have no idea what trans is ‘about’ clearly, I also suggest google but have a look at previous link too. You might pick up something. Does your argument suggest that gay people are born being sexually attracted to the same sex and that this is all they are about… Not that your argument was very clear but then I didn’t get your joke either…
So if someone disagrees with you, you say they do not understand? Don’t worry Luca that joke wasn’t for you.
Believe me Michael I know a little bit about this and I will say you don’t understand if you dismiss trans people in this way. If you are educated in the basics I’ll happily have a discussion with you.
How was someone born transgender? What sort of question is that?! People are born transgender the same way people are born with red hair.
As for transgenderism being an intersex condition – there is evidence which suggests it may be so. I guess it depends on how you define “intersex”.
> trans is about copying the ideas about what makes a gender have a certain look in society.
Really?! So you know all about it?!
Trans is about nothing of the sort.
I woke up one morning and I was Denis O’Brian… whoops lol.
If no one invented a skirt, make up, gender specific hair styles etc etc would transgender people have invented them due to being born with the designs to make them???
Your idea of gender seems pretty limited there Michael, you do realise there are female to male transgender people too? Also there are genderqueer, gender non-binary, Inter gender & gender fluid people. The list is pretty endless. If we all had to conform to a stereotypical gender expression there would be uproar.
But all stereotypical gender expression comes from others and it does not exist as a biological expression otherwise fashion would be encoded into our DNA, So it is psychological?
Delighted! Finally the recognition they deserve and the right to live how they were meant to be.
Nature be damned!
Diversity *is* nature. Grey (not black-or-white) *is* nature.
Ignore “Deirdre”, don’t know what’s wrong with him.
Tony – ha ha ha ha – oh my god I’ve *never* heard that being said to me before!!!
Seriously – if you are going to attempt a 10-year-old schoolyard bully insult, then at least try and be original.
Just for all who don’t already know, Chers daughter, yes Sonny and Cher, daughter transgendered from female to male. A really courageous thing to do, he was lucky he had the parents he had.
I’m straight and have kids, and I’d like to think I would, no matter what, have complete acceptance of my kids, their kids, and the kids again, and I will. As a person , I will love mine and theirs as long as they live.
Deco… I can assure you I am me. I’m not afraid to be me, but i can tell you something, I never want to be trolled again, that was one day that I never want to do again. It is scary and awful.
So Deco, there you go.
And where did that even come from? Jeez, have we even had a debate? I know I answered you on an article, but wow you got me from the left side there.
You seem to be debating yourself there jenni.
What a joke!!!! So anybody can decide if they feel like been a man or a women.. What happens if a bloke going to prison suddenly decides he’d prefer to spend 10 years in the women’s prison,? Equality my hole
Aye cos life’s handy out for trans people everyone will want to try it.
First all men were going to run off when divorce came. Then last week they were going to marry their best buddy and now their all off for a gender change. We’re all doomed!!
Reg, a preposterous argument. The effects our recent referendum will be seen after 5 or 10 years. This gender legislation is an entirely different matter.
And there, right there is the problem. You see you and me have never had those problems, so you and me have no clue, no incling how it feels to feel that way. I wake up in the morning a woman, but there are people that don’t , and visa versa. Just because I have boobs and a bum, that does not define me (although they are nice!!). Some people do not wake up that way, and have to live a life that’s not them.
So who are we, to tell any other person who they should or should not be?
oh the other hand, what happens if a transgender woman goes to a “bloke’s” prison?
Very likely, they end up being raped. And quite likely to meet with serious violence. It’s essentially unavoidable. So you’re essentially saying that transgender women, who already have it harder than most other people deserve harsher punishments. Plus they may be in jail for criminal activity that came about as a result of the poverty that being trans can land you in(many of us are sex workers).
For some reason, our lives, our safety don’t matter. I very much doubt that a random ” bloke” will get away with saying he identifies as a woman without any prior indication, and there would be psychiatric assessments in that case.
But for that average trans person, it’s pretty obvious who we are. Yet you’d still throw us in the wrong prisons because… why?
Great news but electioneering me thinks.
Agreed, but if electioneering leads to actual positive change then I’m all for it
Yes there’s hundreds of thousands of votes to be had from the trans gender community I guess!
Considering the tiny amount of people this affects there aren’t any votes in it.
This is good news and will remove an unnecessary anxiety for many!
Trans aren’t the only people who welcome this change.
Nothing wrong with politicians actually doing what the people want for a change, regardless of their likely motivations. This is a massive step, as big in its way as marriage equality. Amazing that we’ve come so far.
This legislation has been a long long time in the making. At last good sense prevailed.. Taking the medical /mental diagnosis out of legal recognition has long been an EU policy and the Human Rights Commissioner both the present and past have called for the separation of medical from legal recognition. Frankly the nonsense on this thread is beyond belief. If some people would take the time to educate themselves around transgender issues before spouting religious clap trap the better and the less time we would waste reading ill informed rubbish
How irreverand of you. Nonetheless you are nuts I.m.h.o.
You are so brave Louise. Well done. You must be happy today. Also gregory, go away now, you are worse than smeg.
Ireland has gone to pot. I give up.
No just the Labour part of Government, they are clutching at votes , a tiny tiny amount of them , i would dare to say the catholic side of FG are recoiling inwardly at Labours desperation and looking toward their core vote falling away towards …….FF
Deco u are right but, I resent Joan Burton for thinking she can do extreme things no problem.
I agree Greg they’ve completely lost the plot.
I am trans. I am a human being. I am not an artefact of “political correctness” and I don’t deserve people to say these things the minute I’m recognised as a human being.
The majority of people commenting here have absolutely no idea what it is to be Trans. 20 years ago all the jokes were racist.10 years ago it was the turn of Gay people to be the butt of all jokes and now it seems to be Trans people who are getting attacked. No one knows the mental and physical torture trans folk go through on a daily basis. I welcome this,and so should everyone else. We as a society need to be more inclusive and look after the vulnerable people in society not marginalize them.
Thank you. It’s been one of the most ridiculously radical things I’ve had to deal with when I discovered I was transgender. https://vimeo.com/128025331
Pm, I want to be recognized as a 7 foot black man, so I can trial for a pro basketball team in USA. But of course, I’m not. So I’ll be a f*ucking adult and accept this as a fact of life, instead of making everyone call me a 7 foot black man.
That’s the most stupid comment I’ve read all day Tony.
The scenarios aren’t even remotely comparable.
Tony – do you have evidence of your status as a 7 foot black man? Have you passed the various psychiatric and psychological tests that transgender people must pass before doctors will touch us?
No?
Then STFU and stop parading your ignorance.
“It might ultimately be, in a strange twist of fate, the feminists who take down the “transgender” narrative. If they ever figure out that “transgenderism” is a direct assault on their entire worldview, maybe it will prompt a full fledged civil war in the progressive ranks.
After all, according to mainstream feminist wisdom, there is no such thing as a “female brain” or a “female soul” or “feeling like a female.” By the words of every liberal who has ever said anything on the subject of women’s rights in the past four decades, how you dress, look, think, and feel have nothing to do with your womanhood. Usually it would be offensive and sexist to accuse a woman of acting like, thinking like, or feeling like a woman.
Yet now, suddenly, emotions and looks define a woman so severely that a man can actually become one if he claims to experience feelings that he assumes are feminine?
The whole thing contradicts itself
Feminism and transgenderism say two opposing things about what it means to be a woman. In fact, feminists have come up with the term “neurosexism” to condemn the misogynistic and “pseudo-scientific” idea that male and females brains are different. But Bruce Jenner claims he has “the brain of a female,” so how does this work? Do you mean to tell me that the only people who can have female brains are males?”.
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/calling-bruce-jenner-a-woman-is-an-insult-to-women/
What?
Bruce Jenner wanted to change his name to Joan Burton is what I think he was talking about.
Pontius, I am with u. This country has lost its identity.
Arthur , that’s exactly what I thought he said too .
@Pontius. Cheers for that. Check out a new ‘trans’ trend heading our way, its called ‘Transabled’. The belief that one is a disabled person trapped in an able bodied body. You can imagine the grim ‘solution’ to such a dilemma.
Jenni, you’re right. The level of comment and lack of humanity in this thread is brutal. Why the hell can’t people just leave each other alone to be what they want?
@ David…I still can’t figure out the whole tranny thing. If I were born with all the internal female bits, and for some unknown reason my brain tells me I am a man. Sounds to me like the problem lies somewhere in my brain, how does getting rid of ALL the female bits ( a cost to the taxpayer of a small fortune) help or am I missing something! I also wonder what the ratio of women who think they are men to men who think they are women.
You’re missing a whole lot there, Bill!
It does deconstruct itself somewhat. But it looks like with a stroke of a pen any kind of logical analysis is off the table, and now it’s entirely about one’s own personal feelings.
I think a majority of people could understand – or could be led to understand – that some men are born without a Y chromosome or whatever, and that’s fine and there’s some science behind it. But it looks like believing oneself to be of the opposite sex internally is something that can never under any circumstances be considered a false belief, which is unique given the range of things people falsely believe about themselves.
As a transgender feminist, I can say you’re making the same mistake trans-excluding radical feminists (“TERFs”) are doing.
Gender roles aren’t the same thing as gender identity. Feminists fight for the abolishment of gender roles – ie I should be allowed to wear blue and have a job that deals with computer programming as a woman. And a man should be allowed to wear pink and work in the health industry.
A woman who’s into programming is still a woman, since she is a woman. Being into programming (breaking the female gender role) does not make her less of a woman. A man is not less of a man because he prefers being with friends during the weekends than working on his car. Etc.
Clearly gender role and gender identity are not the same thing. Trans issues deal with gender identity, not gender roles. In many ways, I don’t think I’ve ever been as “masculine” as I am today. I simply am a lot more confident now and don’t feel the need to make excuses for who I am. So what if I’m not wearing a dress today? Who cares, right? =)
@ Emma…you seem to miss MY point, it seems to me the “problem” lies within your brain not your innards. Perhaps much recearch need to be don’t the brain to see why one may be internally a female but the head “feels” you are a guy
This definitely would have happened if Fine Gael had a overall majority in Government. . .
Thanks to the Labour Party my Trans friends can finally get the legal recognition they deserve.
It would not have , stop it , FG are a right wing catholic riven party ,they will team up with FF in the next election to keep out the left .
Labour have been shafted by their greed for power and played into FG/FF hands .
Yep, I agree with you Deco that the next government will be FG and FF, however they cant team up, unless they have a majority, which will be determined by the Irish electorate. FG and FF are in the middle, neither left or right. A catholic party would not have supported same sex marriage!
If Labour felt they were being shafted, then pull out of government.
Thanks to the Labour Party?!
I listened to the debate in the Seanad. There was cross-party support for the kinds of changes to the legislation which have just been announced. And it was the Labour minister who shot them all down.
Is this another of those Rainbow things?
It’s a human thing.
Election thing for labour
Tommy , the articles haven’t been great for you over the last week have they ?
God decides who will be man and woman. End of.
Actually I think it’s something to do with x and Y chromosomes!
Same thing reg. Look at the Universe and all its creatures. Now u tell me where did they come from?
Evolution and cumulative selection. Tell me why God put an appendix in us if it does nothing but randomly blow up and kill us
They came from millions of years of evolution. You don’t believe that some magic fairy just clicked their fingers do you?
The creator and eternal father of the entire universe looks exactly like me. How wonderfully convenient.
This is Extreme.
Diarmuid, millions of creatures in the Universe, a complexity beyond our comprehension and u talk about an appendix? Quite frankly a ridiculuous argument. I shall desist now, this discussion is beyond ludicrous.
Ludicrous yes, but probably not for the reason you believe.
”Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon — it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory.” S.D. Weitzenhoffer
Certainly is beyond ludicrous, Gregory, especially if you state there are millions of creatures in the ‘Universe’; NASA want you to contact them!
Reg – oh yes he does!
are you god now gregory?
George Hogan
Sounds like you have been listening to the faryies all your life, when is ET landing ?
Diarmaid.. I will answer the appendix question with a question. Why did God create us if we are going to die anyway? At the end it’s your soul that matters. Make it pure.
The same place as cancer in children.
I think tomorrow i will shower with the girls
I should also add that those between 16 – 18 are still very restricted in how they become legally recognised by the State and those under 16 also need to have some changes made particularly around schooling. Being allowed to be yourself in whatever way a trans person feels comfortable has proven to be one of the most effective ways of promoting financial and educational achievement. It will allow our suicide rates to drop with social stigma being removed. Is that not what we all want in a progressive Ireland?
Yeah but transgender minors can still access medical treatment and be prescribed hormone blockers. There would also be legal challenges and complications by allowing under 18s to legally change their gender by self-determination due to the fact that they’re minors and can’t legally give consent.
> Yeah but transgender minors can still access medical treatment
Oh noes! You mean the medical system is available to *transgender* young people too?!
> prescribed hormone blockers.
Just as they may be prescribed antibiotics if they have a severe infection.
Hormone blockers delay the onset of puberty. If the young person is, indeed, transgender, then it is medically far far better for them to spend some time on hormone blockers than to try and reverse some of the effects of a puberty that is “wrong” for them.
> allowing under 18s to legally change their gender by self-determination due to the fact that they’re minors and can’t legally give consent.
And what harm? So what if an under 18 changes their legal gender, and subsequently needs to change it back? They will have grown up, will have learned a lot from the experience, and will be a better person for it.
Delete my comments?
If you are born a male, you are a male. There is no getting away from this simple fact. I believe the birth certificate says “sex” not “gender” and fortunately your sex is something that you cannot get away from no matter how many screws are loose.
Welcome to the new Ireland Dong. Any airy fairy nonsense is ok now. Women marry women. 2 men can raise kids. Now a man can become a woman ! You couldn’t make this up. What’s next ?
it’s not a “simple fact”
are you a biologist? are you a psychologist? neurologist? no?
you are none of these things. you literally have the most simplistic understanding of biology and are using that against us, even when science is moving more and more away from simplistic classifications.
This new Ireland looks bright and peachy. Shame about the stains like Tony Kilduff intent on ruining it for the rest of us!
Whatever you’re into Guy….
And if you’re born intersex and they can’t determine your sex. There are people born with ambiguous genitalia, women with XY chromosomes and men with XXY. Sex isn’t that black and white. Also, transgender people never claim they’re changing their sex. They’re chasing their gender. And yes they are two different things for your information.
Psychiatrists and sexologists who are critical of the practice are targeted too. Transgender activism was successful in gaining thecancellation of a London conference entitled Transgender: Time for Change, organised by the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ lesbian and gay special interest group for May 2011. When, in 2003, US sexologist Michael Bailey published a book, The Man Who Would Be Queen, which argued that transgenderism was a practice based on sexual fetishism, he became subject to a campaign of vilification, which included placing photographs of his children on a website with insulting captions. The effect is to scare off any researchers from touching the topic.
There are many aspects of the practice which bear investigation, including the history and social construction of the idea of transgenderism, the recent increased identification of children as transgender, the phenomenon of transgender regrets, that is those persons who consider they have made a mistake. Given that the drug and surgical treatments have now been normalised and are increasingly embarked upon by young lesbians and sought out by parents for young children, it is most important that the rights of researchers and theorists to comment and investigate should be protected.
Instead, they are subjected to determined campaigns of bullying, intimidation and attempts to shut them down.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/29/transgenderism-hate-speech
Okay so, looks like Society has gone bonkers.
Transgender people are subject to determined campaigns of bullying, intimidations and attempts to shut them down – refuse them help and treatment.
What you’re talking about is not remotely in step with the standards of care for trans people – it’s down to a few ideologues like Bailey and Blanchard pushing their pet theories.
Imagine the same headline reading – “We should be free to debate homosexuality”.
Leighanna Rose Walsh
“Transgender people are subject to determined campaigns of bullying, intimidations and attempts to shut them down”
Only in your imagination, most people could not care less, as is their right, there is no campaign against you because no one wants to be aware of your problems.
Gerard,
No-one wants to be aware of your problems. Thankfully Leighanna and I have tons of people who love us and who want to be aware of ours.
Some of those problems include being shouted at across the street by strangers when going for groceries, having to constantly correct people when they use what are obviously the wrong pronouns and suffer the identity-denying consequences of that, a murder rate 17 times higher than what you experience, etc…
But *you* don’t care. I’m guessing you only care about *your* problems. And if that’s the case, then I fear you will quickly find yourself to be the only one who does so.
Deirdre
Your damned right, we all have our own problems that we deal with, if you need a shoulder to cry on, get one of your friends. Speaking for myself, I really couldn’t care less what gays or tranny’s get up to but, I don’t want to be inundated with non news about their lives and needs, there are bigger problems out there that affect more people, thank god when this fetish passes, I know it is important to you, please give the rest of us a rest from it, we are not trannys and could not give a $hit about it.
Gerard – if you truly don’t give a damn, then why do you feel the need to spend time reading this article, and more time writing insults?
You *do* care – though you “care” in the sense that you seem to find me to be some sort of threat.
This country has completely lost its way and is now an embarrassment! !
Yes, we are making a laughing stock of ourselves.
Yeah, the reaction around the world when the same-sex marriage ref passed was really embarrassing for us. Exactly what is this ‘way’ that you feel we have lost?
“It was not just the Johns Hopkins clinic reporting lack of outcomes from surgery. Around the same time, serious questions about the effectiveness of gender change came from Dr. Harry Benjamin’s partner, endocrinologist Charles Ihlenfeld.
Ihlenfeld worked with Benjamin for six years and administered sex hormones to 500 transsexuals. Ihlenfeld shocked Benjamin by publicly announcing that 80 percent of the people who want to change their gender shouldn’t do it. Ihlenfeld said: “There is too much unhappiness among people who have had the surgery…Too many end in suicide.” Ihlenfeld stopped administering hormones to patients experiencing gender dysphoria and switched specialties from endocrinology to psychiatry so he could offer such patients the kind of help he thought they really needed.
In the wake of the Hopkins study, the closure of the flagship Hopkins clinic, and the warning sounded by Ihlenfeld, advocates of sex change surgery needed a new strategy ”
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/04/14905/
You left out the head of the so called research you are quoting was an advisor to George Bush, justifying torture, invading Iraq and preventative bombing. Also Mc hugh is a member of the Knights of Malta. Great source to quote if a bigot.
The Hopkins clinic is well known for it’s problematic approach to transgender issues.
Almost every other study says the exact opposite thing.
Can’t get my head around it but live and let live we all do that better for everyone
This *might* help if you are interested – https://vimeo.com/128025331
And there are *plenty* of other similar resources out there.
Try using that excuse with rapists??? Just proving a point about that remark?
Comparing transgender people with rapists? Rather unoriginal of you TBH.
TBH? No I wasn’t, I was proving that a statement of his can not be used to excuse everything.
And how is a statement “live and let live” excuse rape, given that rape is about taking control of another’s life?
It is *your* analogy that is wrong, not bmul’s
I wanna become a sheep
You certainly have the requisite behaviour traits!
Good f@uk who or what has taken over this country?
Walt Heyer is perhaps the most active among the survivors out there, and possibly the most vilified by transgender activists. He is a clear-eyed and gentle man, now in his 70s, who had sex reassignment surgery and lived as a woman for many years. Because of the devastation sown by the gender confusion, Heyer offers information and support in blogs called sexchangeregret.com andtransdetransition.
Heyer has also authored three relevant books: “Paper Genders,” “Gender, Lies and Suicide,” and “Trading My Sorrows” that provide resources to understand the destructive effects of gender confusion. He cites, for example, a national survey of more than 6,500 transgenders that asked the question, “Have you tried to commit suicide?” Forty-one percent answered, “Yes.” One need look no further for compelling evidence of widespread transgender and sex change regret.
A Bit of Honesty from Sweden
A Swedish study from 2003 found that post-operative mortality and suicide rates for transsexuals are many times higher than the general population. And that’s in Sweden, probably the friendliest environment on the planet for transgender individuals.
He explains how he cried and would have likely changed his mind if the doctor simply asked him just before the surgery if he was certain about it.
Also out of Sweden is a 2010 documentary entitled “Regretters” in which two older Swedish men who each lived as a woman for many years decided to go back to their male selves. http://thefederalist.com/2014/11
The regret rate for SRS is actually less than 3%, which is amazingly low for any such procedure.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/becoming-transsexual-getting-facts-sex-reassignment-surgery-309584
It’s also worth keeping in mind that the “regret” is often associated with others aspects of the surgery – it as a very harsh and painful recovery period, and some people just aren’t happy with the results.
The reason attempted suicide rates are so high is because of societal attitude towards transgender people, as well as dysphoria. It’s extremely disingenuous to connect SRS, which most of us don’t even have these days, with suicide. A lot of suicide is in fact associated with Gatekeeping – people being kept far too long for treatments and surgeries, rather than having them in the first place.
Less than 0.1% in the most specialised centres. Some people with psychological or psychiatric disease can be misidentified as trans & transition before realising. This is why a multidisciplinary team assessment is needed pre-transition. Not because being trans is a disease, but because some people can be misidentified. Cases of regret are devastating for the individuals involved, but their existence does not mean trans people do not exist & should not be used as some kind of argument against trans rights
If you want to see why we must strive for more equality in LG,B,T, & I issues just look at these comments less than a fortnight after our historic marriage equality vote. We put people’s civil rights to a vote as our constitution demanded it, a necessary evil I accept, we won but as folk are so proudly in the dark in relation to trans rights and the need for those people to transition (Its not a joke why would you change gender for the craic!), there is more to do in terms of equality, much much more.
I don’t see how the two things are related and apparently neither do many others .
I think ts fair enough l g b t i fall under that umbrella term since all are, have to to some degree oppressed and it refers to anyone not heterosexual. Also its not as though homophobia was eradicated by the recent vote, there will be red thumbs on all lgbt issues for those who simply WON’T accept one aspect of who others are?
Is this another world first?
Argentina has a very similar rule of self recognised gender.
I’d say Argentina has better looking t-girls.That one in the second picture just isn’t even trying.
…and I just scrolled up to see what you were talking about.
Wont be long before hetros are marginalised and alienated by rampaging gay mobs in Ireland.
down with cis
Lol ! The Rainbow warriors ??
Dr Caillean McMahon, a US-based forensic psychiatrist, defines herself not as a transsexual but as a “woman of operative history. The trans community has an unforgiving global sort of condemnation towards critical outsiders. I have to be suspicious that the insistence of many of those demanding to enter it is not for the purpose of celebrating the spirit and nature of women, but to seek an enforced validation, extracted by force in a legal or political manner.” With the normalisation of transsexual surgery comes an acceptance of other forms of surgery to correct a mental disorder. In 2000, Russell Reid, a psychiatrist who has diagnosed hundreds of people with GD, was involved in controversy over the condition known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), where sufferers can experience a desperate urge to rid themselves of a limb. Reid referred two BDD patients to a surgeon for leg amputations. “When I first heard of people wanting amputations, it seemed bizarre in the extreme,” he said in a TV documentary. “But then I thought, ‘I see transsexuals and they want healthy parts of their body removed in order to adjust to their idealised body image,’ and so I think that was the connection for me. I saw that people wanted to have their limbs off with equally as much degree of obsession and need.” http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2298/full
David: your clearly misunderstand the point here. You are confusing opinion with facts & applying information pertaining to specific cases or situations to an entire community.
The Irish people have started to embrace the 21st century, monitory groups have found their voices and realised it is strong, Equality was hard fought for and hard won, this will make a difference in so many people’s lives, the struggle continues but it’s working, xx I’m just a little bit more in love with our country right now!!!! Now to push for an amendment of the 8th !!!! Autonomy and choice is a human right !!!!
The sooner legislation to change sex in Ireland, is enacted, the better.
Pc brigade at the journal deleting again! !
Will the government be subsidising strapadichtmy’s
No a goat
No a lamb
Feck I know I needs nuts
That’s nuts ;p
I fully support this. I’m just curious about the new process of state recognition – if it’s a no-questions asked, and not doctor cert, isn’t it open to wild abuse by everyday fraudsters and pranksters?
I invite you to think about that for a second – how would it be a good move for a fraudster or prankster going through the months-long process of changing their legal gender(*) after making a legal declaration that they are going to live in that gender for the rest of their lives, especially if they don’t have the benefit of hormone treatment or surgery to help them “pass” in the gender in question.
They might as well paint a big sign on their heads!
(*) When you do your change of name by deed poll, you are required by law to tell everyone you do business with that you have changed your name. The reason is quite simple – once you change your name, you are no longer permitted to use your old name in business transactions, and so you need to ensure that you are never given anything to sign in your old name. This process can take months.
Gender Quotas solved for GE. Nice thinking outside the box.
Does this count for Non-Binary people too? i really want to change my legal documents to gender: x for neutral identification but I am not sure if this counts for us too.
A plum is a plum because its DNA made it a plum, an apple is an apple because it is an apple, an orange is an orange because it is an orange…
When has DNA needed a psychiatrist???
So I guess if I “feel” like I’m a woman I can also use the women’s toilet’s and changing rooms? And if I want to compete in women’s sporting events I should be allowed to do that too?
This is a ridiculous and ill thought out law that will bring definite legal issues with it. It completely ignores reason and biological facts. No amount of “declaring” that you’re the opposite sex will make it so. You’re either male or female.
All these changes will be a great boost to tourism in Ireland
Sex tourism?
Tourism? Yeah. Cos there are just loads of people who are lining up to visit Ireland because they want to have a pint in the George and Panti Bar.
“This is a momentous moment. To be given the respect to self-determine our gender is true equality. For once I can believe our community are seen as full equal citizens. Today I am so proud of our country.”
You think Joan said this due to the picture lol.
I still want to marry my dog whoof whoof lol.
I didnt really want to add a comment when I read the silliness below from some however this is such a serious issue with sometimes drastic consequences in people’s lives….so today I’m proud. Proud that we are doing the right thing. Thank you Joan Burton. Niamh Gort Co. Galway.
The jaw was a giveaway, like Desperate Dan’s… in my view.
have your say