@Alternative for Ireland: What, of course, you failed to mention is that post-transition, the attempted suicide rate drops to “normal” levels. And whatever about “left leaning lobby groups”, our evolving scientific understanding of gender and the myriad of ways momma nature has of mucking with it played a massive part in the removal of gender identity disorder from the mental health handbooks.

It isn’t enough for right leaning groups that the Government gets control over women’s bodies – such groups also want the Government to have control over the genitals of some young people.

@Alternative for Ireland: you do know gay people were once seen as mentally ill, they were also seen as criminals for simply being them.

You are your twisted “political party” would keep it that way if you could

@Mjhint: No, homosexual men and women are as battle effective as the heterosexual soldier.

@Alternative for Ireland: and as for your follow-up with yet more fake facts. In Ireland, most male-to-female transgender people on HRT apply a patch (much like a smoker’s patch) twice a week. Most of the rest take pills. And as for dilation – the further removed you are from surgery the less often you are required to dilate. Such a “wound” takes months to close fully after it has established itself.

@Alternative for Ireland: no atheists in foxholes either? Im lucky enough to know of people who are both gay & atheists & they have done several tours of Iraq & one was a woman. I’m not going to take your word for it.

@Mjhint: Please enlighten us on his issues with transgender community that you have accused him of, his comments make perfect sense, unlike yours which is just accusing someone without proof?

@Mjhint: Huh? Who said I have a problem with gays, women or atheists?
You just made that up.

@Alternative for Ireland: you suggested gay people are less battle effective & that comes from the same camp in US military that says no atheists in foxholes all proven wrong.

@Deirdre O’Byrne: whats your source that says suicide rates drop to “normal” levels post-transition? Would love to read that article

@Mjhint: No I didn’t. Read my comment again.

@Cryptoalcho: do you not know how to use google? I can “hold your hand” if you don’t.

@Deirdre O’Byrne: The papers I have read show that while there is a significant drop it is still much more than on average. It also says that transgender people are much more likely to attempt suicide during the process of transitioning.

Additionally 58% of transgenders report an additional mental illness other than Gender Dysphoria.

I don’t agree with the “new science” that says gender is a spectrum and we can identify as attack helicopters if we so choose.

@Alternative for Ireland:
“Scientist fact”
Really?
The reason for it’s removal from the DSM as a mental illness is because just like homosexuality it does not and never did meet the criteria to be considered a mental illness in the first place.
It would never have been clarified as a mental illness in the first place if it weren’t for right wing ideology. An ideology that refuses to make educated informed decision in favor of assuming that your own asumtions are are fact.
Every single credible scientist peer review study on the poor mental health and high rates off suicide within the LGBT community has proven to be a direct result of people like you and propaganda bull s**t you impose on them.
Your proposals don’t solve the poblem they are part of the the problem.

@Alternative for Ireland: Oh you are back. You haven’t skulked onto the forums in weeks. There is no point arguing with alternative for Ireland lads. I have read their website and the stuff they share on Twitter. They are an actual full on facist party.

@Alternative for Ireland:
You don’t agree with science????
Well that speaks volumes. Typically of right wing ideology their assumptions are correct and too hell with scientific facts.

@James Joseph: Thank you James. I was about to write exactly the same about (some of the) causal factors relating to suicide rates.
May I suggest, to Alternative and the others who agree with him, that you watch The Imitation Game to see what being told, and in Alan Turing’s case, convicted of being unnatural (in the eyes of some). I only found out yesterday that Tchaikovsky was gay and having been through a failed marriage to hide it, attempted suicide.

@Felicity Hensen: The attempts by some to paint me as a homophobe when you have no such evidence is very telling.

I have no issue with gay people serving in the military or gay people in general. If you have evidence to the contrary please share it.

@Edmund Murphy: Sorry Edmund what facist policies did you read from our website?

@Alternative for Ireland: I was not painting you as a homophobe, my suggestion was to see the consequences of telling someone they are unnatural and, in the case of the law, chemically castrating them so they would become ‘normal’. That attitude causes far more harm than supporting the person.

@Alternative for Ireland: yeah well I can find papers which say the earth is flat. What is clear from the real papers is that the latter papers show much better outcomes for transgender people (not “transgenders” – transgender is an adjective, not a noun) than the earlier papers. Which suggests that as society evolves to have a more humane approach to transgender people, the outcomes for transgender people becomes better.

What the real papers also show that the vast majority of mental issues experienced by transgender people originate with society’s attitudes and the attitudes of those close to them.

Please provide a reference to the kind of “papers” you are consulting which say we can identify as attack helicopters. The best I can find is 4chan! I think we are clearly using different “papers”! And do you have an observation which is unaddressed by these papers which is the basis of your rejection of the science?

You’ve gotten into an argument above about whether you have a “problem” with gays, women or atheists. I’m guessing you’ve realised that you’ve lost the arguments against gays, women and atheists, and won’t get any support if you argue against them. (Though I’m also guessing that you still hold out hope that you might still win against them!). You’ve decided instead to focus on the genitals of some young people, and the rights of the adults they grow into, as I suspect you believe you still have a chance of winning there. So why don’t you spell it out? What does Alternative for Ireland have in your manifesto for the genitals of young transgender people and the rights of the adults they grow into?

@Alternative for Ireland: From their section on education “With regards to third-level education, we will conduct a review into third level institutions which are corrupting our young people’s minds with morally bankrupt and irrelevant doctrine” could not have been written better by Mussolini him self. For balance the next line in their paragraph was “We will refuse to aid any institution which does not treat all our citizens equally regardless of their race, creed or political opinion.” But how can you treat political opinion equally and yet you are sure what’s already being thought is corrupting and morally bankrupt. Facists are always contradicting them selves though as it’s the doctrine of the shallow and the scared.

@Edmund Murphy: Thanks for that. What we talk about with regards to third level education is the teaching of so-called ‘privilege’ as being the marker of whether you get ahead or not. It’s no secret that our universities have a significant liberal bias, one that says a white male has no right to succeed where a person of colour can’t. We believe that colour, religion and ethnicity should never decide your outcome. It should be hard work and talent.

During the abortion referendum Christians were prevented from accessing Trinity college to demonstrate against abortion and were in fact hounded off campus.

If the protection of life, equal outcome for equal work, non discrimination and free speech is fascism then I really don’t know anymore.

@James Joseph: science changes all the time, what wud be ur position if 2moro scientists declare that transgenderism is a mental illness??

@Vote4Pedro:
That is a bit like asking me what would be my position if tomorrow scientist declared that being male is a mental illness.
There is not now, nor never was any credible evidence to justify transgenderism to be classed as a mental illness. Right wing assumptions are the only reason that transgenderism just like homosexuality were ever classed as a mental illness. There was never any scientific evidence to support their classification as mental illness.

@Cryptoalcho: They don’t, suicide levels remain around the same.

@Alternative for Ireland: We also used to categorise healthy women as mentally ill and lobotomise them.

You can’t refer back to last centuries psychology and present it as fact, that’s hilariously ignorant. There’s a reason it’s outdated.

Being more emotionally vulnerable does not equate to mental illness, so suicide figures are irrelevant. Being transgender your life is going to be immeasurably more difficult and confusing.

Being a Doctor you are 80% more likely to commit suicide. So being a doctor is a mental illness? Or maybe they have a more stressful life.

Correlation does not imply causation. That’s the argument of a moron sorry

@Alternative for Ireland: you are correct I misread your comment & wish to apologise for my error. please accept it.

@Deirdre O’Byrne: No. The suicide rate remains at 40%.

The operations deliver no change.

Please, let’s not condemn our fellow humans to false statistics that will continue to KILL them?

@Alternative for Ireland: agree. I “believe” the earth is flat as a pancake. I know this for certain because i refuse to look at any evidence to the contrary.

@Rian O’Ceallaigh: he’s banning post operative trans people. Not trans people not planning to undergo surgery. They are prone to infections the average person is not, especially M>F trans people, who have to dilate the hole created as a vagina regularly to stop the body healing the hole, which is extremely prone to infection if done in unsanitary conditions, like most of the military would be in. They have to regularly take hormones to stop the body reverting to its natural state. I can list more potential problems that would be a headache on the field if you like

@Chris Crockford: refer to my above post. Also, it’s nothing to do with costs. It’s everything to do with the health risks post trans people carry in their day to day lives, alongside the mental health risk from pumping hormones into your body to stop it reverting to its natural state.

@Sean Murphy: as I said above, the further removed you are from surgery the less often you are required to dilate. A “hole” that has properly established itself takes *months* to close. Enough with the fake facts!

@Sean Murphy: Ok. (This isn’t a rhetorical question): Is there no case in which a post-operative trans person would be fit for military service, particularly those who transcend from female to male?

@Rian O’Ceallaigh: no he’s not. Read the article again.

@Mairtin Antaine O Conaill: Maybe read my above comment where I acknowledge Seán’s comment.

@Sean Murphy: at least they’re willing to fight unlike cadet bonespurs.

@Marianne: Yet again another group of Americans that this sicko is not the president of.

@Paul Furey: Even Transgenders who are republicans and voted for Trump? Since when did you become their spokesperson?

@Luke Lee: Worst troll and stalker ever. Yawn.

@Marianne: trumps a disgraceful person.

@Dave Thomas: Well, he’s President, and you’re not.

Go for it, since you know better!

@pearse: God you’re ignorant.

@Rebecca De Stanleigh: not really. I’d rather go hand to hand combat against a pack of trannys then against a squad of seasoned soldiers. Is that a little hard to understand ???

@Rebecca De Stanleigh: is that an English name Rebecca. Maybe you should start up an English transvestite platoon. I’m sure when the enemy are finished laughing they will let you girls off to fix your make up and go out for a night of bingo.

@Mark Gaffney: I don’t agree with anythinghe does.. But I agree with this.. FFS.

@Mark: but they are equal and superheros now? I am sure a lot of guys wouldn’t be happy about being drafted.

@Dave Dublin: You appear to forget that women went through hell trying to be allowed join the military services.

@Dave O’Keeffe: Disgusting. Try going to war yourself, before judging.

@pearse: ” trump pays his own vacation costs” He does and his H0le.. you think he pays for the security and logistics needed to airlift him to mara lago every weekend??