Read on Twitter
It’s odd trying to convince strangers on Twitter that the human rights I’ve taken for granted all my life are needed and were put in place for valid reasons. It’s even odder that the Director of Amnesty has blocked me for doing so.
It’s a dereliction of the social contract that I, and many other Irish people, have to spend time and energy trying to save our hard won rights from being dismantled. I feel let down by the society I’ve contributed to all my life.
It lets me know how fragile my rights are, how precarious my standing is, how little it matters what my concerns might be. When Self ID was introduced in Ireland in 2015, no one thought about the impact it would have on women’s rights.
Or maybe they thought it wouldn’t matter. Or maybe they just didn’t care. The realisation that it is possible to dismantle my rights with the stroke of a pen, with no rigorous risk assessments or checks and balances, is disconcerting.
There was no consultation with women’s groups about introducing a law that now allows any man to self ID as a woman simply by filling out a form, with no medical intervention required. He is then legally recognised as a woman and must be treated accordingly.
Women now have to try to reverse the GRA, to raise awareness of the dangers, to try to prevent any more detrimental laws from being passed. The Hate Crime Bill proposes that women be criminally charged if they misgender a man who Self IDs as a woman.
This is not a nice position to find myself in. Knowing that my rights are up for negotiation, without my being represented at the discussion. It’s a betrayal. My trust has been damaged. I have lost faith in my public representatives.
It must be nice to know your rights are fixed. That they will always be maintained, consistent, and your needs will be catered to. That you won’t be subject to the whims of whatever zeitgeist happens to blow through the public consciousness.
Maybe it’s how Irish peasants felt in 1798. Disenfranchised. Disregarded. Dismissed. Second class. Less than. I never guessed that my countrymen felt the same way about me - til I saw the apathy over the dismantling of my rights in law.
