Women's rights under attack

I linked the document from the ironically titled Integrity Project in the thread you started about the Cass review. Imagine if there was a device you could carry in your hand and look up stuff that you don't know....

That's all really well put - no doubt some will see you as a hate-filled bigot.

It's been a really weird experience for me over the last several years to see how rational discussion gets shut down in many areas if you divert from the orthodoxy, or more accurately if you divert from accepted opinions. It's an Orwellian world where facts don't matter, and the # bekind crowd resort to name calling and ad hominem attacks rather than presenting rational arguments. It's like the worst kind of religious belief.

What facts were misrepresented in the article?

Thank you for that very nice post. Indeed . Very flattering ( treating with caution ;) )

Indeed I have not been getting notifications here lately never mind the quote post not working as it should ! Hopefully today …

Yes I do agree we need to talk about the issue of transgender .

My problem is this thread being completely overtaken with an issue , that while present to a small extent and even tinier number of people , is not worthy of the pages and pages of discussion on a thread about women rights when we as women are facing so many retrograde and divisive attacks .

The discussion appears to be led by some people who are very conservative and are happy to separate or divide women into those who are "gender critical " = good , and those who are supportive of transgender = bad ? Is that a coincidence that those on the right would rather women fight among themselves ?

I would fall on the side of the latter group and as a person who has not only always stood up for the rights and safety of other women, but also all vulnerable people , am not going to stand by and let somebody else call me or my beliefs cruel or unfeeling because I do not support the views of a tiny minority who imo hold offensive views towards an even smaller but vulnerable minority .

As to your examples ...John McGahern along with many others from that time were of course wrongly removed from their jobs looking through the lens not just of our time but through the eyes of many people of the day , but it was a different Ireland run by the Catholic Church then . And not Ireland present day . Not an example as asked for but anyway I suppose its hard to find people like that now .

Stella O Malley is a discredited psychoanalyst and is not given a platform to spout her anti trans views by the main professional body , IACP . She is working away however as an independent counselor psychotherapist and blogging speaking and writing for all her anti trans ideology groups . So not an example either of someone losing their job or livelihood .

"In August 2025, the Irish Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy published a piece in which they criticised O'Malley and Genspect as holding an "anti-trans stance" and wanting to marginalise trans people, saying that psychotherapists needed to be alert to disinformation. In response, O'Malley initiated a legal case against them and the writer of the article for defamation."

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/stella-omalley-files-defamation-case-against-professional-association-and-fellow-psychotherapist-over-article-on-trans-healthcare/a1287081770.html

Professional bodies among other organizations are allowed to have a mission or ethos as part of their registration and by not working in support of this a person can be deregistered .

You could have given Enoch Burke and siblings as examples . They certainly have nade themselves obvious . I wonder that you didn't ?

Yes, women who have had any attack or violence on their lives feel anxiety over the presence of men in their immediate space and that is defensive for good reason … safety , survival , protection of their children and family .

We all should have sympathy for any woman who has been attacked and has a very real fear of men as a result . Of course they should be protected , and all people dealing with them should be aware and sensitive to their need to feel safe and be in a cis female only space if they want . That is not something that is in question here at all , nor in my view should it be . By saying so is to invent a strawman .

Not every man should be seen as a threat and counselling post rape or violent domestic trauma is geared towards acceptance of that reality . Otherwise people would never be able to go back to living in the world, ever . Indeed some women don't , despite counselling , and no one can blame them .

They have a very real deep seated fear which is understandable in their situation .

I, like other women tend not to walk or run at night alone , and would be aware when the last bus is going and who I am getting into a car with These are learned defenses because of awful things that have happened to women in general .

But I also have had positive interactions in my daily life and work , both with men , women and people who express themselves as neither or both .

So the defense systems we use every day to protect ourselves are learned behaviours from a very real rational fear of being attacked or worse .

But it is not rational to bring that fear to all of our interactions with anyone of the male gender and neither does that mean every man should be seen as a threat ?

I have a lot of sympathy for those with gender dysphoria . Bad enough having to go through years of growing up with all the difficulties that that brings without having to deal with a barrage of hate and vilification from people stirred up by some very vocal conservative influencers . Like Stella who because she grew up through it (she thinks) unscathed she now thinks every person with gender dysphoria should be the same and this without evidence or peer reviewed studies .

You see where manipulation by today's social media and redtops can engender , if you excuse the pun , feelings of confusion and disgust in some people , causing irrational fears about the possibility that trans females are out purely to attack women ( Vis all the links posted about certain individuals that have used transgender to further their own evil and criminal aims ) Not that these people do not exist , but they are a very small number of bad people , bad people exist in every group in life and while awareness is necessary it should not be so overwhelming that it creates irrational fear and a hostile environment for every person in that group .

It's the same with other issues…endless clips about criminal migrants to further a narrative that all immigrants are like that .

And endless clips about women who are supposedly berating or attacking men on misogynistic sites where young men are being indoctrinated with hate and violence towards all women

Same modus operandi.

.Those who drum up fear like this in any discussion are not to be trusted in my view .

So am I meant to feel sorry for people with an irrational fear of all trans females ?

I feel sorry for their ignorance and would hope that if they ever allow themselves to talk or listen to somebody who is trans about their journey and their life , that they would see it is indeed an irrational fear .

It is the same as those who are homophobic or racist . Not all beliefs are acceptable or justifiable .

People have the right to freedom of speech to express how they feel within reason .

But inciting hatred or discrimination because of gender , male, female , transgender and non binary, among other things , is not ok and is illegal in Irish employment law .

If you or anyone else wants to discuss non trans related attacks on women I am happy to engage , but not further on this issue .

Haha I don't think you will be "persuaded otherwise " especially if you think most research is unreliable ! That sounds like a good get-out clause for anybody wanting to present whatever they want as bona fide research .

Yes, to the Burkes, with you there but O'Malley likewise as to mission and ethos . She cannot expect to be considered part of the IACP when her whole ethos is to push her own and not research led approaches to care and counselling , in direct conflict with the stated aims and ethos of the organisation .

I would be more for emotional support also but at the very least a counselor should recognize their limitations and medicalization of any psychological condition if persisting and causing distress needs to be considered and offered to a patient / client .

Anyway thanks for your thoughts and honesty , and think we may agree to disagree on this subject .

It's funny though, because if you maintain that the CAS judgement means that Semenya is a man, then you must also recognise that she would have been allowed to continue to compete against other women if she took hormones to lower her testosterone. In other words, if you believe the CAS ruling means that Semenya is a man, then you must also believe that a man can become a woman through the use of hormonal drugs. That's an interesting thing to think about.

You're making an unjustified leap of logic there. Semanya is a man, not because of testosterone but because of chromosomes, chromosomes that were there at birth. No amount of testosterone will change that. The problem is with the rules which used to require a sex test in the form of a cheek swab - they fudged things in the name of inclusivity, and the three men who won the medals were not breaking any rules at the time.

Emma Hilton and Colin Wright would disagree with you, but what do they know.

You think women should just be happy with their lot and not complain about inequality ?

There is a difference between something that cannot be helped or improved upon and something that can .

And also nobody is asking for men and women to be the same , think the same , act the same .

Just respect others differences .

Everyone should be exempt from military conscription. It shouldn't even exist. Nobody should be forced to do anything like that against their own free will. But since you're pointing it out, if it wasn't for men we wouldn't have any wars.