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Women's rights protest pushes back against gender identity ideology

28 November 2021


Activists gather at Leinster House to support the right of women to female-only, single-sex spaces and services.

A protest in support of the rights of women and girls to female-only, single-sex spaces and services took place at Leinster House on Saturday (27th Nov).  Organised by the feminist group Radicailín and endorsed by a number of other groups (including Socialist Democracy), it expressed opposition to the influence of gender identity ideology over public policy.  People attending the event, who numbered around fifty, were addressed by a range of activists who highlighted the negative consequences of self-identification (introduced by the Gender Recognition Act of 2015), in particular, the erosion of spaces and services that had previously been exclusive to women on the basis of their biological sex.  The protest was also the occasion for the launch of the SaveOurSpaces campaign which seeks the recognition of sex as a protected category within equality legislation and the reinstatement of single sex provision.  One of the immediate demands of the campaign is for the removal of male sex offenders from women’s prisons.

Socialist Democracy are pleased to be associated with this protest and the campaign it has launched.  We believe that the activists and organisations that rallied on Saturday have the potential to create a movement that can push back against the current assault on women’s rights.

Below we carry the press statement from Radicailín on the protest and the SaveOurSpaces campaign.  We also include photographs from the protest, links to transcripts and audio recordings of the speeches delivered, and also a link to a YouTude video of the event.
 

Radicailin statement on the protest at the Leinster House and the launch of the SaveOurSpaces campaign.


 

Speakers
 
"Introduced in 2015 (it) continuously conflates sex and gander.  This allows any man in Ireland to access any space previously reserved for woman and girls.  This includes bathrooms,  changing rooms, rape crisis centres, women's refuges and shelters and even women’s jails." Nuala Gallagher of @radicailin on the implications of the Gender Recognition Act.

listen


 
"I can feel the presence of other survivors here, there are more than a few of us. Can you feel it?"  Ceri Black @FemmeLoves on the need to safeguard children.

listen
transcript


 
"The privacy, safety and dignity that came with single-sex spaces, are gone, even to the most vulnerable women. Women in prison, or in rape crisis centres, or shelters, can no longer be certain they are safe." Graeme Linehan

listen
transcript


 
 
"A secret Jesuit committee wrote our 1937 Constitution and now unelected unrepresentative activists are grooming our politicians and pushing through laws." Laoise Uí Aodha de Brún of  @TheCountessIE

listen


 
 
Rachel Moran of @Irish_WL: "It is no coincidence that the first women to experience the loss of their sex protected spaces are the women positioned lowest on the ladder of society. Women's rights are not up for debate."

listen


 

Video of the full speeches by Ceri Black, Graham Linehan, Laoise de Brun and Rachel Moran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TMDVb_YzQo


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