One of the things that can make politics tricky is the use of ‘bait and switch’ tactics by activists in and out of government. In the commercial world, ‘bait and switch’ means the act of advertising goods as an apparent bargain, while intending to substitute lower quality or dearer goods all the while. The ‘bait’ lures another into a bad deal.
In business, it’s mostly illegal. In politics, it’s commonplace. Policies are presented as common sense, harmless, even desirable. People are got to buy in. In reality oftentimes, something different is on offer.
The word ‘regulate’ is useful for ‘bait-and-switch’ tacticians. “We need to regulate surrogacy,” says the baby-seller, knowing that people are worried about the commodification of children’s bodies and the exploitation of poor women. The word ‘regulate’ sounds like something is finally being done! But ‘regulation’ doesn’t mean ‘ban’. It says, ‘permit’. Getting people to focus on the need for rules bypasses discussion on whether to allow the thing at all.
Catch
There’s a particularly egregious example of ‘bait and switch’ going on at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg this week. ‘Towards a ban on conversion practices’, a report by the British Labour MP Kate Osborne, was passed by the Parliamentary Assembly Equality Committee unanimously before coming to the Plenary Session. The unanimity is easy to understand. ‘Conversion therapy’ is widely understood to refer to unethical, unscientific and abusive attempts to change people from being same-sex attracted to heterosexual. It’s difficult to know the extent of such practices in Europe but some of what the report mentions would certainly be illegal. No decent person would want anything to do with it.
The report describes all this as a ‘public health imperative’ and calls for criminal sanctions and regulations”
People’s instinctive aversion to such practices makes for a potent political weapon however. What else could be promoted under the guise of banning conversion therapy? Ms Osborne’s report answers that question: “These practices, aimed at promoting heterosexual attraction or aligning a person’s gender identity with their sex assigned at birth, include psychological or behavioural counselling, spiritual and religious rituals, aversion methods, as well as verbal abuse, coercion, isolation, forced medication, electric shocks, physical and sexual abuse.”
Note the ‘bait and switch’. The report puts counselling children with gender dysphoria, to try and help them on the journey to overcoming their gender confusion (the vast majority do), in the same category as what? Using shock therapy and pornographic videos to ‘cure’ homosexuals.
The report describes all this as a ‘public health imperative’ and calls for criminal sanctions and regulations ‘across healthcare, education, religious and commercial settings’.
Put simply, this is trans activists working to suppress opposition to their ‘gender affirmation’ agenda. If this report was reflected in laws, then health care professionals, teachers, spiritual advisers and even parents – anybody opposed to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and mutilating surgeries for young people with gender dysphoria – could all be in the dock.
Lobbying
Practically all children suffering from gender confusion get beyond it. Puberty blockers and hormone treatments cause lifelong damage. Irish journalist Helen Joyce, formerly an editor at The Economist, covers the ground admirably in her 2021 book, Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.
But the Council of Europe this week is poised to side with the trans lobby. With the activists who, under the guise of banning unscientific practices, are trying to suppress evidence-based care for people with gender dysphoria. This is not irony. It’s a calculated attempt to confuse and deceive.
If the report passes, Council of Europe countries like Ireland will not be obliged to follow its recommendations. But an institution established to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law should have nothing to do with this crackpot agenda.
Working with other European parliamentarians, I have tabled amendments that return the definition of ‘conversion therapy’ to what everyone should oppose, while defending people’s freedom of conscience and the right of parents, educators, healthcare and counselling professionals to give adults and children the care that they need. I’ll keep you posted.
***
Hooks and guide-lines: a bait and switch at home
Last week was a bad one for the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC). ICCL has produced a booklet telling schools they could run into legal problems for not using children’s preferred names and pronouns. The organisation cites Department of Education guidelines. IHREC gave €18,500 of taxpayers’ money towards the guide. Law firm AL Goodbody gave pro bono legal advice.
I don’t know if the pro bono bit was the problem but it turns out the ICCL line has no backing in law. Or in guidelines either, because the Department of Education has denied ICCL’s claims. ‘Ouch’ all round! But look closely. Trans activism from a nationally-known NGO and the national human rights body cheerfully funding good old Soviet-style disinformation, aka propaganda. And a pretence that you’re being told your legal obligations when really you’re being sold ideology.
‘Bait and switch’ again. Neither our law nor our courts have established that anti-discrimination provisions relating to ‘gender’ require adherence to people’s ‘gender identity’ claims.
There should be consequences when State-sponsored bodies and NGOs, staffed or supported by lawyers, give us a ‘bum
steer’ legally.
***
Don’t Lose Your Seanad Vote
If you’ve a degree from a college in the State, and you haven’t yet registered on www.seanadvoter.ie to restore yourself to the Seanad voting register, please do so before February 26. I’ve heard from people who no longer have a passport who are upset that seanadvoter.ie won’t apparently let them register. I don’t believe it can be legal to require anyone to hold a passport. The legislation for Seanad registration allows the chief registration officer to ask people to confirm their citizenship and to seek evidence including a passport, certificate of naturalisation or a statutory declaration. The seanadvoter.ie website is unacceptably unclear on this point. If you are affected by this, please email applications@seanadvoter.ie or write to SeanadVoter.ie, P.O. BOX 13784, Dublin 2 as soon as possible.
Toward a ban on conversion practices: a bait and switch abroad
One of the things that can make politics tricky is the use of ‘bait and switch’ tactics by activists in and out of government. In the commercial world, ‘bait and switch’ means the act of advertising goods as an apparent bargain, while intending to substitute lower quality or dearer goods all the while. The ‘bait’ lures another into a bad deal.
In business, it’s mostly illegal. In politics, it’s commonplace. Policies are presented as common sense, harmless, even desirable. People are got to buy in. In reality oftentimes, something different is on offer.
The word ‘regulate’ is useful for ‘bait-and-switch’ tacticians. “We need to regulate surrogacy,” says the baby-seller, knowing that people are worried about the commodification of children’s bodies and the exploitation of poor women. The word ‘regulate’ sounds like something is finally being done! But ‘regulation’ doesn’t mean ‘ban’. It says, ‘permit’. Getting people to focus on the need for rules bypasses discussion on whether to allow the thing at all.
Catch
There’s a particularly egregious example of ‘bait and switch’ going on at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg this week. ‘Towards a ban on conversion practices’, a report by the British Labour MP Kate Osborne, was passed by the Parliamentary Assembly Equality Committee unanimously before coming to the Plenary Session. The unanimity is easy to understand. ‘Conversion therapy’ is widely understood to refer to unethical, unscientific and abusive attempts to change people from being same-sex attracted to heterosexual. It’s difficult to know the extent of such practices in Europe but some of what the report mentions would certainly be illegal. No decent person would want anything to do with it.
People’s instinctive aversion to such practices makes for a potent political weapon however. What else could be promoted under the guise of banning conversion therapy? Ms Osborne’s report answers that question: “These practices, aimed at promoting heterosexual attraction or aligning a person’s gender identity with their sex assigned at birth, include psychological or behavioural counselling, spiritual and religious rituals, aversion methods, as well as verbal abuse, coercion, isolation, forced medication, electric shocks, physical and sexual abuse.”
Note the ‘bait and switch’. The report puts counselling children with gender dysphoria, to try and help them on the journey to overcoming their gender confusion (the vast majority do), in the same category as what? Using shock therapy and pornographic videos to ‘cure’ homosexuals.
The report describes all this as a ‘public health imperative’ and calls for criminal sanctions and regulations ‘across healthcare, education, religious and commercial settings’.
Put simply, this is trans activists working to suppress opposition to their ‘gender affirmation’ agenda. If this report was reflected in laws, then health care professionals, teachers, spiritual advisers and even parents – anybody opposed to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and mutilating surgeries for young people with gender dysphoria – could all be in the dock.
Lobbying
Practically all children suffering from gender confusion get beyond it. Puberty blockers and hormone treatments cause lifelong damage. Irish journalist Helen Joyce, formerly an editor at The Economist, covers the ground admirably in her 2021 book, Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.
But the Council of Europe this week is poised to side with the trans lobby. With the activists who, under the guise of banning unscientific practices, are trying to suppress evidence-based care for people with gender dysphoria. This is not irony. It’s a calculated attempt to confuse and deceive.
If the report passes, Council of Europe countries like Ireland will not be obliged to follow its recommendations. But an institution established to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law should have nothing to do with this crackpot agenda.
Working with other European parliamentarians, I have tabled amendments that return the definition of ‘conversion therapy’ to what everyone should oppose, while defending people’s freedom of conscience and the right of parents, educators, healthcare and counselling professionals to give adults and children the care that they need. I’ll keep you posted.
***
Hooks and guide-lines: a bait and switch at home
Last week was a bad one for the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC). ICCL has produced a booklet telling schools they could run into legal problems for not using children’s preferred names and pronouns. The organisation cites Department of Education guidelines. IHREC gave €18,500 of taxpayers’ money towards the guide. Law firm AL Goodbody gave pro bono legal advice.
I don’t know if the pro bono bit was the problem but it turns out the ICCL line has no backing in law. Or in guidelines either, because the Department of Education has denied ICCL’s claims. ‘Ouch’ all round! But look closely. Trans activism from a nationally-known NGO and the national human rights body cheerfully funding good old Soviet-style disinformation, aka propaganda. And a pretence that you’re being told your legal obligations when really you’re being sold ideology.
‘Bait and switch’ again. Neither our law nor our courts have established that anti-discrimination provisions relating to ‘gender’ require adherence to people’s ‘gender identity’ claims.
There should be consequences when State-sponsored bodies and NGOs, staffed or supported by lawyers, give us a ‘bum
steer’ legally.
***
Don’t Lose Your Seanad Vote
If you’ve a degree from a college in the State, and you haven’t yet registered on www.seanadvoter.ie to restore yourself to the Seanad voting register, please do so before February 26. I’ve heard from people who no longer have a passport who are upset that seanadvoter.ie won’t apparently let them register. I don’t believe it can be legal to require anyone to hold a passport. The legislation for Seanad registration allows the chief registration officer to ask people to confirm their citizenship and to seek evidence including a passport, certificate of naturalisation or a statutory declaration. The seanadvoter.ie website is unacceptably unclear on this point. If you are affected by this, please email applications@seanadvoter.ie or write to SeanadVoter.ie, P.O. BOX 13784, Dublin 2 as soon as possible.
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