So today @niassembly had the 2nd reading of the #periodpoverty bill. During which we learned @JimAllister has done enough research to quote @Docstockk while @PaulaJaneB said many trans people were severely mentally ill and @SineadBradleySD used #intersex people as a gotcha.
@JimAllister: "Here is a bill addressing an issue for Women & Girls and yet those words are not used anywhere in this legislation. That seems to me to be foolish and wrong. If we legislate for free period products for those who need them then we’re legislating for women and girls
& that’s everyone who needs them. End of. Because men do not need period products. Boys do not have to go through that experience. "
@PaulaJaneB: "Do you not think the language you are using today is very offensive to those members of the transgender community, many of whom
@PaulaJaneB: "Do you not think the language you are using today is very offensive to those members of the transgender community, many of whom
suffer from severe mental health issues connected to their gender identity? Do you not think it is very offensive to them today and that you should modify your own tone?"
@JimAllister "If the biological reality is that only girls & women menstruate and that is the biological
@JimAllister "If the biological reality is that only girls & women menstruate and that is the biological
reality and boys & men are not in that category, then why are we shy of identifying within the legislation the people that the legislation is going to help? And yet, Mr Catney to my surprise was quoted in the press as saying 'boys have periods too'. Boys do not have periods."
@SineadBradleySD: I would like to just ask the Member…has the Member given any consideration to those people who were born intersex? Who may menstruate. I do think on this particular issue and the possibility of somebody being born with intersex that there is certainly a
conversation piece. I don’t think for those people it is as simple to say you are male or female. I think there definitely is a conversation piece that needs to be had there and I would welcome working with the Member on that."
I do hope that @SineadBradleySD finds some of the excellent accounts on here of people who are living with differences of sex development and gains enough knowledge and respect not to use a complex medical condition as a grossly offensive 'gotcha' ever again.
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