Thread by @TracyDempsey

I was on an Irish Penal Reform Trust @IPRT webinar last year when they launched their report on Irish prisons. I raised BK + the other 2 men in Limerick women’s prison, the solitary confinement issue, the Mandela Rules. I was told “That’s outside the scope of our report.” #KPSS

https://twitter.com/griptmedia/status/1638242240609804288

Could whoever’s briefing @LeoVaradkar pls point out legal experts have been saying for years the GRA has put the State in an impossible position; not just about prisons, but closed psych wards, hospital wards, schools etc; Irish gov have statutory responsibility for safeguarding.

You can have “gender identity” in law (hiding sex/falsifying records) OR safeguarding, but not both. There’s no “privacy right” to hide sex (+ criminal background; see @NoXYinXXprisons report), only a dangerous privilege. Governments MUST #RepealTheGRA + all sex falsification.

lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-st… - “Criminal defence lawyer Robert Purcell says that the Gender Recognition Act 2015 has placed the State in an impossible position with regard to transgender prisoners.”

But it’s not just a #selfID problem. ANY gov which recognises “gender identity” (sex falsification) in law is in breach of its statutory safeguarding responsibilities. Martin Ponting got GRC in UK AFTER sentencing for raping girls. Arguments against self = args for #RepealTheGRA.

There is no process of falsifying sex which upholds safeguarding. Any modifications or amendments to try + do so would have to go so far as to nullify the process entirely. There is NO right to falsify sex, or force non-compliant population to join in with the lie. #RepealTheGRA

A link to the @IPRT report:

https://twitter.com/TracyDempsey/status/1490650241342840832?s=20

I asked these questions in the Q+A, got no answers. (In 2021, the Irish Prison Service called for submissions to a review of its prison rules;
@TheCountessIE + others responded, raising the issue of obscuring sex with "gender identity", among others.)

@TheCountessIE I asked again in the public chat; that's when I was told by private reply that they were only able to focus on a specific set of standards and issues. But all the standards and issues being discussed particularly impacted the women locked up with men. @LeoVaradkar, FYI...

An attendee suggested I educate myself via opinion piece by Shon Faye(!) about “Jessica Winfield”- Martin Ponting, male double rapist of girls who got GRC *post* sentencing, was transferred to women’s prison + has since been released. Not a #selfID issue; a GRA one. #RepealTheGRA

The @IPRT “The need for transparency” report iprt.ie/site/assets/fi… recognised (per Bangkok rules) that women in prison differ from men re needs, offending, DV history, etc - but did not discuss the impact on women of being locked up with #BarbieKardashian + child sexual abuser:

The child sexual abuser put in women’s prison *before* #BarbieKardashian was convicted of ten counts of sexual assault and one count of cruelty against a child; he’s accompanied by two officers at all times while in the common areas, @LeoVaradkar: lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-st…

Journo @paddyjogorman had to leave RTE to report on men in Limerick women’s prison. Here’s his podcast, where a recently incarcerated woman tells him those men were shouting obscenities + women (with histories of DV), + each group are locked up separately: podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/pad…

I asked whether Prof Ben Crowe thought the #chillingeffect in Irish media was preventing women’s concerns being heard. Which leads me to…

…the fact that the @IPRT signed the letter calling for the political and media disenfranchisement of women who seek to “defend biology”, smearing us as bigots for not consenting to sex falsification. @LeoVaradkar @SimonHarrisTD Any questions for IPRT? gcn.ie/irish-lgbtq-co…

Important to note #BarbieKardashian has not just now been moved to Limerick women’s prison. Back in 2020, @Limerick_Leader covered @radicailin’s campaign of writing to TDs to protest his placement there. @LeoVaradkar @SimonHarrisTD archive.ph/n345n