Ms Mary McDermott:

To reply to Senator Warfield, I am an old lesbian - out of school, fading identity and in the universe. We welcome the Senator's words because we believe that if we use the terms "sex", "gender" and "sexuality" we will begin to account for all of the dimensions of our intimate lives, for the reproductive or non-reproductive capacities of our bodies and how they affect us materially and symbolically, for our gender identities, and for how we choose to express ourselves. We are forced into social and personal roles because of stereotypes. The other binary in the area of sexuality that I did not put into this space is of course the hairy one of masculinities and femininities, and how they play out differently on all the sexes, all the genders and all our desiring roles. Violence and domination is eroticised to the extent that it is considered part of love and intimacy. No wonder it is so difficult to deal with. That is part of the work we do in Safe Ireland. We try to dismantle that. We try to dismantle that in schools in order that children do not think the adrenaline rush of fear is necessarily love.