Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like Senator Bacik, I am very pleased that it was a Labour Party Minister who introduced the legislation. I am also pleased that the legislation is being introduced in the Seanad. I congratulate Senator Zappone on the role she has played in bringing the Bill to fruition, and all the organisations in the Gallery, for whom this has been a very long journey. I wish to begin by quoting the words of Sam whom I know is in the Gallery.

I met Sam Blanckensee at the Tom Johnson summer school a number of months ago. We discussed this issue as it was going to come before the Seanad. This morning I asked him if he would not mind me using his words and reading them into the record because, to my mind, although a number of the issues of concern to all of the organisations in the Gallery have been identified by many of the speakers, they are best described in Sam's words.

Gender Recognition is not an abstract concept; it's not just about a birth certificate. It's about real people and real lives. For me it's not about a piece of paper, it's about Mr. Sam Blanckensee legally existing in the Irish State. I am an active participant in my community; I'm a scouter and a student leader. But in the eyes of my state, the man I have become doesn't exist.

I do not think anybody could put it better. It has already been said, but needs to be repeated, that Ireland is the only country in the EU which has no provision for legal gender recognition. It was not in 2008 but in 2002 that the High Court held there was no legal precedent to allow Dr. Lydia Foy to change her sex on her birth certificate, and many speakers have recognised her unique role in the fact this legislation is before us today. In 2014 her action against the State was effectively settled after the High Court was told by the Government it had a firm intention to enact necessary laws as soon as possible in 2015. I am thankful it is in January 2015 and not December 2015 that we are considering this legislation.
A number of changes have been requested by many organisations and have been referred to by many other speakers. I am going to return to Sam's words and focus on the issue of age:

I realised I was trans when I was 16. At that stage I was in 5th Year in an All-Girls School. I was sure at that time that if I was to come out I would have to leave my school. So instead of telling my peers and teachers I continued going to school using the wrong name and pronouns. That year was the worst of my school life. I felt I couldn't be authentic, I was suicidal and I was self-harming regularly.

In a recent report TENI found that 78% of transgender people had seriously considered suicide and 40% of these had attempted suicide. I will now go back to Sam's story.

For the next year and a half, although I began coming out and being more true to myself, I had to wake up in the morning and put on a skirt and listen to people refer to me as a girl. I had to hide who I was every moment of my day in school. This is not an experience that every trans child survives - knowing who you are but not feeling you can do anything about it.
Often with the support of their parents [many transgender children] come out to their teachers and principals and hope that these adults in their lives support them as their parents have. Unfortunately, these brave and self-aware young people don't always have their hopes realised. Their teachers are often the biggest block they face to acceptance. They get told to use different bathrooms than the other children of their gender, regardless of their wishes. This can be one of the scariest and hurtful things you can be told to do. They may have to wear the wrong uniform or have the wrong pronouns used by their teachers.
These are children with a very different situation to the one I was in, they're in a situation that could be so easily improved with a little understanding from the staff in their schools. But instead these kids struggle with school, some drop out, others have to transfer.

These are Sam's comments on the legislation and the changes he wants to see.

This legislation does not protect these children. The age limit of 16 means that there is still no legal protection for children in schools, children who want nothing more than to be normal kids and to go to school with their identity respected the way the identities of their peers are.
Between 16 and 18 the conditions may be slightly better ... I know of a number of young people in Ireland who were disowned by their parents after coming out as trans.

Sam sees having to seek the consent of parents as a particular impediment to the legislation as it is drafted. He also states that two medical opinions will be difficult to find. Endocrinologists and psychiatrists who will give medical evaluations to transgender adults are few and far between. We should take on board the experience of people who must deal with this legislation. Finding two specialists who will give evaluations to transgender children will be nigh on impossible, as doctors feel they need to be experts in their field before dealing with transgender individuals.
Sam states: "These children need protection; they need protection from the people in their lives who don't want to believe in their identities." Will the Minister of State consider the age provision in the legislation? Many other changes have been proposed, but we should consider the position of children between the ages of 16 and 18 and those aged under 16. Professor Donal O'Shea stated that from a medical point of view the most important age is puberty, and the debate as to whether the minimum age should be 16 or 18 is a facile constitutional argument.