Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was made aware of an incident in this country a few weeks ago where a teenage boy came out as gay in confidence to a group of his female friends. They responded by saying that, if he liked boys, he must be a girl and, therefore, must be transgender. He rejected this, saying that he had never felt like a female and that he was simply attracted to men. As a result of his not accepting his friends foisting a gender identity on him, his female friends in whom he had confided broke contact and refused to speak to him. This scenario was never envisaged by those who fought for equality - a gay man being pressured to change his gender in order to have his sexual orientation become straight. A debate is in order so that we can find out the Minister's view on the Cass review and discuss the level of care that we in this Chamber want Irish children to receive.