It’s official. The lunatics are running the asylum. I say that after watching the North’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill deliver what she termed a “biology lesson” in the Stormont Chamber on Monday, after a unionist MLA asked her rather bluntly, to clarify “if a woman can have a penis.”
“For God’s sake,” was the initial mutterings of principal deputy speaker Carál Ní Chuilín. “That’s absolutely ridiculous, and you’re making a show of yourself,” O’Neill told Traditional Unionist Voice MLA Timothy Gaston.
“You are fascinated with the definition of a woman. I think that says a lot about you,” O’Neill said. Talk about gaslighting.
“Let me ask you directly: Stonewall believes that women can have a penis. First Minister, once again, do you?” Gaston, a representative for North Antrim, asked. Gaston was asking about Stonewall, a charity obsessed with trans dogma, and one that partners with organisations in NI, including the department for Finance, through initiatives like the Diversity Champions Programme and the Workplace Equality Index. Political disagreement with the partnership, and just how far it goes, is no secret.
“I think I’m going to have to help you out maybe, with a wee bit of a biology lesson,” O’Neill snapped back. “I was born a biological baby girl, I grew into a teenager, and I’m now a fully fledged woman. There are also trans women in our community, and if women can be supportive and inclusive of trans women, then you should also,” she told Gaston.
“But I fear, the trans community fear, that all you’re interested in is stoking up fear and tensions and hurt. Have a bit of sensitivity. Have a bit of decency.”
It’s worth watching back exchanges like this because there are times when those on the right can feel quite complacent that trans ideology in all of its wackiness has had its day. There have been great victories for common sense, the most significant being the UK Supreme Court’s ruling this April which affirmed that the terms “sex,” “man,” and “woman” indeed refer to a person’s biological sex as recorded at birth.
Then in the North this month, just as the kids went back to school, Education Minister Paul Givan (DUP) called for the withdrawal of transgender guidance in schools, saying the ruling has “direct implications for education policy and practice.” Those who believe men can become women, simply through obtaining a Gender Recognition Cert, as if it’s some kind of magic, are downright ratio’d in the comments on socials. It can feel as though things are looking up. “We’re so back,” as the Gen-Zers love to say.
But then you turn on the 6 o’clock news on a Monday evening and you see O’Neill, a woman who made history by becoming the north of Ireland’s first Irish nationalist First Minister, a woman who has been championed and held up as some kind of progressive, modern, feminist icon – including by Time magazine – spouting such utter tripe and you realise that not very much has changed, and there is still a war raging.
Indeed, in August, £800,000 was funnelled into more transgender services in the North. The Newsletter reported on an FOI request around that time that revealed that “at least three five-year-olds (and possibly as many as 12 – the trust refuses to be definitive) have been registered as patients of its Gender Identity Development Service since 2014.” Around that time, I happened to be in Belfast the same Saturday Pride was on. Among the sea of blue and pink trans flags and scantily clad drag queen activists making a racket with boom boxes, more or less every single shop, cafe and restaurant was decorated with some form of Pride memorabilia. Almost like a mark of compliance. It didn’t feel liberating – it felt oppressive. We love to talk about religion being the ultimate oppressor, but when you see Pride in action and in full force, it feels very much like a new State religion.
When you read that five-year olds are being referred to Northern Ireland Trusts and registered as “transgender patients,” you realise that this is not just about an ideology or an argument or a culture war. This is all real and it is happening now, and political leaders are more than happy to plough more money into such ‘services’ to destroy young children, all whilst telling us we are the hateful ones.
For O’Neill, who received 10,845 votes in my home constituency, it’s violent heresy to say that men and women are biologically different. The only ones speaking any sense are the unionists. Our Catholic, Nationalist politicians in the North have abandoned any semblance of common sense. Biological truth is out the window. The basic truths of their own religion are also out the window (they should have a read of Genesis) – but that won’t stop O’Neill’s boasts about cutting her own family holiday short to attend the Pope’s funeral, all while claiming to “represent all those people at home” like some sort of fabulous Catholic.
The worst thing about yesterday’s exchange, is that even after Britain’s top court restored sanity to the law, O’Neill, as leader of the largest nationalist party, ignores absolutely all the facts in favour of blind emotion. There is a reason why women are more liberal, and it’s because they are much more emotional than men. O’Neill is a prime example of that when she rages about the stoking up of “fear” and the call for “sensitivity.” We know that transgender ideology is having its reckoning day, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it when those running the country gaslight their political opponents when they ask real questions because unless you’re a nice leftie, you’re a bad person.
When you can’t win the argument, when all the science and biology is rapidly stacking against you, play the emotion card. Assert that truth is fiction. Play being Mr or Mrs Nice Guy instead of actually engaging with the arguments. The implication is that yes, you are ridiculous, you are making a show of yourself, and you lack basic decency if you hold the same views as Timothy Gaston.
It is a deliberate tactic to cow people into silence because your very common sense views, views everyone held twenty years ago, are hateful and we will gaslight you to keep you quiet. It is easy to think the new religion of LGBTQ+ has had its day, but our institutions North and South and the politicians at the helm remain as ideologically captured as ever. People are still gaslit and afraid to speak up because they are afraid of the left, and watching O’Neill’s snideness yesterday, you can see why.
It’s this kind of dishonest dialogue that stifles free speech and helps us understand why we are now picking up the pieces after a headlong rush towards unsafe medical interventions as opposed to mental health support for those struggling with gender dysphoria.
As for O’Neill’s biology lesson, well, that’s hilarious. She cannot and will not explain how ‘trans women’ became women. They just are. As for her assertion that women are all supportive of trans women and so should Gaston be, that is just patently untrue. Nearly every woman I know does not want to share a bathroom with someone born male. It’s a simple case of the emperor’s new clothes. My liberal friends may love going day-drinking and partying at Pride and wearing rainbow face-paint because it’s ‘cool’; they may be captured by the popularity of the ideology, but I can assure you that none of them actually, genuinely think trans women are women. They know they are not. But they insist on being nice and not ruffling any feathers.
But it’s being ‘nice’ that has gotten us in this mess to begin with – a mess whereby five year olds are now presenting to gender clinics and undergoing transitions. Where, as per the Cass review, children are given puberty blockers, despite unacceptable safety risks.
For all their progressive language, those like Michelle O’Neill can be the least nice when it comes to having a mature conversation. The culture war is still happening, and we have to continue playing the game. Truth, not unhinged emotion, has to win out.