Fingal Feminist Network and Fingal Communities Against Racism Trans Solidarity Statement

Fingal Feminist Network and Fingal Communities Against Racism stand together with our trans, non-binary, intersex family, friends, and neighbours. Our Irish feminism has a long history of trans inclusivity and solidarity. It is deeply intersectional to its core. Fingal is one of the most diverse regions in Ireland. We embrace and are proud of our LGBTQIA+ families, friends, neighbours; and, most expressly at this time, with our trans siblings. We recognise that black, Traveller and ethnic minority trans people are the most marginalised in our communities. We further recognise that asylum seeking and un-documented trans people face additional obstacles within the Irish State, Direct Provision system and their diaspora communities.

Fingal Feminist Network and Fingal Communities Against Racism stand together with our trans, non-binary, intersex family, friends, and neighbours. Our Irish feminism has a long history of trans inclusivity and solidarity. It is deeply intersectional to its core. Fingal is one of the most diverse regions in Ireland. We embrace and are proud of our LGBTQIA+ families, friends, neighbours; and, most expressly at this time, with our trans siblings. We recognise that black, Traveller and ethnic minority trans people are the most marginalised in our communities. We further recognise that asylum seeking and un-documented trans people face additional obstacles within the Irish State, Direct Provision system and their diaspora communities. 

Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERF) are exclusionary. Their ideology is cruel and divisive. We understand that delimiting concepts of gender to biological sex assignation is essentialist, denying the beautiful complexity of our experiences of gender as nuanced, multifarious, fluid; and imposes an outmoded, culturally and historically specific ideology. This ideology functions to pit people against each other and strengthen an authoritarian hold over our lives. We do not entertain arguments that debate any person’s existence and right to self-determination. 

Why are LGBT+ rights being attacked in Ireland right now?

The Irish Gender Recognition Act (GRA) passed in 2015 without contest. In 2018, when the UK was dealing with reform to their GRA which would allow people to self-identify gender without medical diagnosis, as in Irish law; organised moves were made to plant and import British TERF ideology here. Contextually this played out 2-years post-Brexit referendum, when strategies UKIP & the BNP used to push a ‘Leave’ narrative were being imported for an IREXIT campaign. There has been a consistent and decided move from ethno-nationalist organisations post-Brexit to import a bogus culture wars narrative wholesale to Ireland via far-right media: Breitbart, Gript; and more recently MSM. We are not seeing wise decisions from reputable media outlets and journalists to interrogate which agendas they are giving airtime and column inches to. It appears clickbait culture is superseding facts and evidentiary research. We are not aware of a mainstream media outlet in Ireland with a zero-tolerance, no platform for the far-right agenda.

It is illuminating to take a closer look at the individuals and groups behind this wave of transphobic organising:

Paul Conrathe

The lawyer in the judicial review against Tavistock in Britain is an anti-choice activist. Tavistock v Bell has received publicity in the Irish media. Tavistock is a health unit which treats trans teenagers with puberty blockers. Puberty blockers are completely reversible and have been used successfully for decades to treat puberty. However, their use in the treatment of trans teenagers who wish to avoid the severe distress brought on by puberty is now under threat. Ireland has no health service for transgender teens, our trans teens have been accessing Tavistock for decades. Not only does denying this treatment fulfill a transphobic agenda, it also attacks the right to bodily autonomy for all young people. The right of teens to consent to abortion or to taking contraception will be next on on the religious right’s litigation list. 

The ‘LGB Alliance’

The ‘LGB Alliance’, a British transphobic group, masquerading as a pro-gay rights group has been platformed by the Irish media. That the ‘LGB Alliance’ is nothing but a front for the religious right is obvious from the facts that it claims opposition to marriage equality is ‘not homophoblic’; and it works with The Heritage Foundation – an American Christian fundamentalist group. The ‘LGB Alliance’ bears a lot of similarities to certain notorious ‘Institutes’ closer to home, down to a reluctance to disclose where their funding comes from. The anti-choice, anti-marriage equality lobby in Ireland have seized on transphobic rhetoric enthusiastically. A website owned by Youth Defence and ‘edited’ by the spokesman for the ‘Save the 8th’ campaign, for instance, has featured a number of transphobic pieces, alongside anti-choice pieces and homophobic pieces targeting gay politicians. Youth Defence has direct links to the National Party and fascist organising in Ireland. It is no coincidence that this wave of transphobic organising has come after the religious right lost campaigns against marriage equality in a number of countries. Indeed some of the transphobic rhetoric we are now seeing is very familiar to anybody who remembers the virulent homophobia in tabloids such as ‘The Sun’ in the 1980s, recycling as it does similar tropes and moral panics. 

The religious right lost campaigns against marriage equality in the UK, Ireland and abroad, following these defeats they shifted tactics and stepped up their attacks on trans people. We hold firm that the Christian right, right wing, and far-right groups are in alliance over the spread of this toxic hatred. They are seeking to isolate our trans siblings from our communities. We will not let that happen. Our trans siblings have always been at the forefront of campaigning for equality and liberation in Ireland. Gender-based violence, rooted in patriarchal ideology which enforces heteronormative gender roles, comes in very many forms and representations; an attack on our trans family is an attack on us all.   

Fingal Communities Against Racism statement on Balbriggan house fire

12 August 2020

Fingal Communities Against Racism are concerned that a house fire in Balbriggan last Sunday has been used to push a racist agenda on social media. The cause of the fire has been investigated, but has still to be confirmed officially. Initial inspections identified it as an electrical fire, amplified when an oil tank in the back garden also caught fire. However, this has been portrayed on social media as a deliberate arson attack as a result of racially motivated gang violence.

As a result of the fire, a local family lost their home and are in distress. However, this has not stopped inaccurate speculation on social media. Among these comments, we have seen posts by obviously fake accounts, by people who have never set foot in Balbriggan and by people connected with far-right parties.

A website owned by the Youth Defence group which purports to be a news site but in reality amplifies far-right talking points and propaganda, attempted to link the fire to “gangs” and claimed there was a “media blackout”.

The reality, of course, is that house fires where nobody has been injured or killed and arson is not suspected, don’t tend to make the national news. The interest shown by individuals and groups linked with the far-right in a house fire in balbriggan, a town which most of them have never visited, is a sign that something else is going on.

The far-right use every opportunity to exploit people’s fears, including fear of crime and anti-social behaviour, to stir up hatred and division and turn neighbours against each other. Their manipulation of social media to push their own agenda is sophisticated, including using multiple fake accounts and out of context video clips onto which they can project the narrative they want. These tactics are part of a pattern and have been used by the far-right in Ireland and internationally.

We ask that people keep this in mind when browsing social media and speak up against attempts to divide our communities. Balbriggan is a diverse town made up of people from all over Ireland and other parts of the world who have made a home and are raising families here. The far-right has its own agenda in pushing an image of Balbriggan to the rest of the country that is relentlessly sinister and negative. Those propagating this agenda do not care about the town or any of its residents or how Balbriggan is perceived.

We urge the community to speak out and refuse to let this far-right agenda erase the work of many good people in Balbriggan living and working side by side, trying to improve our environment and creating strong communities. Do not let a racist agenda define our town.

Thanks to the Fingal Independent for sharing our statement

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/fingalindependent/concern-incidents-being-used-to-push-racist-agenda-39455918.html

State neglect of International Protection duties in Skellig Star and all around Ireland during Covid-19.

The removal of International Protection Applicants to remote hotels, in overcrowded situations, with little to no information, as well as no option to cocoon, is a significant act of mistreatment and neglect by the state. The residents in these hotels, like the Skellig Star in Caherciveen, have come to Ireland to seek protection from  persecution, injury and death, and they have been treated like animals instead of humans.

The state has known for weeks that there was a raised risk of spread in Direct Provision centres, and put in place the most minimal measures. When it was clear that those weren’t enough, residents were bussed from place to place, with no social distancing, and moved into crowded rooms often worse than those they left behind. When covid has spread, only those with multiple symptoms were tested and removed to isolation, while facilities were cleaned in accordance with HSE guidelines and residents were unable to do anything themselves to change the situation because of the management systems put in place by IPAS and the Department of Justice and its private contractors, including the Skellig Star.

 According to the Minister for Health Simon Harris, there are now 164 confirmed cases of the virus in Centres. The government’s stock response that there is plenty of capacity in City West to enable self-isolation, including for the 160 healthcare workers living in Direct Provision, is inadequate and ignores the long bus journey this involves for anybody outside Dublin. Instead, the government should urgently provide self-contained accommodation with individual access to sanitation and eating facilities for every family unit and single person in the international protection system. This is the approach recommended by 900 experts in a letter to the government on 31st March

We in Fingal Communities Against Racism know about the fear, the intimidation and the unsafe living accommodation because we have heard about it directly from the asylum seekers we are supporting around Dublin. We receive messages daily from people who are living in fear, confusion and frustration, and whose whistleblowing about unsafe accommodation is being ignored daily by IPAS.

The situation is urgent.

We cannot wait for more ICU cases and deaths.

We cannot wait for an inquiry after people have died who came to this country seeking protection to save their own lives.

We cannot wait for reports into the long-term impact of Covid-19 on asylum seekers.

We need action now.

ReplyForward

Dublin Fingal Is Top Constituency for Anti-Racism Pledge

15 out of 16 general election candidates standing in the Dublin Fingal constituency have signed up to an Anti-Racism Election Protocol, with their number beating every other constituency in the country. The protocol has been used to address fearmongering about integration in the county despite its widely acknowledged success. The candidates also took part in photocalls in Balbriggan and Swords on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd February to send a clear message that racism should have no place in the election campaign in Fingal.

Fingal Communities Against Racism (FCAR) spokesperson Dr. Lucy Michael said, “It’s hugely positive that the vast majority of Dublin Fingal election candidates signed the Anti-Racism Election Protocol both during the by-election campaign in November and now again during the general election. Ahead of polling day on 8th February, we are helping people have conversations with friends, family, neighbours and workmates about the far-right and anti-immigrant attitudes. We believe conversations matter to keep our region free of hate. You can find tips to help you have those conversations on our website FingalTogether.ie and our social media platforms”.

Local residents were out sharing the message of an inclusive Fingal across the weekend, and will be continuing right up to the election. Response across Fingal has been hugely positive, with businesses and community centres taking posters sharing the Fingal Together message.

The Anti-Racism Election Protocol, an initiative of The Irish Network Against Racism (INAR), commits candidates to conduct their election campaigns in such a way that they do not incite hatred or prejudice on the grounds of ‘race’, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origin, religious belief and membership of the Traveller or Roma Community.

A full list of Dublin Fingal General Election Candidates who have endorsed the Anti-Racism Election Protocol is available at: https://inar.ie/signatories-of-the-anti-racism-election-protocol-2020/ and is as follows:

Paul Mulville – Social Democrats
Louise O’Reilly – Sinn Féin
Duncan Smith – Labour
Terry Kelleher – Solidarity
Joe O’Brien – Green Party
John Uwhumiakpor – People Before Profit
Lorraine Clifford-Lee – Fianna Fáil
Alistair Smith – United People
Alan Farrell – Fine Gael
James Reilly – Fine Gael
Darragh O’Brien – Fianna Fáil
Dean Mulligan – Independents4Change
Sandra Sweetman – Independent
Glenn Brady – Independent
Tony Murphy – Independent