Ireland recently had a referendum to allow same sex marriages. The outcome was a resounding Yes. Given the traditional conservative nature of Irish society and the role that the Roman Catholic Church has played until recently, the result showed that change -and radical changes- in societal notions of what is acceptable can be achieved in a relatively short period of years. Following hot on the heels of the referendum was legislation on gender recognition (actually sex recognition but no one likes to use the s-word anymore). Initially, the legislative proposals were quite restrictive but perhaps buoyed by the referendum outcome, they were amended significantly by the Government in the latter stages of the Gender Recognition Bill's progress through the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) with the result that the Bill as enacted was very much on the liberal side compared to many other EU Member States. Hurray for progressive Mother Ireland.
All of this is undoubtedly good but where does it leave the TGirl who doesn't want to transition. The answer I suspect is that it does very little to improve her position......actually, I mean my position! The Gay Community have fought long and hard for fairness and their success is overdue and deserved. Transsexuals have medical science on their side and no one could reasonably begrudge them the recent legislation that will improve their legal rights. However, part time TGirls tend not to lobby (for good reason) and there is no acceptable science to back up our case.
Even more problematic for progress is that we want to be able to have two separate gender identities as and when we choose unlike gay people who are gay not by choice or transsexuals who are trapped in the wrong body not by choice. We want the choice to be what we want. Sounds reasonable to me but perhaps not to others who think that picking and choosing who you want to be may well be the end of civilisation as they know it. Consequently, it looks like we will be spending many more years in the wardrobe so I better slip out of these high heels into something more comfortable.
