Ruth Dudley Edwards: Time for good people to come to aid of the sane in conversion bill debate
Just put yourself in the shoes of an ordinary decent parent whose teenage daughter has just announced she wishes to become a boy, and who reacts to your initial questioning by threatening to phone the police.
“Steady on, Daisy,” you say. “This is a huge issue. Let’s talk about it and maybe consult the minister.”
Daisy has been busy researching on the internet, so after much screaming about being Derek, not Daisy, she is shrieking at 999 that she is being subjected to coercive control.
Cops arrive who don’t understand the issue and make some vague threats which cause general family hysteria.
Lawyers are summoned.
Read about this horrible vista becoming reality here: (https://freespeechunion.telltix.com/events/freespeechunion/2382805).
It deals with the appalling bill lurching now through the confused Northern Ireland Assembly.
The opening paragraph from a comprehensive legal opinion provided for the Christian Institute from Northern Ireland KC Aidan O’Neill describes it thus:
“Framed as protecting vulnerable individuals from coercive attempts to redirect their sexual orientation or gender identity, the bill has been described by critics as ‘jelly fish-like’ – impossibly vague, subjective and ill-defined, yet with a ‘sting in the tail’ that threatens to imprison parents, teachers, therapists, religious communities and even friends."
The event “Banned in Belfast” is being held this Friday by the Free Speech Union, which is an invaluable organisation for the ordinary Joe in trouble for opening his mouth.
Try not to miss it.
The location won’t be given until 24 hours beforehand, as some seemingly priapic men and deluded women who drive the extreme wing of the trans movement have been breaking up meetings.
It will be starring a collection of heroic warriors for truth who are fighting to counter the latest attempt by a combination of extremist trans activists and their attendant dim-witted useful idiots to stifle any criticism of the dangerous Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill being steered through the Assembly by the Alliance Party's Eoin Tennyson.
It is, like much of what comes from Alliance these days, both well-meaning and intensely stupid and dangerous.
Talk about the road to hell being paved with good intentions.
It is supported by the usual virtue-signalling self-identified progressive suspects in Sinn Féin, SDLP and People Before Profit along with LGBT organisations such as The Rainbow Project and Cara-Friend, Humanists UK and Amnesty.
For those who are not deep into the theology, for though most trans people are good citizens, the ‘T’ is what causes the problem, as the trans zealots are enemies of lesbians, gays and the bi-sexual.
In their world there can be no boundaries, so, for instance, a lesbian saying she did not wish to have sex with men is a disgusting bigot.
I am old enough to remember when the Alliance party were non-sectarian, moderate, sensible unionists, but that is all very yesterday as they self-define as progressives on almost every front.
Inevitably, First Minister Michelle O'Neill appears invincibly ignorant on the subject, but says Sinn Féin "very much" supports legislation to ban conversion practices, which she says are "really horrible and ugly”
This is the time for all good people to come to the aid of the sane.
l Ruth Dudley Edwards’s non-fiction books include The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions; and The Omagh Bombing and the Families’ Pursuit of Justice