David Thompson: The Féile debacle shows Irish nationalism has a problem with letting women speak

That not a single nationalist or Alliance female MLA has spoken out in favour of the right of prominent, well-respected women to speak on their own terms at the West Belfast Festival is extraordinary.

Of course, many Sinn Fein, SDLP and Alliance women have a genuine belief that any man who says he is a woman automatically is one. The First Minister Michelle O’Neill and the Alliance Justice Minister Naomi Long seem to be among them.

Perhaps all their female MLAs and MPs do too, but their voters don’t.

So why is it that it’s so easy for Alliance and nationalism to say to women – many of whom share their constitutional goals and aspirations – that their views are beyond the pale?

Up until recently, the calculation may have been that it was just easier to say no to the women’s rights groups because they will cause less of a fuss. The backlash against Féile an Phobail shows that is no longer the case.

There was also a lack of understanding about what what it meant to be ‘trans’. For most people, it probably meant a man who had undergone surgery to ‘change sex’. Someone like the fictional Hayley Cropper from Coronation Street, ‘trapped in the wrong body’ and seeking peace and acceptance.

Of course, humans can’t change sex, but can alter their bodies with surgery and hormones. For some people, that helps. Few politicians have an issue with someone who struggles with gender dysphoria making decisions, as adults, about their own bodies and lives.

That idea of a ‘transexual’ is not what trans is now. It is those people too, but they are a minority.

Now, it means you are what you say you are – no questions and no exceptions. That results in even dangerous men – rapists and violent thugs – being placed in women’s prisons. It has meant big burly blokes playing in women’s sports, when all they’ve changed is their clothes and their pronouns.

Women saying no are being silenced – as the events of this week demonstrate.

It’s called Self ID – and while it has no legal basis in the United Kingdom, it’s already the law in the Republic of Ireland.

No medical diagnosis, assessment, or surgical intervention required – you are what you say you are and the Irish state takes that at face value. It went through the Dail barely remarked upon.

When Scotland tried a similar approach, it was lauded by SF, Alliance and SDLP reps – before it was struck down by the UK government.

All that the women who wanted to speak at the Féile an Phobail festival are saying to all of this is ‘no, we don’t want men in our spaces’. They won’t be compelled to pretend that any man is a woman, and why should they?

Transgender ideology crept into workplaces across the UK over a decade of subtle changes to language and culture. Most of that was the work of the lobby group Stonewall, who had played a blinder in convincing public bodies they needed their endorsement.

Pronouns and rainbow lanyards were flaunted around workplaces by some of the least productive people in our society, many of them heterosexuals spying career opportunities.

Why? Because it gave them power over the majority of people who weren’t versed in what could and couldn’t be said or challenged this week.

It also created a climate where gender ideology was suddenly beyond question.

Despite all of this, the law didn’t change. As the UK Supreme Court ruling showed, when parliament made laws relating to the rights of men and women decades ago, they did not have in mind future bearded men who might consider themselves a lady actually being treated in law as one.

Unfortunately for women in Northern Ireland, a majority of the political class and almost all of the public bodies which should exist to protect their rights were too far gone to accept it.

As the gender edifice crumbled, the meaningless platitudes kept rolling off the tongues of nationalist and Alliance politicians.

Michelle O’Neill warned against DUP ministers implementing the ruling, saying “this is about compassion”… This is about people out there in society who are fearful for their own safety”.

So keen was Alliance to avoid being seen to accept the ruling, its chief whip Paula Bradshaw suggested Northern Ireland could pass its own equality law and the courts could “clarify” it “once it is produced”.

So utterly meaningless were the platitudes, one might have wondered whether Sinn Fein in particular may have been ready to drop the gender extremists – albeit subtly and slowly.

Any notion that may happen was dashed by Sinn Fein’s failure to support the Women’s Rights Network after they were banned from Féile an Phobail this week. GAA women, banned from speaking in West Belfast. for not accepting the demands of men.

Nationalist parties are taking their lead from Dublin where what trans activists want, trans activists get. The UK has taken a different path, and the public in Northern Ireland prefer it.

Platitudes will no longer cut it. Irish nationalist parties need to listen to the public.

They need to let all women speak, not just the ones with the approval of male trans activists.