Doug Beattie slams Alliance and nationalists' attitude to women's group - saying they attempted to silence them
A Stormont committee made a “deliberate attempt to silence” a women’s group – and sent a message to women that their ‘dissenting’ voices were not welcome, according to Doug Beattie.
The Ulster Unionist justice spokesperson was reacting to a “tense” sitting of the Assembly’s Executive Office committee this week – where evidence from the Women’s Rights Network Northern Ireland (WRN) was branded “disgraceful” by Sinn Fein, while Alliance claimed that trans people would be “traumatised and offended”.
WRN said that they wanted to stop the erasure of their sex based rights and of women’s spaces – and said women had been forced into silence both in public and the workplace for challenging gender ideology.
They were giving evidence to the Executive Office (TEO) committee on its inquiry into gaps in equality legislation. While cross-examination of groups giving evidence to committees is standard practice across the UK, it has not always been the norm in the TEO committee. The chairperson, Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw, and Sinn Fein’s Emma Sheerin have previously criticised TUV MLA Timothy Gaston for questioning a witness’s “lived experience”. Ms Bradshaw said she “was never going to challenge” someone giving evidence of their experiences.
However, a different approach was taken to WRN on Wednesday. Sinn Fein branded their support for single sex spaces “disgraceful” – with Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson branding the evidence traumatising to trans people.
Chair Paula Bradshaw sought evidence for some of the assertions made by the group and described it as a “tense session”. The South Belfast MLA said she was more afraid of a man who presents as a man, than as a trans woman – and asked for evidence that “there are a proportion of crimes that are carried out by trans women”.
Doug Beattie told the News Letter there was an attempt by some MLAs to silence the group.
The Upper Bann MLA said: “There can be no dissenting voices. That seems to be the message to the Women’s Rights Network Northern Ireland when they gave evidence to The Executive Office Committee. The clear degeneration of the women who came to argue for women only spaces by characterising their evidence as exclusionary, insulting, traumatising, or offending, was a deliberate attempt to silence the group.
“This is the same attempt to de-platform individuals, who disagree, that I was subjected to at the Pride Talkback event in 2023 when I argued that women should have their own space and sport without biological males taking part. The same abuse was levelled at Jeffrey Dudgeon the following year, a gay man who fought to have homosexuality decriminalised in Northern Ireland, as he was shouted down because of his views.
“An attempt was also made to silence my party last month. We brought forward a motion that argued the justice system should ensure biological men, placed in custody, should not be housed in women’s prisons. The vitriol to that motion from Sinn Fein, Alliance and the SDLP highlights not that we are intolerant but that others are intolerant of different opinions. Including the opinions of many women.
“The Women’s Rights Network made it clear; they believe that those who identify as transgender should have ‘all the human rights that everyone else has’. However, that should not be at the expense of women’s right to privacy and dignity within a space designated for women. I believe that those who identify as transgender should have all the human rights that are enjoyed by everyone else, my party believes that those who identify as transgender should have the same human rights as everyone else.
“Yet none of this should be at the expense of women who ask for nothing more than a space designed for women and should only allow women to use it.
“Women are being heard and their dissenting voices must be heard, not silenced.”
The group is believed to be the first so-called ‘gender critical’ group to give evidence to a Stormont committee. In contrast, there have been numerous appearances by LGBTQ+ and trans lobby groups, whose fundamental position is rarely challenged.
They were invited by the TUV’s Timothy Gaston, who shares their concerns about the definition of women and the influence of the transgender lobby on public policy.
There have been repeated clashes between Mr Gaston and Sinn Fein and Alliance members over the issue in recent months, with the chair criticising his use of language on sex and gender issues.