iGenders

Fine Gael delegates at last month’s Ard Fheis have voted in support for a motion, put forward by Mark O’Meara of Young Fine Gael, that the upcoming Constitutional Convention should prioritise an analysis of the proposals for same-sex marriage in Ireland. The Constitutional Convention was one of the tenets of the Fine Gael 2011 election campaign; promising to examine articles of the constitution covering the institutions of the state - principally the Executive, the Dáil, the Presidency and the Judiciary.

The success of Young Fine Gael cleavage in promoting the motion is a victory in itself, illustrating a possible liberalizing stance within the Party. During the 2011 election campaign Fine Gael’s election manifesto mentioned civil partnership only in terms of amending tax law in accordance with the 2010 Civil Partnership Act. Fine Gael’s support for prioritising same-sex constitutional proposals is the first illustration of willingness on the part of a political party to elevate civil partnership to the status to that of marriage. In January a report by academics and polling company Red C revealed that 73% of the public surveyed supported the inclusion of same-sex marriage in the constitution. The report had been commissioned by the government in the wake of the referendum defeat on Oireachtas Inquiries in November.

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It’s a tall order to feed, clean, cloth, entertain and instil values in another human being, and those just cover the basics. Of course fathers should and do play a role but the bulk of the job is still usually left to the mother.

The Irish constitution preaches the virtue of a woman’s place in the home with her children but the state doesn’t provide much to make that practical.

If you want as much as a semi-sane balance of a career, family and any sort of down time there are worse places to do it than in France, which has the second highest birth rate in Europe, after Ireland. While being a stay-at-home mum is entirely possible here in Ireland, many women in France choose to continue work for a whole plethora of reasons.

Here are just some of the state support systems that French mothers, both stay at-home and working, can rely on;

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In 2012 Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton needs to introduce legislation that will provide legal recognition of acquired gender for transgender individuals. 

Mrs Burton had announced this intention in June 2011 with the publication of a report by the inter-departmental Gender Recognition Advisory Group (GRAG). GRAG was set up to in May 2010 to advise the government on a 2007 High Court ruling that Ireland was in breach of the European Conventions on Human Rights for failing to have a legal mechanism to recognize the changed gender of transgender individuals.

There are a number of conditions that result in people identifying to a gender opposite that of their biological characteristics. The most common of these is Gender Identity Disorder (GID), were a person feels a discomfort with their physical gender while simultaneously holding a distinct personal identification with their opposite gender.

According to the report, treatment for GID aims to help individuals to become content with their gender identity rather than attempt to impose a “cure”. Most often the outcome of GID treatment is that the person makes a full biological transition to their preferred gender.

The most famous Irish transgender person was Dr Lydia Foy whose 14 year fight for legal recognition of her changed gender led to the 2007 High Court ruling.

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