Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 - Read OP

In a way, yes - but it also proves the flaw in your logic: if no specifc race/gender/orientation is specified, than it can't rank as higher/more important than any other.

What you're trying to say, for example, is that whites aren't protected because being white is not a minority; but the law doesn't say anything about minorities, or even mention a specific race, be it white, black or anything else.

There’s no discriminatory practice in the bill because it refers to protected characteristics, not specifics like your earlier example of a white male. Your argument is the equivalent of the author of that Gript article from earlier stating that there was a reason “Irishness” is not a protected characteristic -

Ask yourself, for example, why the hate speech bill does not make “Irishness” a protected characteristic: The answer is because nobody preaching hate against the Irish race would ever get anywhere in Ireland, politically: Their speech need not be banned because it is not a threat to the powers that be.

That’s the answer according to him, but the bill does refer to nationality, race, descent and national or ethnic origin as protected characteristics. I’d say that was pretty comprehensive, would you? He goes on to claim, like you, that the Government has no official position on the subject of gender and that the bill is needed to protect gender identity. Those claims are bullshìt, for two reasons -

The Government isn’t required to have an official position on gender, and the concept of gender identity doesn’t need defending.

It’s the definition of stupidity to accuse the Government of not having an official position on something, and then claim that they need to introduce laws to defend a position they don’t hold. Anyone making claims like that is in a poor position to be lecturing anyone on logic!

For the purposes of the legislation, the protected characteristic of gender is defined as follows -

“gender” means the gender of a person or the gender which the person expresses as their preferred gender or with which the person identifies and includes transgender or a gender other than those of male and female

https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/bill/2022/105/eng/ver_b/b105b22d.pdf

I’d say that definition was pretty comprehensive! John McGuirk’s claim that his publication are going to deliberately flout hate speech law on the basis that free speech is not negotiable amounts to nothing more than posturing nonsense.

The DPP isn’t likely to pursue a prosecution against anyone associated with the publication because there is no public interest whatsoever in giving the oxygen thieves at Grift any greater attention in the public domain than the insignificant amount they already have. McGuirk knows this, but he’s banking on the idea that his audience doesn’t, so he can appear to play the victim. Being prosecuted for knowingly breaking the law does not mean the person being prosecuted is a victim of the law. Irish law already recognises that people have a right to protest, and outlines the limitations on that right in the same manner as it outlines the limitations on the right to freedom of expression.

McGuirk is doing nothing more than parroting tired clichés in the hope of increasing his publications revenue. Anyone who is inspired to protest the proposed legislation as a consequence of McGuirks rhetoric is likely to find the following document helpful in informing them of their rights and responsibilities, before they make a tit of themselves -

https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Know-Your-Rights-Protest.pdf

Using the word gender to "define" gender is a circular definition, if any kind of definition. How can you define something by using it in the definition. It is useless.

It's like defining a football as "a football which is used to play football".

But what is gender, define it? How does one know what gender someone is? how does one know what gender they are?

Neither of us have to stress about defining it though. The definition of gender for the purposes of the legislation, is right there.

One doesn’t have to concern oneself with figuring out what gender anyone is or other things which are completely unrelated to the legislation. You can do, which is your prerogative of course, but what the legislation is saying you can’t do, is incite hatred or violence against other people on the grounds of any of the protected characteristics.

It’s also saying that if you’re assaulted for example, and one of the protected characteristics is found to be a motivating factor in the commission of the offence, this will be taken into consideration in sentencing your assailant. Nobody need concern themselves with your gender, or your nationality, or ethnicity, or race, disability, etc.

I think that the issues of trans people being involved in sports should be up to the sporting bodies. There are plenty who have restricted involvement of trans people.

Personally, as I am not involved in any sports at a professional level, I would be happy for the people who are, to do as they see fit.

I havent seen anyone argue that misgendering is violence or incitement to violence.

https://browngirlmagazine.com/misgendering-is-an-act-of-violence-and-it-needs-to-stop/

https://hellogiggles.com/laverne-cox-twitter-essay-misgendering-deadnaming-trans-people-violence/

You've been fairly sheltered from the internet then, I believe. Misgendering and deadnaming is apparently violence. So you can see my worry about not knowing how to know someone's gender.

They're not violence and yes, there are a few extremists, but that doesn't mean it's representative.

Misgendering and deadnaming to make a point are dick moves though, to be fair. If someone what's to be called Steph insteda of Steve, so what? Even if you believe there are two genders, why is it the hill you want to pick a fight on?

How do you define gender though, that is the point i'm making. I could be misgendering myself if there is a certain definition of gender. We never hear what gender actually is, bar a "feeling". How can a law be based on a feeling?

Nope. That act only applies to male/female.

As per the application form,

https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/38300/3f615ebf110d42e8a1b591385bb9dc7d.pdf#page=null

"I do solemnly and sincerely declare that I

(i)

have a settled and solemn intention to live in the preferred gender of male/female (delete as appropriate) for the rest of my life."

But my question remains, what is a gender. No one can answer it. There's been deflections, accusations, tantrums, pretty much anything but an answer anytime I've asked this question online or in real life.