The new priests, same as the old priests

A few years ago, my wife and I did our bit in trying to repeal the eighth amendment in Ireland. The Eight Amendment was a hangover from Ireland’s priest-ridden past which prevented women from receiving an abortion, even in cases such as ours where the child had no chance of surviving. We worked with Amnesty International, who shot a moving and powerful video that I like to think had some influence on the final result of the referendum, which was a resounding success for Irish women.

As soon as the result came in, Colm O’Gorman, who had accompanied us while we travelled Ireland doing interviews and forums, stabbed those same women in the back.

Without pausing for breath, Amnesty Ireland robbed Irish women of their greatest victory over the religious ideologues who had controlled their lives for decades. ‘Pregnant people’ was an early sign that the organisation had committed to the erasure of women’s reality because of the demands of trans rights activists. Or as we put it in our recent parody…

If I had known then what I know now about that organisation, we might have shopped around a bit before we settled on working with them. I didn’t realise that Amnesty had been ideologically captured by fashionable misogyny. I didn’t realise that they had a policy of placing dangerous males with vulnerable women. I didn’t realise they supported the destruction of women’s sports, the removal of their safe spaces, and of their right to equal representation in political life.

I wasn’t alone in my ignorance. In the infamous Denton’s document, Irish activists were praised for dishonestly and disgracefully sneaking in Self-ID on the back of marriage equality. Irish women have never had a vote on this matter, which affects them in almost every area of life, whether they know it or not, and that was by design.

A disgraceful betrayal not only of women but also of gay people, to use them in such a way.

And now this. Look at the state of this.

JinnysJoe @JinnysJoe

Today, a letter called for Women in Ireland, who have concerns and objections to the GRA and gender ideology, to no longer have political representation. This letter has been signed by @amnesty @amnestyIreland @NWCI among others. 1/6

I won’t go too much into why the ‘far right’ business is a lie, I’ll just remind you again of Linda Bellos, of Helen Steel, of Jane Clare Jones, of Julie Bindel, and of the countless left-wing women at the very centre of this fight.

It’s a lie, another lie like the ones we were told about aborted babies not going to heaven. Now, too late, I realise that when we gave our story to Amnesty, we were giving it to the priests we’d thought we’d escaped, this time wearing casual dress, but with the same burning sense of self-rightousness provided by the new religion of gender identity.

Colm O’Gorman and everyone working at Amnesty, you are traitors to women, and traitors to gay people, and if you had any decency at all, the shame of it should haunt you to your graves.