Gender Equality & Progressive European Democracy

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Friday June 02, 2006 18:33

by Oliver Cromwell, the Lord High Protector

30 years after the deaths of De Valera & Franco the difference between Spain & Ireland's social & gender debate could not be starker. Today as the Spanish Cabinet approved yet another of their election manifesto promises of 2004 to "enact equality of gender identification legislation", The Irish Legislature found itself discussing the legalities of a 60 year old man engaging in oral sex with a 15 year old boy. What was in one state simply another move at Cabinet Executive level to correct intolerable wrongs of the past counterpointed an Emergency Session of the Legislature in the other state to patch yet another hole in the 1937 constitution left to the majority of Irish people by De Valera.

gender equality debates in Europe 228 years after Eleanor Butler & Sarah Ponsoby ran away...

The new "sexual identity" Law presented by the Spanish minister for Justice today will allow transexuals the right to alter their official documentation ( such as identity cards, passports, bank accounts & birth certs ) to reflect their "true gender". Thus women in men's bodies and men in women's bodies (of whom there are estimated to be between 3,000 and 9,000 amongst the citizens of Spain) will be able to alter their "birth gender" accordingly, & without having to have undergone any sex change operation before hand but only if their condition has been psychiatrically / psychologically assessed and they have undergone hormonal treatment for 2 years.

The new legislation will put Spain in a small group of states internationally who have legislated for "trans-sexuals". That group includes Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Turkey.
In all those states judicial protection has been afforded those whose phsyical bodies does not reflect their gender psychology. There will also be moves to extend health ministry funding to enable transexuals to undergo hormonal and surgical procedures should they wish to "completely" redress the contra-diction. At present only 2 of the 14 autonomous regions of the Spanish state offer such medical assistance as a social welfare entitlement, (Andalucia and Extramadura) whilst Asturias and Aragon plan to introduce such health cover by the end of 2006. The autonomous region of Catalonia has fallen short of offering free "sex-change" operations but does offer endicronoligical (hormonal) and psychiatric services free.

info (spanish)
press :-
http://www2.swissinfo.org/ses/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=1...22000
government ministry
http://www.la-moncloa.es/ConsejodeMinistros/Referencias...#Sexo

30 years after the death of De Valera, & 228 years after Eleanor Butler & Sarah Ponsoby ran away from their Kilkenny home to seek peace in Llangollen Wales as a couple wearing mens' clothing or less than 20 years since Ireland saw its first openly transexual undergo his/her operations and hormonal care paid for by the proceeds of a tabloid newspaper series pruriantly examining her progress.
:-
Ireland has faced a very different gender equality debate.

Today during an emergency session Irish Minister of Justice Michael Mc Dowell clashed with Labour deputy Brendan Howlin over a question of homosexual acts :- Deputy Howlin had said that a 60-year-old man had sex with a consenting 15-year-old boy falling short of penetration, this would be an offence of gross indecency under the Criminal Law Act 1993. He was heckled by the Minister whose lack of knowledge of sexual offences legislation in Ireland has now provoked great public outrage.
The Minister asserted that such an act of fellatio would be a sexual assault carrying a 14-year sentence. He was of course wrong . The Labour deputy has written to the Minister requesting an apology. Rumours are though that so many people have written to the Minister requesting apologies or resignation in the last week, that poor old Micky has quite given up.

there are some people interested in trans-sexual affairs in Ireland, I recall one of them passed comments on my first article "How safe are they really?"
http://indymedia.ie/article/75588 Though I felt this was confusing the issue, as that article had really been meant to concern the prevalence of piercings and tattoos amongst the young, and nor girls who are boys or boys who are girls, or girls who want boys who are girls, or boys who want girls who are boys.

I've learnt how the site & Irish sexual & gender debates work since though.

save preference

Comments (4 of 4)

Irish readers may be interested to know -

by historian

Fri Jun 02, 2006 20:01

That only 3 times before in the history of the Irish state has the word fellatio been recorded by the stenographers of the Irish Legislature. All previous uses of the word were heard in the Senate, but not the Dail.
1990
http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0127/S.0127.199012120010.html
1993
http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0137/S.0137.199306290005.html
1981
http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0095/S.0095.198104010003.html

the word itself dates from 1887, from the latin. "fellatus", which is the past participle of fellare "to suck". The sexual partner performing fellatio is a fellator; if female, a fellatrice or fellatrix.

The first appearance of the word in official Irish government debate in the Dail occured today.
& of course was in reference to a hypothetical fellatrix not a fellatrice. Well done deputy Howlin!
Quite a bit of history made there!

The Irish readers may also be relieved to know that the word Cunnilingus has only once appeared in the Irish legislature (also in the Senate) during Rape a debate in 1981.
http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0095/S.0095.198104010003.html

The word Cunnilingus which is also first dated in published use to 1887, derives from from the modified latin "cunnus vulva" compounded with "lingere". The latin "neologism" would properly mean "one who licks a vulva," but it is used in english in reference to the action, not the actor. The verb ought to be cunnilingue . As of yet no-one has attempted to coin either words cunnilingutrie or cunnilingutrix
as the great etymologist Havelock Ellis wrote in 1905 : "Cunnilingus was a very familiar manifestation in classical times; ... it tends to be especially prevalent at all periods of high civilization". Obviously Dail debates haven't reached such high civilisation yet... because no-one has mentioned Cunnilingus yet.

Interestingly enough the British Parliament has also seen the word fellatio recorded 4 times since 1998 the year their parliamentary debate service "Hansard" makes available online searches.

A toast to Lord Auch, aka Georges Bataille

by Chris Murray - The Unmanageables

Fri Jun 02, 2006 21:48

From 'The Cat's Eye'. (The Story of the Eye).

Simone is sixteen:

"She had black silk stockings on, covering her knees, but I was unable to
see her as far up as the cunt, (This name , which I always used with Simone, is, I think,
by far the lovliest name for the vagina). It merely struck me that by slightly lifting
the pinafore from behind, I might see her private parts unveiled".

The narrator is sixteen.

If you prefer the world of Celia Ahern and her Rainbows, please let me
know, becuse the effect of today's law is the creation of a two tier
system of sexual morality which will advance the issues of abuse and
trafficking. I believe that new by-laws listed for the councils will
state that sex shops have to be away from residential areas. The Pd's drive the
morality of the government. Speaking as a woman, this law is bad law.
I could not find any good male porn in my library, or gay for that matter.
The 'Swimming Pool Library' doesn't quite make the grade.
Mr Mc Dowell knows well that this law mitigates against young women
as well as young men, his liberatarianism extends only to the
commodification of the individual and not to expressive freedom.

If however, you don't have the stomach for auto-eroticism and the
evisceration of a catholic priest on the Altar, then I suggest a cuppa and
a copy of one from Ms Aherne's opus.

as you know..........

by chris murray - the unmanageables

Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:39

The Bill(fully titled elsewhere) has been transposed into Irish law.
Joe HigginsTD was the only public representative who rejected it.
He received no support from any member of the 'opposition'.
The fantastic moral compass which guided green, labour, fine gael to
fear for their vote share and not question the human rights aspects
of the legislation indicates a complete lack of balls in the Dail,
maybe they were afraid of the protestors outside. who were hardly threatening
to break down the doors(being well barricaded and singing omniously).

Given that our male/female ratio in the Dail is akin to representation in
sub-sahara , it is hardly surprising that real women were barricaded
away from the house of Eunuchs. Not one woman TD spoke on the issue
and assuming they did, they wd also toe the party line.

So the trap has been set again for a future government.

by hmmm

Sat Jun 03, 2006 18:02

I wonder what letter the poor teenage defendent boy or girl in the future who brings us all back to the apalling vista will get?
Will he or she be an "X"?
Maybe next time - they'll examine the legislation without nationwide panic & have a vote of conscience & maybe even use the word "cunnilingus"....
mark my words - its not over - just a resprung trap.

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Comments (4 of 4)