Mick Clifford: We live in an age of intolerance
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Last weekend, the ran a piece by psychotherapist Jacky Grainger. She wrote of what she was subjected to after co-authoring an article about a proposed conversion therapy ban bill three years ago.
Conversion therapy is a highly controversial process in which an attempt is made with teenagers who are gay or wishing to transition gender to convince them they are not gay or trans
Some religious extremists believe in the practice but a government-commissioned study in this country found that it had never occurred here. Despite that, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman pushed for legislation in the area. This followed a campaign by a vocal lobby of activists to have it banned.
Grainger and her fellow authors wrote that any such bill could cause problems for therapists. They stated they might feel restricted in what they could say in therapy to young clients for fear of breaking the law. There has been an explosion in the number of teenagers over the last decade raising issues around their gender, including a firm intent to transition. Some question what is happening here, suggesting further examination is required. For a vocal lobby of activists, this amounts to denying trans people the right to exist. And in defending such a position they believe that no comment or debate in this area should be countenanced.
Grainger wrote last week that she was put through hell for expressing her views. She encountered extreme reactions from being frozen out in some professional circles to vitriolic abuse on social media.
“Slowly, I withdrew, partly out of self-preservation and mostly from exhaustion and stress,” she wrote. “It got to the point of not sleeping and my mental health took a downward turn.”
One of her co-authors was the high-profile psychotherapist Stella O’Malley. In April 2022, her reputation was thrashed in the Dáil when she was described as an “extremely controversial figure” who shouldn’t be involved in State education. Comments she made were quoted completely out of context by People Before Profit’s Mick Barry. For some strange reason neither the Taoiseach, who had the floor at the time, nor the Ceann Comhairle pulled Barry up on the abuse of privilege. It was as if once they heard the term “transgender” they ran for the hills, afraid of what could befall them. Such was the power of the activists, particularly but not exclusively online, that politicians were scared stiff of being labelled “anti-trans” or even “far right”.
Donal O’Shea and Paul Moran, consultants who have worked in transgender care for decades, also had their bona fides questioned by activists who didn’t want to hear their expert opinions. Then in June 2022, RTÉ’s ran a couple of programmes on the subject of gender dysphoria. It included a moving account from a mature person who had transitioned late in life. However, it also had contributions from some people who question aspects of gender dysphoria. On the basis that Joe Duffy had “platformed” the latter views, Dublin Pride pulled out of a partnership deal with RTÉ.
Such a warning in an age of social media was chilling for both politicians and professionals in the area.
All of that now seems like a long time ago. Last March the result in the family and care referendums was cast by some as a reaction to the so-called “woke” orthodoxy, of which the above issue was one of the prominent features. In reality, reasons for the defeat of both referendums were more complex but there was a grain of truth in the notion that a chuck of the public and the body politic were fed up with being told that only certain views would be tolerated in the public square. Some people had had enough of what might be termed this intolerance of the illiberal left.
Today, one form of intolerance has been displaced by another, probably more toxic strain. Certainly in much of the body politic, and considerable sections of the electorate, there is now an intolerance for anything that can be described as “woke”, a term that is misused as a form of insult for identity politics. For instance, were the proposed ban on conversion therapy to be presented to the Oireachtas today, the smart money says it would not be passed into law.
This week it was revealed that there has been a 12% increase in the volume of hate crime and hate-related incidents reported to the gardaí. Some 651 incidents were recorded last year, up from 582 in 2022. Victims’ ethnicity or nationality now account for the greatest percentage of incidents.
Despite that, a long-awaited hate crime bill is being stalled. This State is one of the only jurisdictions in Europe not to have a proper up-to-date hate crime law to reflect that minorities are consistently targeted in either a casual or organised manner. A few years ago there was near unanimity in the Dáil backing the bill. After the referendum result, Sinn Féin among others said it should be scrapped. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael make noises about ensuring it will be dealt with in this Dáil, but nobody really believes them. The main parties do not want to be associated with anything that might spark resistance, both online and on the doorsteps, from the latest form of intolerance.
The kernel of the problem lies in a relatively minor element of the bill concerned with hate speech. Opponents claim it will impact on free speech but there is little doubt that some of this opposition is a reaction to the intolerance of the illiberal left that was so prominent a short while ago.
“It is reckless and dangerous to play politics with this issue,” Pavee Point’s Martin Collins said on Wednesday at a press conference held by the Coalition Against Hate Crimes. He is correct but it might be more accurate to state that politicians simply don’t have the cojones to lead on a moral issue because of fear of those who shout loudest. Where a few years ago they were scared stiff of being labelled ‘anti-trans’ or ‘far-right’, today their worst fears are to be accused of pandering to a ‘woke’ agenda.
Thus the plight of minorities targeted by hate is reduced to an afterthought. Just as the plight of teenagers struggling with gender identity is secondary to those who pursue a strict ideology that they claim is about protecting rights.
In essence, intolerance begets intolerance whether it comes from the left or right, and those who preach it ultimately have scant regard for basic humanity irrespective of where their pulpit is located.