Ireland’s Children’s Minister has publicly called for “transgender issues” to be taught to children in elementary schools.
Roderic O’Gorman, Ireland’s Minister of Children, has told a newspaper in the country that elementary school children in the country should be taught about “transgender issues” in order to properly educate them about “diversity”.
A gay man, O’Gorman previously became embroiled in scandal after publicly sharing a photograph depicting him with social activist Peter Tatchell, a well-known rights campaigner in the UK who was recently accused of defending a “pro-paedophilia book”. Tatchell, for his part, strongly denies supporting child abuse over the various claims made against him.
Speaking to the establishment broadsheet newspaper the Irish Independent, O’Gorman reportedly backed children in Ireland’s Primary School system being taught about “transgender issues” as part of their education on the topic of “diversity”.
“I think it’s important that primary school children as well have an understanding of the diversity of our society,” the minister told the publication, having also stated that “[t]ransgender issues should be part of [the] primary curriculum”.
The minister went on to say that he was working on the possibility of allowing those under the age of 16 in the country to legally declare their own “gender identity”, with the Green Party official attacking those who would criticise transgenderism.
“The rights of trans people in our country can’t be up for debate,” the minister reportedly said. “The discourse, particularly on social media, has become incredibly vicious towards members of the trans community in recent years.”
“No one wants to shut down free speech,” O’Gorman continued. “But I think it is really important that dialogue is respectful and based on facts, I suppose, rather than based on just mere prejudice.”
This latter statement comes as O’Gorman’s fellow ministers push hate speech legislation through the country’s parliament which could see those who utter prohibited statements jailed for up to five years.
Roderic O’Gorman’s stated desire to see “transgender issues” taught to primary school children has led to significant public outcry, with many Irish people taking to social media to denounce the efforts of the Green party politician.
This is far from the first time O’Gorman has become embroiled in controversy, however, with the Children’s Minister having previously found himself under fire for being photographed with Peter Tatchell, a gay rights activist that has previously been accused of defending a “pro-paedophilia book“.
“While it may be impossible to condone paedophilia, it is time society acknowledged the truth that not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive and harmful,” the campaigner is said to have written in a letter previously published in The Guardian 25 years ago.
While Tatchell himself has strenuously denied such accusations, saying that the letter in question where he reportedly defended the work had been edited by the paper before publication with key lines of context removed, this counter-claim has been challenged by critics.
Meanwhile, O’Gorman largely dismissed the controversy — which resulted in a protest taking place outside Ireland’s parliament — as being “toxic”, “homophobic”, and built on “misinformation” propagated by “fairly right-wing groups on social media”.
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