A transgender child? Who decides? What is the right age to legally change gender?

There are so many questions surrounding the transgender agenda, especially when it comes to vulnerable children who are too young to know better...

Did you know the Irish government wants to make it easier for 16-year-olds to legally change their gender?

It would be “awarded on the basis of self-declaration only” according to a report on the review of the Gender Recognition Act, first published in November 2019.

Trans march in Dublin city centre, July 2022

This only came to my attention by accident. A friend sent me an article from The Irish Sun newspaper also from November 2019 strangely enough, that piqued my curiosity. The headline read: 

TRANS-PARENT Mum of transgender boy, 11, reveals that he asked her ‘when will I get the right privates?’ at age two.

As a mother of three boys, I thought, what a ridiculous headline. No two-year-old is that concerned about their privates. They’re too busy playing and causing mischief, sleeping and eating. They just are, blissfully, divinely themselves. Gender barely comes into the equation at two. The headline set off alarm bells.  

RTÉ Radio One host Ray D’Arcy with mother and Dublin District Coroner Aisling Gannon

The report covered a slot on RTÉ Radio One’s Ray D’Arcy Show where Aisling Gannon, a former legal partner at Eversheds Sutherland and now a Dublin District Coroner, spoke about bringing her daughter to a psychotherapist “who brought up the idea of it being a gender identity crisis”.  The report goes on to say: 

 "He hadn't yet turned three and he had a bike with no stabilisers and used to wear all these dress up outfits like Spider Man and Superman.

"He'd be cycling on this little camouflage bike along the seafront and I remember, everyone used to say "God isn't he gorgeous, isn't he great" and everyone just thought he was a boy."

By the age of seven, the child had moved to the boys’ class and ‘using his mum’s legal knowledge, Steve’s name has been changed across the board with all government departments.

The final line in the article stuck out for me: 

However his gender, which is still listed as female, cannot legally be changed until he's 16, something mum Aisling is fighting to change.

You can listen to the full radio interview here.

Why on earth would this mother be fighting to change the legal age for changing your gender in Ireland? It’s already shockingly young. Note the timing of the report, coinciding with the government recommendations on making it easier for 16-year-olds to change gender. Must just be a coincidence.

Citizen’s Information outlines the current process: 

If you are aged 16 or 17, you can ask an adult (normally your parent or guardian - also referred to as next friend of the child) to apply for a gender recognition certificate on your behalf.

First, they will need to apply to the Circuit Family Court to exempt you from the over-18 age restriction. The Court can grant the exemption if you have:

The consent of a parent or guardian

A form from your medical practitioner certifying that, in their professional medical opinion, you have the maturity and understanding to make this decision for yourself. They must also certify that you have transitioned (or are currently transitioning) into your preferred gender.

A form from a psychiatrist or endocrinologist certifying that they agree with the medical practitioner.

If the court grants the exemption, you or the adult can apply for a gender recognition certificate on your behalf. See Applying for a gender recognition certificate below for details.

Did you spot ‘next friend of the child’ along with parent or guardian? Next friend? How else might that be interpreted? The government recommendations plan to simplify the process making it easier for 16-year-olds to legally change gender including simply declaring themselves the opposite sex.

So let’s take a look and see who is Aisling Gannon? Is it possible she might have some influence on government policy?

A report from The Irish Times dated January 24, 2011 reveals: 

Beauchamps partner Aisling Gannon left the firm recently to set up a healthcare unit for Eversheds…Ms Gannon has represented a number of large hospitals, including the Mater Private, the Hermitage and Beaumont in Dublin. She has also advised a number of healthcare insurers. 

The report goes on to say Ms Gannon also advised the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin in the past. 

Over on the Eversheds Sutherland website we find a list of awards for the company from Diversity and Inclusion to Blockchain Ireland accolades. Back to 2019 again, we can see on the 30th of October  the company was included on the 2019 OUTstanding LGBT+ Ally Role Model List, which '“recognises the efforts of Partner in Dispute Resolution and Litigation, Aisling Gannon, as a true leader for inclusiveness”. 

Aisling Gannon is quoted as saying

“I am truly humbled and honoured to represent Eversheds Sutherland on the 2019 OUTstanding Ally Executive Role Model list. I was inspired to become a supporter and ally of our LGBT+ and supporters’ employee network because of a change in my family circumstances and my own personal experience of having a transgender child.”

The child was just 11 at this time. Surely it’s too soon to declare her daughter a transgender son to the world. It doesn’t seem fair. Which leads to the question, what is a fair age to become transgender?

The Irish government would say 16, which seems dangerously young to make decisions about surgery or hormone treatment. Puberty blockers are too late at that stage. Should they ever be allowed for children? After all, you cannot physically change your gender, try as you might. It’s not possible. 

Investigative journalist Jennifer Bilek has studied Who is behind the trans agenda? Bilek explains its sinister connections to global legal firms and NGOs:

This has only happened in the past 10 years…these huge NGOs, these very huge, powerful non-governmental organisations serving the LGB community worked hand in hand with international law firms like Hogan Lovells and Dentons and Reuters Next Law and Open Society Foundation lawyers to start to create legal guides for transgender children. So they started to build this edifice of transgender children to drive this narrative, you know, that you can be born in the wrong body. So we heard all these initial stories about these children born in the wrong bodies, which now, a decade later, has morphed into just express yourself. You can be male. You can be female. You can be non-binary…into the right to augment yourself in whatever way you see fit.

Instead of serious discussions around these most important subjects, we get soft PR puff pieces, like the one in The Irish Sun or RTÉ Radio One’s Ray D’Arcy Show which assume we’re all good with a toddler wanting to be the opposite sex. It assumes we all agree that a two-year-old could possibly make that decision. Or even a seven-year-old? Or even an 11-year-old? Or even a 16-year-old later on? Surely the very notion of a  transgender child is a cause for concern. It should only be the decision of an adult and a mature adult at that. A grown-up would at least know, you cannot physically change your gender, no matter how much plastic surgery or hormone blockers or medical intervention. It’s simply not possible. You don’t get to choose your gender.

As adults it’s up to us to tell our children, there’s no way this can be done. Many have tried and failed and it’s very sad. Especially when you consider the suicide rate among the transgender community. Be yourself by all accounts, but don’t change God’s good work. You’re perfect as you are. We’ve got to let the kids know they don’t need to be fixed. 

We need to hear alternative voices on this topic, like that of Dr Susan Bradley, a Canadian psychiatrist who began working on gender dysphoric children in the 1970s. In a Daily Caller article published March 12, 2023, Dr Bradley believes most of the children who seek gender transitions had high-functioning autism and were being exploited by the medical industry. An article from The Telegraph from February 14, 2023 entitled Tavistock clinic ‘ignored’ link between autism and transgender children reads: 

The Tavistock clinic ignored evidence that 97.5 per cent of children seeking sex changes had autism, depression or other problems that might have explained their unhappiness, a new book claims.

Staff at the NHS facility were so determined to push a pro-transgender policy that children who might not have been trans were treated as “collateral damage” by clinicians who labelled doubters “transphobic”, a whistleblower says.

Seven in ten children had more than five “associated features” such as abuse, anxiety, eating disorders or bullying, and a social worker estimated that as few as 1 in 50 children treated at the clinic would have stayed transgender for life if they had not been given controversial drug therapy.

One clinical psychologist who worked at the Tavistock was “horrified” at the possibility that highly vulnerable children were wrongly being given irreversible drug treatments following referral by the Tavistock, but discussion of the subject was shut down by colleagues, she said.

Children as young as 10 were referred to specialists with a view to them being prescribed puberty-blocking drugs, and others were referred after as little as 20 minutes’ consultation, the book says.

This is where we need to keep our focus for the sake of the children as the government attempts to push through dangerous legislation under the guise of ‘diversity and inclusiveness’. It’s never been a more important time to adult up and pay attention to the details.

Aisling Gannon’s Linkedin account describes her as a Dublin District Coroner, Medico-Legal and Healthcare Solicitor and Senior Counsel and a BeLonGTo Board member. Has Aisling Gannon been involved in advising any public bodies on transgender issues? If so, we need to know more as a matter of public interest. We have much to discuss, the welfare of the little ones relies on us defending their innocence and protecting their bodies from invasive surgeries and life changing hormones. We must be firm on this one. You can’t change your gender. It’s ok. At least you’re saved a lifetime of surgeries and medical interventions that will fail to get you there anyway.

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