Showdown on gender definition in hate crime Bill looms

A showdown over the definition of gender in the new hate crime legislation is due in the Seanad next week when the Government will seek to push through all remaining stages of the contentious legislation.
After the legislation was paused due to a backbench revolt, the Government said it would proceed with the hate crime elements of the Bill, but park the hate speech sections which had aroused significant criticism from a variety of sources, including Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Amendments to give effect to the changes are due to be brought to the Seanad next week, where the Government has said it will complete all remaining stages of the Bill. However, opponents of the Bill sharply criticised Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, saying they were being kept in the dark about the detail of the changes.
“The Government is acting arrogantly,” said Independent Senator Michael McDowell.
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“They are trying to deal with all stages of the hate speech Bill next Wednesday without telling Senators the amendments they are proposing.
“The Bill’s gender provisions remain unexplained and inexplicable. The previous leader in the Seanad, Regina Doherty, asserted in Scotland that there are nine genders. This half-baked ideology cannot be passed into law without a serious and informed debate.”
The amended Bill will provide for stiffer sentences for existing criminal offences – such as assault – when they are motivated by hatred for someone on account of their “protected characteristics” (race, colour, nationality, religion, national or ethnic origin, descent, gender, sex characteristics, sexual orientation and disability).
However, there is likely to be a dispute over the definition of gender. The proposed law extends the definition of gender to include “the gender of a person or the gender which a person expresses as the person’s preferred gender, or with which the person identifies, and includes transgender and a gender other than those of male and female”.
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Leading the revolt against the legislation in the Seanad last year, Mr McDowell asked “what is intended by the term ‘transgender’ and the phrase ‘a gender other than those of male and female’?” The Department of Justice supplied no response.
There is considerable disquiet among Government TDs about being pitched into a debate about the number of genders. However, both the Minister for Justice and the Taoiseach Simon Harris have committed to passing the hate crime legislation before the election.
A spokeswoman for the Minister for Justice said that Government and Opposition amendments would be due on Monday morning “as normal”.
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“We want to tell victims we are determined to stamp out hate-motivated crimes and that we, as a nation, are determined to protect vulnerable communities from hatred being incited against them,” the Department of Justice said.