A review of the equality acts commissioned by Roderic O’Gorman (Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth), took in a total of 581 submissions during the consultation period, with 84% or 477 on the topic of gender. 

The review is a summary of the submissions received by a 2021 consultation on the review of the equality acts.

Some respondents argued that including gender identity as a protection under the acts would create poor outcomes for lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth.

The review also heard from legal professionals that harassment should be considered as a form of discrimination.

Liability for harassment should, as in other jurisdictions, be attached jointly to the perpetrator, and the employer, one submission states.

Spot checks for sexual harassment should also be held under the Organisation of Working Time Act, another states, in recognition that bullying is a health and safety issue.

One submission argued that a review and overhaul of the Maternity Protection Act 1994 was urgently needed, given a lack of clear guidance on what constituted maternity discrimination.

Many submissions argued that the inclusion of specific sex-based language under equality grounds was necessary to make exemptions specifically and exclusively applicable to sex, as opposed to gender, identity.

Another submission said that plans for laws banning conversion therapy should not conflate conversion therapy for sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Teaching children and young adults gender-identity ideology in school should be prohibited, because it discriminated against all those parents who did not believe in it and considered it abusive, a submission said.

Another submission stated that a father's automatic guardianship of a child should not continue because, without knowing individual circumstances, it was impossible to protect a child's interest.

Paternal grandparents

A submission noted that paternal grandparents often appealed to the courts for access to their grandchild while maternal grandparents did not.

Another submission requested protections for those in polyamorous relationships under civil status and sexual orientation grounds.

One organisation said that gay or bisexual men disclosed almost twice the level of rape disclosed by heterosexuals, as well as multiple incidents of sexual violence.

And a majority of LGBTI+ students had heard derogatory remarks, frequently in schools, with six in ten reporting verbal harassment.

One individual submitted that the curriculum in school needed to encompass a wider range of beliefs – including paganism, shamanism, Wicca, heathenry, and atheism.

The submissions were generally in favour of people working longer if they chose to do so. One organisation suggested an exemption from proposed increases in the State pension age for those in physically-demanding jobs.

Another submission argued that children in care were receiving sub-standard treatment from poorly-trained staff, and that these services operated at great expense.

Neurodiversity

Several submissions argued for the inclusion of neurodiversity within the definition of disability. Another noted that discrimination against people with disability in employment was "pernicious, persistent, and prevalent".

Several argued that remote and flexible working should be a right for people in all categories, but particularly for those with disabilities.

One submission noted an increase in reports of discrimination against people of African descent when seeking accommodation in the private rental sector.

The review notes that form-letter campaigns were part of some submissions on gender identity, though with varying opinions and perspectives. Some complained of not enough protection for non-binary, intersex, or transgender individuals.

Disruption of single-sex spaces

Other respondents highlighted bathrooms, changing rooms, beauticians and salons, bridal shops, sports teams and classes, support groups, clubs and social groups, prisons, race rape and abuse crisis centres, and homeless shelters as single-sex spaces that could be disrupted by legislation that protected against discrimination based on gender identity.

Extension of single-sex spaces to trans women will be troublesome for religions such as Islam and Judaism, which forbid women from being seen naked or unveiled by members of the opposite sex, another submission states.