Transgenderism is an inalienable fact of life in 2025. We have more transgender people than ever in this country and the world over. Yet alienation and disrespect of trans people has grown with an ugly intensity since Donald Trump and his band of bullies took office.
There were two developments relating to this topic across the Atlantic this past week that flew somewhat under the radar.
During his meeting with Trump in the White House on Wednesday, Taoiseach either skulked quietly or laughed gormlessly as President Trump blithered on on a range of unconnected topics, from the price of eggs to Ireland’s theft of US pharmaceutical giants to JD Vance’s distracting novelty Shamrock socks.
Not content with belittling our housing crisis and heaping praise on Conor McGregor, Trump then went on a rant about an increasingly vulnerable minority, trans people.
Like a Las Vegas magician high on his own ego, he took aim at the Democrats and segued from a claim that Democratic policies are leading to foreign murderers flooding his country into a fiery condemnation of transwomen taking part in women’s sports.
Misgendering transwomen athletes as men, he then said “they are hurting women very badly” and also “demeaning women”. The “they” pronoun he used was presumably in reference to either Democrats or their policies, and not trans people specifically.
But he went on to spout that “everything’s transgender, everybody [sic] transgender, that’s all you hear about, now that’s why we won the election”.
While the first part of that statement is categorically not true – everybody is clearly not transgender – the second part, that his trumped-up claims about minorities helped him win the election, does hold water.
Trans people, along with Juan-ie foreigners, became the scapegoats of the US presidential election. Inciting fear and thus hate about select minorities was a tactic used to win the votes of the uneducated masses who needed someone to blame for their perceived economic and social ills.
During Trump’s whirlwind of verbal vomit in the Oval Office, his raising of transgenderism was that bewildering I was only surprised he didn’t claim that “trans people are eating our women”.
Perhaps he was trying to get a rise out of the fighting Irishman for the cameras, but no Zelensky-esque skirmish developed. However, the Taoiseach could have politely interjected during Trump’s anti-trans diatribe to point out that there are a lot of talented, loving and skilled trans people who contribute to Irish and American society – many in the arts, healthcare, politics… and yes, in sport.
But as the claims of trans danger to women spewed forth, smiling Micheál sat back and behaved himself like a good boy from little old Ireland. At the same time, jockey Rachael Blackmore was putting it up to the men at Cheltenham in the most bruising of unisex sports.
The Taoiseach, for his part, did have a precarious tightrope to walk as the Trump circus came to town for St Patrick’s Day celebrations Stateside, but he essentially pleaded the Fifth as a minority group took a battering right in front of him while the world watched on.
For his part, he should now state whether or not he agrees with Trump’s exclusionary policies on trans people, a minority who make up less than 1% of most populations. The Taoiseach should also address the complicated matter of trans people who take part in sports.
One politician who did stand up to this brazen discrimination across the Atlantic in recent days was Massachusetts Democratic representative Bill Keating, a Congressman of Irish descent, who called out blatant bigotry towards a trans representative during a congressional hearing on arms control.
Incensed by Republican Texas representative Keith Self purposely misgendering Democratic Delaware congresswoman Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress, by calling her “Mr McBride”, Keating asked: “Mr Chairman, have you any decency?”
McBride made her point succinctly by addressing Mr Self as “Madame Chair”. After Keating refused to continue the hearing “unless you introduce a duly elected representative the right way”, the meeting was adjourned by Self.
House Repubicans have previous form in refusing to address McBride as a female, with her being called “the gentleman from Delaware” on another occasion. When a group of individuals purposely show this level of personal disrespect to a fellow public representative on a repeated basis, one word immediately comes to mind: bullying. If it happened in our Dáil there would be expulsions. But because Trump signed an executive order demanding that only two genders be recognised based on biology at birth, this kind of bullying has been legitimised in public office.
As someone who chairs an LGBTQ+ organisation in my hometown, I have trans friends and colleagues. I have on occasion misgendered people by accident. I have used the wrong pronouns, but it has never been intentional. I have had awkward conversations with non-LGBTQ+ people about what gender someone who is trans within their vicinity is. I am still learning about transgenderism and how best to approach trans people with dignity and respect. If we leave aside left and right, liberalism and conservativism, for one moment, and look at people simply as fellow humans trying to get by with the identity that they choose, the identity that makes them happy and comfortable, is it really too much to ask that respect should be to the forefront of all public dialogue on this issue?
Recently, the inclusion of transwomen in women’s and girls’ sports has come to prominence in Ireland, with a growing push for transwomen to be excluded.
I have had concerns about transwomen playing contact sports with other women. But after an illuminating discussion with two very articulate members of Navan Pride’s committee last week, my private concerns have been altered somewhat.
Both pointed out that some women are more butch than others. Some possess more strength or weight. One argued that the swimmer Michael Phelps had a far greater advantage over his rivals purely because of his biological make-up, giving him the perfect body for swimming. So, should we isolate certain people from sports just because they are bigger, stronger and faster than their peers too? The complexities of this issue will not be resolved overnight. Indeed, I still have reservations with regard to contact sports, but ultimately a respectful rhetoric on this issue needs to be to the fore.
Trans people have it hard enough. They have faced bullying all their lives. It’s no wonder self-harm and suicidal ideation is off the charts among this cohort. Further exclusion is a regressive step. Education and inclusion needs to be front and centre going forward. Not fear-mongering. Not exclusion. And definitely not bullying.
Patrick Lawlor is a journalist and is the chair of Navan Pride