Peadar Baile said on behalf of the IRSP; "Ireland has once again been found in the company of those hopelessly stranded in the past when it comes to matters of social equality and personal liberty. Along with Albania and Andorra, the 26-county partitionist statelet refuses to permit post-operative transsexuals to have their birth certificates altered to reflect the change of sex that they have undergone. The reason why the refusal of the Dublin regime to accept the changed reality that follows such surgery is of importance, is that by insisting that a person who now possesses male rather than female genitalia, male secondary sex characteristics, and who lives as a man is not a man, the government also prohibits him from getting married to a woman."

As a result of the reactionary position the Irish government has taken, Nicholas Krivenko, an Irish resident, originally from Russia who was born a woman, has been forced to take legal action to compel the government to accept that he is now a man and that his marriage to Sybille Hintze (originally from Germany) should be viewed as legal. They were married five years ago, in a civil ceremony in Limerick City, and now reside in Quin, Co. Clare. Nicholas had sexual reassignment surgery in Germany ten years ago and, if the couple were in Germany, the marriage would be accepted as without question. Mr. Krivenko is the co-chairperson of the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland.

The IRSP spokesperson continued; "The Irish state's refusal to accept the physical and social reality that results from sexual reassignment surgery is yet another attempt by the Dublin regime to align its laws to the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church. As with the still greatly restrictive laws on divorce and the ban on abortion, the Irish government continues to act as the legal wing of Catholicism and in doing so, meddles in the private affairs of the Irish people. Moreover, the retention of such archaic social legislation reinforces the contention of Protestants within the six counties that ending partition would subject them to Papal dictates of a Catholic majority.

"The Irish Republican Socialist Party has repeatedly made clear its view that church and state must be separated in order to ensure the full enjoyment of democratic rights by the people of Ireland. While the Catholic faithful or the pious Presbyterians of Ireland are entitled to observe the religious prohibitions of their respective religions regarding pre-marital sex, abortion, contraception, divorce, homosexuality, and trans-sexualism, these are matters for individuals to determine for themselves, not for the state to force upon them."

Mr. Baile concluded, "We in the IRSP call upon the Irish government to end its attempt to police the private behaviour of the Irish people and ensure the democratic rights of all members of Irish society."

STATEMENTS ENDS