Ireland’s Justice Minister: ‘Misgendering is not a hate crime’

People who refer to a gender-confused person’s biological sex will not be prosecuted under Ireland’s intended hate crime law, its Justice Minister has pledged.

At a press conference, Helen McEntee stated that the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 will not criminalise people for so-called misgendering.

McEntee recently claimed the vast majority of people want new hate crime laws, despite 73 per cent of respondents to the Government’s own public consultation opposing the plans.

Hate speech

Responding to questions on her plans for the controversial Bill, McEntee said that she hoped to have enacted the hate crime legislation by the end of the year.

When pressed on the intent of the Bill, she stated: “this is not about criminalising people who insult others or might misgender another person”.

The Justice Minister expressed confidence that no one in Ireland would end up in court for ‘misgendering’, as this, she suggested, did not constitute a “deliberate intent to spread hatred against another person”.

Thought crime

In April, during a debate on the Bill in the Dáil, Paul Murphy TD said that the Government was in danger of criminalising someone in possession of supposedly ‘hateful material’, even if it remained private and harmed nobody.

Murphy warned that Section 10 of the legislation “creates the possibility of a person being criminalised purely for having material that is hateful, without that material being communicated to the public”.

He asked: “How can we hold people responsible for actions that they have not taken? That goes against the main thrust of our criminal law, which relates to actual crimes that take place, not bad thoughts that people have, that they write down.”