Sinn Féin officialy banned from Trans and Intersex Pride march

Sinn Féin has been officially banned from July’s Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin march after period of engagement with party leaders.

In April, the party was threatened with a ban by the organisation following controversial comments by the party’s health spokesperson David Cullinane, where he said he agreed with the UK Supreme Court ruling on gender and the party banning puberty blockers in the Northern Ireland Executive.

In April, the British Supreme Court ruled that the terms “woman” and” sex” in the 2010 Equality Act refer to “a biological woman and biological sex”.

Cullinane’s comment calling the British Supreme Court ruling “common sense,” has exposed clear divides in the party between it’s social progressive base it won over in 2020 and its traditional social conservative base.

Following engagement with the organisation with Sinn Féin, including sending an email to Mary Lou McDonald’s office about the parties stance and seeking a meeting with party leadership, the organisation said they were not satisfied with Sinn Féin’s attempts to acquiesce on the issue.

Last month, Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin released a statement calling on Sinn Féin to clarify their position on the UK Supreme Court and the ban on puberty blockers in Northern Ireland. This statement was released in light of public statements from David Cullinane and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn supporting the ruling.

In a statement released on Friday morning, the organisation said “we engaged in order to seek clarity on their positions on the Supreme Court ruling; whether they would oppose attempts to implement the ruling in Northern Ireland (currently the Supreme Court ruling has no basis in Northern Ireland due to different equality laws; however, there have been attempts to implement the ruling in councils); whether they continue to support the Northern Irish Executive (of which Michelle O’Neill is First Minister) decision to ban puberty blockers; and whether they would support a ban on puberty blockers in the South of Ireland.”

“After this period of engagement, Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin is not satisfied with the clarity received around their position on the Supreme Court ruling, with the continued defence of the banning of puberty blockers (including not supporting an amendment to reverse the puberty blocker ban in Stormont last Monday), and with the recent Journal article that claimed a conference to discuss its position on trans rights has been pushed to next year.”

With that in mind, Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin has since made the decision to officially ban Sinn Féin from Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin 2025.

“We have always banned government parties from joining our March, and we continue to say that Fine Gael, and Fianna Fàil are not welcome, but a real alternative to Fianna Fàil and Fine Gael has to firmly stand in solidarity with the trans community,” they said.

“Our focus is now on making Trans and Intersex Pride 2025 the biggest march yet. We reiterate our call for all activists, groups, and organisations who genuinely want to stand with the trans community to join us on 12th July,” the statement read”