By Shay Woulahan
July 24, 2023
A mother in Ireland was visited by police after she raised concerns about the speaker and content of a “family friendly” event which had been aimed at discussing the medical and social transitioning of children.
On July 19, Tara Hewitt, the newly-appointed head of Ireland’s largest trans activist organization, led a discussion regarding the medical transitioning of children. The event, “TENI & Tea,” took place with the support of Donegal County Council.
But the event drew concerns from women’s rights advocates in the community, especially those particularly concerned with child safeguarding. As the event was billed as “family-friendly,” many began to point out that Hewitt had a disturbing history of opposing safeguarding measures and had previously signed a declaration calling for the release of all trans-identified inmates, including pedophiles, from prison.
Last week, Jennifer Kimmel, a local women’s rights campaigner, expressed her concerns when speaking with Reduxx about the event. Kimmel pointed out that Hewitt, the new CEO of Trans Equality Network Ireland (TENI), was a self-professed BDSM fetishist.
Kimmel called into question the motives of the event organizers, Bród na Gaeltachta and TENI, for targeting minors and “vilifying” concerned parents.
“Any person or group with good intentions does not vilify parents, purposely mislead the public nor regard themselves as above reproach. These are clear red flags,” Kimmel said.
But Kimmel’s concerns about the event quickly attracted the attention of trans activists, who characterized her Tweets as “hate speech.”
Speaking to Reduxx, Kimmel explained that in response to her vocal opposition to the event, trans activists involved with “TENI & Tea” reported her to law enforcement, citing “concerns about the safety of their staff” and accusing Kimmel of “hate speech.”
On July 20, a police officer visited her home, where she said she was then “lectured about being homophobic.”
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The police officer gave her a warning, stating she was treading a “fine line” and had been reported by the main organizers of “TENI & Tea,” Robbie Matthews and Pól Penrose. The officer dismissed her concerns and told her that she should “run her own event.”
Leading up to the arrival of an officer on her doorstep, Kimmel says she had called Pobail le Chéile, a local “social inclusion” voluntary organization in which Penrose is involved. Her intent was to raise safeguarding concerns given Hewitt’s history.
Kimmel explained to law enforcement that she had not harassed any particular individual, and had only called to inform the community group about the potential risk to children. She also told the officer that the event staff had insulted her in a variety of ways, calling her a “bigot, fascist, homophobe, anti-gay, cockroach, and TERF,” slurs which had led to her to receiving harassment.
Speaking with Reduxx about her interaction with the officer, Kimmel said: “I am a local mother who is very familiar with the damage trans ideology can do to women and our children. I simply attempted to register my child safeguarding concerns about the upcoming TENI event specifically targeting children.”
She continued: “This was framed as ‘far right bigotry‘ and I was referred to as anti-gay, a cockroach, fascist and a Nazi by the men promoting the events who thwarted all my attempts to address this matter through proper channels.”
She then explained that the men promoting the event purposely put her and her family in danger by referring to her in an extremist and derogatory manner.
But despite local opposition, the event went ahead as planned on July 19, and was categorized as a “health class” on Eventbrite. According to the registration page, the discussion, led by Hewitt, was meant to “provide up to date information, knowledge and allow for discussion on how best to support trans and non-binary young people.”
Tara Hewitt was previously the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group. In his role, Hewitt requested that medical personnel ignore a guidance put forward by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) preserving single-sex spaces for women receiving health services. Hewitt also branded the guidance by the EHRC as “transphobic” and urged his colleagues within the NHS to ignore its guidance.
“This guidance is highly likely to be found unlawful at Judicial review & is incredibly transphobic … When will attacks on trans people end in UK? I urge my equality professional colleagues to give this guidance the credibility it deserves by putting it in bin & continue as usual,” Hewitt said.
With his statement, Hewitt deliberately ignored a widely-publicized incident that had occurred one month prior wherein a woman who had been raped in a single-sex hospital ward by a trans-identified male was told her assailant was a “woman.”
Hewitt has been politically active in both Labour and, more recently, the Conservative Party, for which he stood as a councilor. During his campaign it emerged that he had an interest in BDSM and dressing up as an animal during sex, euphemistically referred to as “furrydom.” He is also known for openly having discussed the acceptance of men with sexual fetishes at events focused on healthcare.
During a 2016 presentation for the LGBT Cancer Support Alliance, Hewitt spoke about men who cross-dress for sexual pleasure, and clarified that men who wear women’s underwear to satisfy a fetish are included under the trans umbrella.
Speaking to a room filled with women, Hewitt claimed: “You’ve got people that fetishistically cross-dress and wear clothing to get a sexual desire out of the clothing of the opposite gender. It generally tends to be associated with men wearing women’s underwear.”
At the same presentation, Hewitt revealed that he had also worked with Action for Trans Health, an organization which published a manifesto demanding the immediate release of all trans criminals from prison.
“We demand that trans people are immediately freed from police, military, and government contracts without repercussions. We reject the system of blackmail that corporations and governments engage in, whereby trans people who can work are ‘rewarded’ with slightly less mistreatment in exchange for the exploitation of our labor,” read the document.
The manifesto, which has since been deleted, was published on Tumblr in 2018 and also demanded tax-payer funded access to all forms of plastic surgery and body modification without any questions asked by medical professionals.
“We demand the freedom to alter our bodies without justification. We demand an end to all surgical prerequisites — nobody should have to prove life experience, health, or have to be taking hormones in order to exercise bodily autonomy,” Action for Trans Health stated.
“We demand that these surgeries can be highly customized to meet our individual and unique needs. We demand the right to multiple surgeries, including reversal of previous surgeries if desired, so that we do not have to fear regret.”
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