The majority of the Irish public supports the provision of single-sex facilities, an online poll has revealed.
Of the 1,001 adults polled by the market research company RED C, 64 per cent agreed that hospitals “should be required to provide single sex wards, rather than mixed wards” with only 23 per cent in disagreement.
It also found that 62 per cent agreed public buildings such as banks and schools should have to provide single-sex toilets, while a quarter of those surveyed opposed the statement.
Single-sex spaces
There was strong support for protecting female athletes with majorities stating that men who self-identify as female should not be allowed to compete in women’s games, and that both sexes should not be allowed to share changing rooms.
Respondents with dependent children were also more likely to oppose the teaching of gender ideology in schools.
RED C interviewed a random sample of 1001 adults aged 18+ online between 17th and 24th June 2021 with the results weighted to the profile of all adults.
‘Distraught’
Last week, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne argued that NHS policies designed to cater for men who identify as women have resulted in horrifying consequences for female patients.
Writing for The Daily Mail, Lady Nicholson said: “Without consultation — and in my opinion, in defiance of the law — NHS Trusts across the country have issued guidance saying patients should be accommodated based on the gender they say they identify with.”
As a consequence, she stated, female patients “have understandably been left distraught, forced to share some of their most intimate and vulnerable moments alongside a member of the opposite sex”.
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