A transgender adolescent girl who won first place in the U14 2023 Southern Region Oireachtas championships is attending the Irish Dancing World Championships.
The parents of the girls participating are both disappointed and enraged and demanded to know why a male with physical advantages should be permitted to dance against their daughters in an Irish dancing competition.
Numerous members of the Irish dance community have expressed their strong opposition to the event on message boards.
More than 5,500 people have shown their support by signing the “Protect Female Irish Dancers in Gender-Specific World Qualifying Championships Worldwide” petition.
The trans youngster previously participated in the Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG) World Championships in April 2023 when he was a boy and came in eleventh position globally.
The youngster uses the preferred pronouns “she/her” on social media, and photos of him competing in Irish dance show him donning traditional female dancewear—wigs, gowns, and makeup.
The child qualified for national and international championships after placing first out of one hundred dancers in the ladies’ U14 category in early December.
Parents claim they do not understand when or how this decision happened, but In an email to Irish dance teachers dated June 30, 2022, Southern Regional Director PJ McCafferty informed them that the members present at the IDTANA Annual Convention had approved an inclusivity statement. The secret ballot also approved McCafferty’s proposal, allowing transgender dancers to participate as their identified gender.
Parents of female dancers have voiced concerns that they would be hated or labeled as transphobes if they supported their daughters in competition. However, they have also emphasized that they want justice for their daughters, who should not be forced to compete against boys.