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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026

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Can I just throw in my opinion that this is a totally uninteresting and pointless case?

Everyone involved agrees on what should happen. The intent of the law is for the biological children of Irish citizens to become Irish citizens - both the parents and the state want this to happen. The only objection is that the trans woman (and biological father of the child) doesn't want to check the box that says 'father' on a government form because she doesn't like how it sounds. This is patently ridiculous grandstanding. The reason it says 'father' is because the genetic material for the child comes from a male and female gamete, and the father is the one who provided the male gamete, so for the purposes of the law (whose intent, again, everyone agrees with) it can't say anything else.

What a waste of time for everyone involved.

Can I just throw in my opinion that this is a totally uninteresting and pointless case?

Seconded. This seems pointlessly stupid on both sides. The law, in this case, seems to treat parents the same whether they are mothers or fathers. A court should just decide that the parent is indeed a parent and thus their kid gets the citizenship.

If some crazy wants to use the terminology of budding to refer to their relationship to their offspring, that does not change the fact that they are a parent.

In any case where the gender of the parent actually matters, the answer is of course haha no. You get maternity leave iff you are carrying your unborn child in your uterus, however you got that organ. Likewise, if your body is capable of producing sperm, you can be ordered to provide DNA for a paternity test.

Disagree.

The "trans" father has engaged in maximum levels of grandstanding and rebellion from the world he exists in.

If he wants his children to benefit from the world, he merely must accept normal rules.

All he has to do is be normal and his kid gets normal rules.

Prioritizing your weird rules over normal rules means you are crazy and people should not want your kids as citizens.

Thus, consequences.

Historically, the whole family is lucky to not be exiled.

It should be an uninteresting and pointless case. The first time it crossed anyone's desk for permission to challenge the ruling, the decision should have been "Look, you can call yourself Queen of Romania for all we care, but you are the biological father of this child, not its mother".

Instead, we're going to have a court case which might get drawn out forever and a day, and I'm not at all sanguine that idiot judges won't make some bleeding-heart decision that yes indeedy, we cannot hurt the tender feelings of this fragile feminine blossom by requiring her to apply as the father.