The CEO of the Rose of Tralee has slammed a front page newspaper report which claimed transgender women are banned from the competition.
Rose boss Anthony O'Gara heavily criticised the "Rose of Tralee Bans Trans" story in Thursday's Irish Daily Mirror. The paper quoted a Rose of Tralee spokesperson as saying that entries from transgender women were not being considered at the moment but that the Rose show runners would review their guidelines on the issue..
Speaking on The Ray D'Arcy Show on Thursday afternoon, Mr O'Gara said: "It's a sensitive situation that we have to prepare ourselves for but it isn't the case that transgender women are banned or barred - that would be completely silly."
Asked by D’Arcy, who hosted the contest from 2007 to 2010, if the Irish Daily Mirror had got its facts right, Mr O’Gara said: “No, not entirely and I think there is something cynical and disingenuous sometimes when media get involved in sensitive issues and I think this is a good example of that. I’m sorry to say that because I’m sure I’ll get slated in The Mirror tomorrow."
Thursday's Mirror front page
He added: "’Trans’ and `bans’ rhymes and put that on the front page of The Mirror and it sells papers and swells coffers but it’s not very respectful of women and particularly of women who might have had a sensitive situation such as trans women who have gone through a tough time. Trans women are women and women are what the Rose of Tralee is all about and there is no ban.”
The Mirror ran the story after Sydney Rose Brianna Parkins called for greater diversity in the contest. On January 27 she tweeted, “I need to hand over the tiara and sash soon. Calling all boss ladies to apply for 2017, calling all feminists, mixed race, queer trans ladies to apply for the Rose wherever you live."
I need to hand over the tiara and sash soon. Calling all boss ladies to apply for the Sydney Rose 2017 https://t.co/6SPHknodpK
— Brianna Parkins (@parkinsbrea) January 27, 2017
In further tweets, she went on: “I would just like to see the Rose reflect modern Irish society at home and abroad. It can be intimidating to minorities as they might not have been represented in the past. Even I felt in wasn’t Rose enough. It makes it a hell of a lot more interesting if you have people life stories on stage.”
Mr O'Gara said: “We simply said we were in a place where we had to take time to consider how to handle that issue for exactly the reason we found ourselves in. The difficulty in being involved in something like The Rose of Tralee is it’s in the media, it’s on TV, and we have a duty of care to all the people who come on board and when they come on board, if they have a particular point of view or a particular aspect to their personal lives we try to insure that it isn’t abused and put out there on the basis of somebody trying to sell newspapers or otherwise.”
He added: “I honestly get mad and madder and madder, as I get older I suppose I get crankier, about people who put up a front, in this case journalists, who say here’s something we want to put on the front page of our paper to show up something that is not right where in fact, in my view, they’re disrespecting the sensitivity attached to people who find themselves in a tough situation in life and simply want to get on with their lives and be the women that they are and any woman who becomes involved in the Rose of Tralee, that’s always how we’d try to treat them.”
Mr O’Gara went on to condemn the media for what he claimed was their lack of sensitivity in covering issues such as transgender. “I just don’t think this is a good example of a media outlet treating something with respect,” he said.
“I think this an effort to shine a spotlight on somebody and suggest that they’re not treating an issue with respect whereas in fact they are.”
Asked if a transgender woman would be welcomed if she applied to enter the Rose of Tralee, Mr O’Gara said: “Course she is. She’s a woman. I’m not particularly interested in her personal life unless she wants to express that.”
