Article originally appeared on www.foxnews.com.
Irish Green Party Sen. Pauline O’Reilly defended a controversial bill that could jail citizens for merely possessing material that criticizes gender identity.
The Irish Criminal Justice Bill purportedly targets ” hate speech ,” but some critics have compared it to the concept of punishing people for “thought crime,” a term popularized by George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”
The text of the “Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022,” notes that a person can be imprisoned if they “prepare or possess” material that is “likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of their protected characteristics,” one of which being “gender” identity.
The Catholic Herald observed in past months that the legislation could lead to criminalization of Catholic teaching and religious expression in general, “The Catholic Church has long-standing objective positions on issues, which, if they are to be uttered in public (and that may …
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