The protected characteristics set out in the Hate Crime Bill are:
race
colour
nationality
religion
ethnic or national origin
sexual orientation
gender (including gender expression and identity)
disability
I suppose it is as well to have a thread on this as it will likely be quite a consequential law going forward. It will give rise to interesting case law. I wonder how it will affect online debate and discussion forums.
This is as close as I can find to what will actually be in the Bill - https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/74e ... xpression/
But maybe someone has a link to the actual bill.
For the moment I can not see a specific issue with it. Hate speech is horrible. For example, saying unvaccinated people are fascists, as Fintan O'Toole did, is horrible.
I am presuming that stating the truth will not be hate speech eg human beings cannot change sex. I am presuming one can constructively criticise ideologies including fundamentalist religious beliefs, without it being hate speech. I am also happy to have it frowned upon, even illegal, to publicly use rotten language about any groups of which one is not a member. I'm presuming however that one will be able to vigorously comment on social, political, ideological etc etc issues without being charged. If not, I'm perfectly willing to go to court to defend in a test case against hate speech charges.
We shall see how it goes.
Extract of speech by Leo Varadkar
https://www.gov.ie/en/speech/7c6a80-spe ... y-diversi/
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