Article on Maria Maclachlan Court case

I read this as applying to all persons in court. It does state that gender at birth (??!!) Can be revealed where relevant .

There is nothing about using special language for anatomy.

Could you actually achieve a prosecution for rape if everyone is obliged to call the offending organ a ‘lady stick’? I thought English law quite specifically required a penis, and the worst you can do without one is a serious sexual assault.

I hope common sense would prevail in such an (admittedly unlikely) scenario.

Does this apply to descriptions of anyone who might be mentioned in court though?
For example a witness recounting a situation where a number of people were involved?

Lots of other changes around gender identity issues though. Interesting appendix on equalities act.

Found an older version www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/equal-treatment-bench-book-2013-with-2015-amendment.pdf

That section is there so nothing new.

Well, it strikes me that Tara's image is certainly out there now

nauticant Given the amount of sex offenders who claim to be transgender after the event, whilst in prison or on parole I think it's a distinct possibility that this is something that will happen. It may have already happened because the reporting of these things is often poor.

I wonder whether that applies to witness testimony in addition to the conduct of the court cromeyellow0.

Can you imagine a woman in a rape trial being prevented from referring to her attacker as a man? Can you imagine such a man kicking up a fuss about the alleged nature of the attack when as far as he's concerned he doesn't have a penis? (Having instead a "clit on a stick".)

& now contemplating

@LadyGrey18 Does anyone know if this is something that is being enforced in all courts or is it just down to the individual judge?

The judge is acting in accordance with 2018 Bench Book (from @RadFemLawyer on twitter).

"Everyone is entitled to respect for their gender identity regardless of their legal gender status. It is important to respect a person’s gender identity by using appropriate terms of address, names and pronouns."

"It should be possible to recognise a person's gender identity and their present name for nearly all court and tribunal purposes, regardless of whether they have obtained legal recognition of their gender by way of a Gender Recognition Certificate."

www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/equal-treatment-bench-book-february-v6-2018.pdf

It would be worth comparing the previous edition; I do suspect this is a new addition for this edition.

I am trying to imagine a possible future witness statement.....

perhaps this may lead to proper legal scrutiny... if a judge asks a victim to use a pronoun of her alleged attacker then where next? Will every future witness be instructed as to which nouns as well as pronouns to use about person accused? Will all people mentioned in the witness box have to be contacted beforehand to ensure that they are identified by the nouns and pronouns they choose?

"the judge asked that preferred pronouns be used..."

When under oath, you are supposed to tell the truth. We also frequently see witnesses (in drama at least), being told to describe things 'in their own words'. Except this direction would seem to show that we are either having 'our words' taken away if we are required to use she to describe a male, and/or being required to lie by not telling our own truth................

Isn't this at the heart of it all...

• can violence towards women mitigated by a belief that gender identity may be challenged?

But how can you have a defence for a violent assault that you were afraid of being outed as trans when you were running a public crowdfunder for trans surgery at the time of the assault?

I can't even see who the author of that Sky article is, but it has a couple of factual inaccuracies in it (e. it was Maria that said "Who's attacking who" not the TRAs.)

I'm always surprised when people "pick a side" and thus anything a person "on their side" does is right and OK. It's very dangerous indeed.

Sky news headline is terrible

news.sky.com/story/feminist-activist-denies-trying-to-out-transgender-woman-who-punched-her-11327720

"I attacked her because I thought she was going to out me as Trans.

I'm 'her', you bitch

I am very worried by all this but especially so by being expected to lie in court. Being instructed to lie in court. If a person has male genitals with consequent male hormones then surely the judge cannot tell people to refer to that person in the feminine form? I have no idea about TW in this regard, behaves as a man for Sure, but how can this end well?

I hope that can form part of evidence - and I hope Tara's FB post "I wanna fuck up some terfs" have been shown to the magistrates. That shows intent.

Thinking of Maria today.

I’d never heard of GenderIdentityWatch.com so I took a look.

It’s not at all what Tara Wolf claims it to be (though Tara is now on the front page as a result!).
Those “outed” have already been outed by their own actions - it reports on trans-related criminal trials.

Someone attacking a woman for filming, allegedly for fear of being 'outed' as trans, while insisting on being referred to as 'she'.

What is wrong with this picture :(

I know this seems like a clear cut case of violence against an older woman to us but the way things are currently I have doubts about whether there will be a guilty verdict tomorrow.

There has to be a guilty verdict. They're not arguing that they didn't do. Their argument is that it was justified by self defense. If there is a not guilty verdict, the court is saying that it's ok to punch a stranger in the head if you're bothered about them taking photos in a public place. The rabbit hole is quite deep, surely we're not that far down it.

Times today:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/transgender-activist-denies-thumping-radical-feminist-wvzgq6fx7?shareToken=3e3e49e587906d72e8fe14dcbd402a1f

I was going to write a comment about the use of TERF but there are no comments for this article, maybe because it's about an ongoing trial.

If you have ever heard of Holla Back you won't have any trouble understanding why a woman is taking pictures of the people yelling at her.
www.ihollaback.org/