Rachel Johnson's comment from the article ( March 2017 re Katie Brannen), linked above:
'A woman on trial for rape? Really? No. 'She' was born male, but that's a secret because even our courts are gripped by misgender madness '
(extract)
"To call someone by the wrong title is considered verbal assault and even bigotry.
And it’s largely fear of misgendering that has led to the courts perpetrating, and the press reporting, a fake fact – that women can and do rape men – rather than telling us the literal truth.
Last week, the courts decided to wave aside inconvenient aspects of biology and law (rape is defined as intentionally penetrating another person with your penis against their will, and only males have penises) because they were dealing with something far more important than truth, or indeed, statute.
They were dealing with a situation where a man identified as a woman. And his right to identify as a woman trumped our right to know the actual facts, as opposed to the ‘alternative facts’.
This case exposes like no other the stupid way our courts and our Parliament – and, I’m afraid, the press – are being sucked into the prevailing moral panic over misgendering, the cause that’s fast overtaken feminism as the go-to civil-liberties issue of our times.
It was this panic that prevented us from reporting or reading that Katie Brannan was born a man, and had a penis – two facts completely central to this case. You have to know them otherwise – think about it – the charge wouldn’t be rape.
Even so, we’re not allowed to call a spade a spade even though this is the only way you can make any sense at all of this man-bites-dog story. It’s getting even more bonkers as there are moves afoot to make gender a simple and swift matter of choice requiring no bureaucracy at all... " (continues)