Rape victims will choose gender of their examiner (Scotland)

Maybe the use of gender is actually more accurate than sex here anyway. If you're not allowed to ask a man who claims he's a woman to prove he's a woman, which I believe is now law in Scotland(?), then effectively all you ask for is gender.

If a male dr says he's female the he is. Colleagues won't be able to say he's not female. So if there are two people on call, a man and a man who claims to be a woman, then don't meant the 29 May law change mean that the latter would be called for the rape victim, and she couldn't say no to the female titled dr on the basis of female titles dr being a man?

This is incredibly important area to get clarification on. The journo appears to have misquoted but has possibly been (deliberately) more accurate than the original words.

Slightly a side issue but I can't get my head around being raped then forensically examines by a male doctor, even if women are chaperoning. If I was raped (again) and reported and then found it was a male doctor examining me, I'd withdraw my report/refuse to be examined.

I can't have smears by Male doctors/nurses and have a hard time even seeing a male dr in less intimate situations. I'm sure I'm not alone and it seems insane that women would have to be intimately examined by men after rape.

And I'm not suggesting they're up to no good, but I would question the empathy and compassion levels of a male dr who put himself forward for that particular specialist training in the first place. Fair enough if the system was already staffed with women and they needed a backup person. But not to add himself to a bank of male practitioners for women he knows will very likely have a problem with an intimate exam by a man and have to suck it up at an incredibly stressful and vulnerable time. Does it pay really well or something?

It's the examiner's sex women want to be able to choose, not their gender. And I don't see how they'll be able to do that under the changes the Scottish government is proposing, or those it's already implemented, and that's before we even get to the NHS being just as bad on this issue.

...maybe areas shouldn't have a team which is predominantly male on contract as sex offence examiners?

As I understand it, you can't just have any female doctor doing this type of examination. To work in this area you need specialist training as a sex offence examiner, and if employed on such a contract you will be on call 24/7 and be expected to come in at very short notice at all hours. Given that women predominantly have childcare responsibilities etc on top of their full time jobs, such types of work will be off-putting and so you will end up with a chronic shortage of female examiners. There needs to be a long-term strategy to get more women into these roles - maybe government grants to help fund the training, and ways to enable women to have help with childcare or other responsibilities plus generous remuneration and so on, to make such a career lucrative and worth their time.

Well in the current climate that's meaningless isn't it.

And I can't believe the paper changed her words.

Actually I can.

I've noticed the word gender being used more and more when people mean sex, even on Mumsnet there are countless threads about gender reveal or guess the gender from a scan photo when what they mean is sex.

I do think we need to be clearer what we mean when we talk about sex and gender.

Good correction, and I'm disappointed in the Times using gender when clearly it should have been sex.

One part made me
“There are clearly some levels of a restriction to an extent in that, where we have a team of sexual offence examiners that is predominantly male, those individuals will be on contracts and so you have to find other ways to add to the number.

...maybe areas shouldn't have a team which is predominantly male on contract as sex offence examiners?

Just shows how easily words are changed to suit an agender. The journo should've used sex in the quote.

I posted this in another thread:

Great correction by Jean Freeman, after the National headline

'Jeane Freeman said rape and sexual assault victims would be able to choose the gender of their forensic medical examiner under new legislation'

When pulled up she replied on Twitter:

Actually what I said was ‘choose the sex...” I’m not responsible for how a journalist reports

Ms Freeman told the committee she has “confidence” victims will be able to choose to be examined by a man or......

anyone who identifies as a women?

They really need to start using the word sex. If they say you can choose 'gender' of examiner it means fuck all. It could include anyone and everyone.
Needs to be sex and exemptions under EA of ALL males.

....or woman under the proposals. She said: “People should have that choice; it is very important, particularly in those circumstances.

Really want to know are they talking about choosing a "gender" or do they mean sex. It does not clarify what a man or woman is.

“There are clearly some levels of a restriction to an extent in that, where we have a team of sexual offence examiners that is predominantly male, those individuals will be on contracts and so you have to find other ways to add to the number."

Also, it may not reach to small islands.