Warning over judges' transgender guidance

[RoyalCorgi]

From the Law Society Gazette: Harriet Wistrich has been raising objections to the Bench Book's guidance on transgender defendants, which advises that "transgender defendants should be addressed by the pronouns of their choice and that ‘self-definition is the most important criteria'." Mentions Maria's case.

www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/warning-over-judges-transgender-guidance/5103196.article

Sorry RoyalCorgi. Not sure if you saw this.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3831337-judge-s-warnings-over-recent-legal-cases

Thanks for sharing. I don’t see any good reasoning for them not being prepared to share which organisations are involved in training judges. Surely it is exactly in the public interest to know whether this includes lobby groups who are actively lobbying for changes in the current law, which many disagree with!

Really good article and comments!

Sorry, completely missed that Winesalot! Thought I'd got in early with that particular story but obviously not.

There’s a comment on the article saying that the Law Gazette is in danger of becoming the new Mumsnet The horror!!! 5 thumbs down for that little gem

I started this thread in AIBU: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3830943-aibu-to-think-that-a-paedophile-s-sex-is-actually-relevant-when-they-re-convicted and no one thinks that this person should have their crime as committed by a woman.

This guidance is absolute nonsense and does women a huge disservice.

I also included a link to the guidance in that there but here it is again: www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Equal-Treatment-Bench-Book.pdf

Chapter 12 covers the issue of referring to people by their chosen gender and name, regardless of whether they have a GRC.

They make it very clear that this is not law as it is not covered by the EA (and also, it seems to me, make it very clear that they think it is lacking): ‘The Equality Act 2010 appears to be limited in its protection for transgender people, in that the protected characteristic is defined as gender reassignment.'