Just spotted this on Facebook on the excellent “OffGuardian” page. Sorry if it’s already been posted. As Off Guardian summarises it, “ A man assaults you, is found guilty as charged, and the judge then penalizes you for refusing to pretend he's a woman and referring to him by the pronoun he.”
From the main article:
“The Bench Book advises that transgender defendants should be addressed by the pronouns of their choice and that ‘self-definition is the most important criteria’ (sic). At least one victim of violence by a transgender woman has been reprimanded in court for using male pronouns while describing the attack. Finding the defendant guilty, the judge refused the victim compensation, saying that when asked to refer to the defendant as ‘she’, the victim had done so with ‘bad grace’ or continued to use ‘he’.
“Solicitor Harriet Wistrich, head of the Centre for Women’s Justice, has raised concerns about pronoun use in cases involving violence against women. ‘Here there is a conflict between the right of self-definition and the right of a victim, who may have been violated in the most horrendous way, to describe her material reality as she perceives it,’ she said. ‘Why is the victim’s right less important?’”
www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/warning-over-transgender-guidance-to-judges/5103196.article