Can anyone help me please, I want to make a (probably completely pointless) complaint to a newspaper *[Content warning: concerns child sex abuse]

[UnderHisAye]

My local newspaper is reporting that this person has been convicted of downloading a video of a two year old being raped. This person also had searched online for information on raping and killing toddlers.

According to the sheriff's comments, this would usually mean a custodial sentence but ".I have to look at whether other options are available and in this case there are. “I will impose a Community Payback Order because of the exceptional circumstances involving mental health and various other reasons."

At a guess these mental health/exceptional circumstances are related to this person changing pronouns. They have also been subjected to the terrible fate of only being allowed ONE phone and laptop.

I want to complain to the news organisation about how they refer to this person who is legally male and, as far as I can tell, has no GRC. I'm not sure exactly how to come at it, although I feel they're complicit in gaslighting on an epic scale.

Does anyone have any text they've previously used which they could share with me?

I read a trans perspective on this - that natal women also commit sexually violent crimes eg Myra Hindley, Rose West so women are capable of these crimes. How do we counter this argument? The vast majority of the minute number women convicted of these crimes are enthral to violent deviant men. I worry that more and more disturbed young men will be attracted to the availability of trans women identities but it's considered transphobic to say this let alone research it. I think that quietly many ordinary decent trans women that just want to get on with life without upsetting anyone or being weaponised by trans idealogues probably think this too.

I don't see how anyone would search for and make notes on toddler rape and baby torture unless there is something very wrong with them and they are quite dangerous. Ditto seeking out, downloading, watching and keeping a video of toddler rape among other images. This should be taken very seriously and this person should not just get a slap on the wrist.

natal women also commit sexually violent crimes eg Myra Hindley, Rose West so women are capable of these crimes. How do we counter this argument?

• The numbers - 95+% of all violent crime is committed by men
• You can often name the violent women, describe in detail their offences that's how unusual they are. Name the violent men, tell me specifically their offences. So that street fight in Swindon - if female most would be able to say what night, what road, how many, who the victims were. If men, yeah same old, same old!
• Logic - we build laws and social mores around probabilities, our observed realities. We all know that most violence is male. We don't need to be told that. Just as we know that some women are also violent. We use different comparators, most/some when we think and talk about it.

In short - don't play games, soft lad. We all know what the truth is!

@Palavah

Is the natal sex of the offender really the most worrying aspect of the ruling?

No it's the way it's being lied about and misrepresented. You shouldn't comment on things you really don't understand.

@Trixie78 I asked a question. There's no need to be so rude.

[quote Palavah]@Trixie78 I asked a question. There's no need to be so rude.[/quote]
Did you get anything from any of the answers?

The problem here is less the newspaper and more that the court will have used female pronouns throughout because that's what their own guidelines tell them to do. Institutional capture at its finest.

@curiousaboutsamphire yes, thanks. Informative.

@RoyalCorgi

The problem here is less the newspaper and more that the court will have used female pronouns throughout because that's what their own guidelines tell them to do. Institutional capture at its finest.

IPSO guidelines also prevent the paper from saying "he" outside the direct quotes. Apparently transgender status can only be made clear "where relevant", which seems to boil down to occasions where they were attacked for being trans. 🙄

@LiveLuvLaugh
I read a trans perspective on this - that natal women also commit sexually violent crimes eg Myra Hindley, Rose West so women are capable of these crimes. How do we counter this argument?

Thats an argument used by MRA's and it shows a lack of understanding of how to perform a risk assessment or uphold safeguarding.
No one says 'women aren't capable of serious crimes', so the starting point is false - its a straw man argument. Conviction statistics prove that women don't commit series or sexual crimes at anywhere near the rates of men. So as a group, women are less of a risk than men.
Safeguarding is not just about not being murdered; it exists to lower the risk of any kind of assault.

RESPONSE:

Denen Anderson was referred to in court as a woman and was tried – and convicted – as such. You say that Anderson is ‘very clearly a male’. That may be your understanding or belief, but that is not something which was examined during the court proceedings and, in my opinion, not something for The Courier to second guess.

We follow official guidance from our regulator IPSO in such matters, and I believe we covered this case fairly and responsibly.
What I would say is that I do think there is a wider debate on transgender issues to be had – and it is one that The Courier will be actively involved with.

I have replied thanking the Editor for their reply, and pointing out some of the ways in which they could join the debate, by highlighting, for example, how the Hate Crime Bill, and the way those who question the impact of trans issues on women, are painted as purveyors of hate speech, or how Scotland's prison have become mixed-sex estates due to a policy which allows people to be sited according to their chosen gender.

It's frustrating as it can go nowhere, I just wanted to lay down a marker that says someone notices when newspapers are coerced into gaslighting the population.

What I would say is that I do think there is a wider debate on transgender issues to be had – and it is one that The Courier will be actively involved with.

It might be worth ensuring that the Courier's editor is aware of the 'Bench Book' guidelines which are most likely influencing what the press are able to report from court as much as IPSO. It may be that journalists committed to reporting using accurate language will share concerns of many feminist solicitors and barristers:

Law Gazette
'Warning over transgender guidance to judges'
By Melanie Newman 24 February 2020
(extract)
"Guidance for judges on transgender issues has come under fire from solicitors in the wake of controversial court rulings. Feminist lawyers say the guidance, in the Equal Treatment Bench Book, fails to highlight conflicts between transgender and women’s rights.

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?’

The Bench Book also endorses the terms ‘cisgender’ or ‘cis’ as ‘often used to describe people whose gender identity corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth’. The book does not mention that some women find the term ‘cis’ offensive. The Gazette understands that the term was also introduced to judges at a training session last year without any kind of warning as to its use.

Criminal defence barrister Allison Bailey of the LGB Alliance, which campaigns for the rights of same-sex attracted people, told the Gazette: ‘Judges have been led to believe that women do not mind being described as cisgender when it is regarded by many, myself included, as highly offensive. I do not have a gender and object to being redefined by men who wish to live as women. It is the most offensive power play.’ (continues)
www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/warning-over-transgender-guidance-to-judges/5103196.article

Interesting, I'd never heard of that before.

I'm not sure that last line wasn't a pleasant closing sentence, i.e. I have done my job in responding now off you pop please. The Courier isn't really the hard-hitting issues-led investigative sort of journalism. I live in hope!

May 2019 Daily Mail:
"Judges are ordered to allow transgender defendants to be addressed as the gender of their choice during court appearances
New guidelines say 'self-definition is the most important criteria', judged told
Courts should respect a person's gender identity by using appropriate names
Rules published in a new edition of the Equal Treatment Bench Book"

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7047897/Judges-ordered-allow-transgender-defendants-addressed-gender-choice.html

[quote R0wantrees]May 2019 Daily Mail:
"Judges are ordered to allow transgender defendants to be addressed as the gender of their choice during court appearances
New guidelines say 'self-definition is the most important criteria', judged told
Courts should respect a person's gender identity by using appropriate names
Rules published in a new edition of the Equal Treatment Bench Book"

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7047897/Judges-ordered-allow-transgender-defendants-addressed-gender-choice.html[/quote]

Ugh.

But thanks for always being a treasure trove of links and information @R0wantrees

🦡🌈🤍

UPDATE: The Courier are running an opinion piece on this issue today or tomorrow

Whose opinion though? And on what side of the argument?

This thought policing feels like a relentless attack where the aim is to beat us into submission. The biological sex of an offender is very obviously relevant, especially for sex offences. We have a big problem coming down the road where crimes are being recorded as gender identity without a GRC, we will have no way of proving that the inevitable increase in sex offences and violent crimes by women is because of transgender individuals. Transparency of this crucial data is being lists.

*lost

Don't know yet @Ravenclawsome but I'm glad that they're at least going to attempt to tackle it. Just crossing my fingers it strikes a tone we're happy with.

www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/opinion/2136685/lucy-hunter-blackburn-gender-in-crime-reporting

This Courier?

And it's an excellent article

That's a great article. I'm tempted to post it on my social media. It would out me as GC though...

That's the one!

I'm so pleased.

@UnderHisAye

That's the one!

I'm so pleased.

Me too.

I was worried it was going to be an opinion piece along the lines of "some bigots believe this because they are bigots".

So refreshing to see an actual, proper piece published.