Street preacher's misgendering conviction quashed

[Imnobody4]

www.lbc.co.uk/news/david-mcconnell-street-preacher-trans-farrah-munir-appeal/

This is good news - conviction quashed on appeal.

Speaking from the witness box, Mr McConnell said: "In my view, I wasn't misgendering and I was gendering correctly."

He told the court: "I think people could have been offended but that's not the intention.

"My intention was to simply stay faithful to my beliefs, stay faithful to God and to stay faithful to my conscience."

He said: "I wasn't being transphobic; I was expressing what I believe."

After watching the clip again in court, Mr McConnell said: "I knew the person in front of me was a biological male and, therefore, I stayed true to God and true to my beliefs."

Mr Hawks (the judge) said although they accepted McConnell's words had been insulting and that Ms Munir had suffered "harassment, alarm and distress", there was no evidence the appellant had intended to harass her.

And still the MRAs/TRAs scream that men who believe they are women are the most oppressed and marginalised group of people.

Woman gets raped - crickets
Man called a man - prosecution secured

Yes. Shocking.

JFC, how did this even get to court? So ridiculous. And apparently the preacher had things stolen from him but this wasn't looked into?

I wonder if he can sue for malicious prosecution?

However, rather than controlling the crowd, a police officer with pentagram tattoos started collating evidence on how Dave had ‘misgendered’ the ‘trans woman’ before arresting him.

😳

That report is from a Christian news website who presumably think that pentagrams are a sign of satanism or witchcraft or something. Rather than being a goth, or a heavy metal rocker or just liking a bit of goth/occult styling etc etc.

Ah, I see. Thought it was an odd detail!

Now what about that autistic teen who was confused about some police officer being a man or woman and saying it out loud. Disability discrimination.

I notice that he also claimed that homosexuality was an “abomination”.

It is absolutely fascinating for me to watch people on a feminist discussion board championing a man who preaches about his hatred of lesbians.

Does he get compensation for the community service now?

Jfc. No one is "championing" this man. Can you really not tell the difference between people agreeing that he should have had his conviction quashed and people agreeing with his other statements??

His views on homosexuality are abhorrent to me but he saw a man standing in front of him and correctly referred to that man as a man. His right to do so is lawful and it doesn’t matter if I agree with other beliefs he holds.
You do understand that, don’t you?

I am not sure why Christians have decided this is a "religious" belief and not a statement of the bleeding obvious. The Bible doesn't really say anything about it (because it's bleeding obvious).

Yes it's a ridiculous argument. People with abhorrent views are still entitled to the protection of the law. Land seems to be arguing for an 'any bad view and you're on your own mate' version of justice which quite frankly would be bad news for the femphobic person who said he was a woman

Amazing!! A court case involving a self identifying trans person that reached the right decision! I'm so used to completely fucked up decisions being made on this subject that I was expecting the same result with this one. Men identifying as women and their supporters are free to have their ideology but others should not be legally forced to follow it.

How have so many people forgotten the concept of free speech? The idea that I hate what you say but I'll defend your right to say it.

Go ahead with criminalising speech you don't like if you want to, but don't come crying to me when your opinions are suddenly considered beyond the pale. Do you really want to give up the right to express your own thoughts?

"a police officer with pentagram tattoos started collating evidence"
That's identifying and not relevant, unless I've missed something. ^Was it a WPC?
Also, whatever happened to the word 'transvestite'?^

Italic fail
Was quoting the citation from LBC

There's video footage of at least some of the incident here, along with pictures of the police officers tattoos elsewhere on the same site.

christianconcern.com/news/win-for-street-preacher-as-misgendering-conviction-overturned/

This Christian org seem particularly bothered by the police officers tats, which seems to be a lot about their own prejudices than anything else. The police officers should not have ignored criminal damage and assault towards the preacher, but there's no need to see conspiracy and nefarious intent on the basis of some interesting tattoos.

As I resd it, the man was preaching generally on Christian beliefs and not specifically on homosexuality. He only spoke about that when someone in the crowd asked him about LGBT.

I have very little sympathy for people asking street preachers (or anyone else) what their views are on a particular matter and then claiming to be traumstised when they get a truthful response. If you're that upset by the idea that people disagree with you about something, why would you purposefully go up to a person and ask them about it?

If I identified as the opposite sex, and found it upsetting to be "misgendered", I wouldn't go around asking random people whether they see me as a man or woman.

I have very little sympathy for people asking street preachers (or anyone else) what their views are on a particular matter and then claiming to be traumstised when they get a truthful response. If you're that upset by the idea that people disagree with you about something, why would you purposefully go up to a person and ask them about it?

Completely. This is someone desperately seeking a reason to be upset and offended.

I feel this is a good decision and I hope an indication that the tide is turning

Dave represents the first street preacher in the UK to be prosecuted and reported to counter-terrorism for ‘misgendering’ a member of the public while sharing the gospel.

WTAF?? Counter-terrorism for misgendering?

This Christian org seem particularly bothered by the police officers tats, which seems to be a lot about their own prejudices than anything else. The police officers should not have ignored criminal damage and assault towards the preacher, but there's no need to see conspiracy and nefarious intent on the basis of some interesting tattoos.

Not prejudices, it says something about their beliefs - namely that they hold Christian beliefs and as such are offended by occultic signs. They represent works of the devil. The symbolism couldn’t be more clear to the street preacher or Christian Concern.

Dave was preaching to save souls from the devil for Christ and is arrested by a someone bearing the symbols of the devil.

of course they are going to mention it.

Tbf I think it would be all over MN if GC protestors/speakers were arrested by police officers wearing rainbows or with LBGTQ tattoos.