by
Les May
A
person who was born a male, identifies as a woman, uses the name
Karen White, posted pictures on Facebook looking like a woman and
claims to be ‘transitioning’ was jailed yesterday for life
after admitting sexually assaulting two female inmates whilst being
held on remand in HMP New Hall, a women’s prison in West Yorkshire,
and the previous rapes of two other women.
The
lawyer for the prosecution said:
‘She
is allegedly a transgender female. The prosecution says allegedly
because there’s smatterings of evidence in this case that the
defendant’s approach to transitioning has been less than
committed.’
The
judge told White:
‘You
are a predator and highly manipulative and, in my view, you are a
danger. You represent a significant risk of serious harm to children,
to women and the general public’.
White
is currently in a male prison and even after gender transition
surgery it is unlikely that a transfer to a female prison would
occur.
A
man who tricked four men into having sex with him by pretending to be
a woman online has been convicted. A jury at Kingston Crown Court
found Duarte Xavier guilty of six counts of causing a person to
engage in sexual activity without consent.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45760672What the first case demonstrates is that allowing an individual to claim that they have changed from the sex they were born with to the opposite sex and treating them as such, purely on their say so, is an exercise fraught with danger.
In spite of the guarded words of the prosecution lawyer it is apparent what he meant. Translated into commonplace English he was saying that White is still equipped with a full set of wedding tackle and has shown no sign of wanting to lose it, but every sign of wanting to use it.
What the second case demonstrates is that when we engage in intimate acts with another individual we have a right to be aware of all the facts about them. That would include what sex we would identify them as, not simply what sex they claim to be.
An ‘intimate act’ isn’t just about sex. It covers who we are willing to share a changing room with, who we are willing to have examine us medically, who we are willing to assist us with bodily functions at times we cannot do this for ourselves, how closely we feel comfortable with allowing a stranger or a friend to approach us, etc. I see no reason to assume that men and women will apply exactly the same ‘rule of thumb’ in each case.
As a society we accept an asymmetry in attitude between men and women. Women will in general be more conservative in these matters than men. We acknowledge that a ‘Peeping Tom’ is more likely than a ‘Peeping Thomasina’.
An asymmetry in attitudes is also found in those who identify as ‘transexual’.
The few people I have read of making the transition from female to male seem to have got on with it without fuss. The noisy, belligerent individuals are (frequently) those who grew up as male and want to be identified as female.
This is a new phenomenon. None of the three people at the links below behaved like this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Ashley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Morris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson
For me the red line is whether or not someone who has lived as a male and now wishes be identified, and be treated as, a woman, is still sporting a full set of wedding tackle, even though their secondary sexual characteristics, e.g. the presence of breasts, gives them the sort of appearance we associate with being a woman. If they are I am unwilling to treat them as a woman and I do not believe it is appropriate for the law to treat them as women either. I consider they are perpetrating a deliberate deception.
If they have made the level of commitment required to undergo full ‘gender reassignment’ surgery I am happy to treat them as a woman and in circumstances where the law continues to treat men and women differently, to have them treated as a woman.
In this respect I differ strongly from Jeremy Corbyn who is reported as saying: ‘The position of the party is that where you have self-identified as a woman, then you are treated as a woman.’ I think this is foolish as is demonstrated by case I referred to at the start.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/01/labour-to-clarify-policy-over-trans-women-on-all-female-shortlists
I wholly reject the notion that we have to accept that ‘gender is fluid’ and therefore we should simply accept an individual’s declaration that they are henceforth male or female and can change this status whenever they wish. This simply opens the door for individuals to take advantage of circumstances that favour them. The only person who seems to have had the courage to go public with this view is the writer Ben Elton who used his script for the BBC1 comedy ‘Upstart Crow’ to make exactly this point. If so called ‘trans activists’ can steal from chemistry the ‘cis trans’ pairing I will label this ‘keto enol’ behaviour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keto%E2%80%93enol_tautomerism
The views I have put forward will not please everyone. I have already had doubts expressed to me about my willingness to treat someone who having lived initially as a male, but who has later had gender reassignment surgery, as a woman. I do not doubt that my refusal to accept ‘self certification’ as the sole requirement for treating someone as a woman will draw criticism from so called ‘trans activists’. If you want to label me ‘transphobic’ go ahead, it will not intimidate me into silence. I will simply quote to you Article 10 of the European Convention.
I am not a feminist, a creed which I believe is designed to preserve hierarchies not abolish them. The fact that I have dealt almost wholly with the problems which can arise when men self certify themselves to be women, is because I believe that the potential negative impacts will fall on women much more than on men and because there have been attacks on women who have expressed doubts about self certification or in two cases simply tried to promote discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL26jtQXSJw
https://www.socfem.net/2017/11/helen-steel-labf
That there is disagreement seems to me to be healthy. Any changes in the law surrounding transex/transgender individuals will affect all of us. As such we all ought to have the opportunity to make our views known.
The government has launched a consultation about changes to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. If you wish to take part the consultation closes in one weeks time on 19 October.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reform-of-the-gender-recognition-act-2004
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