Scottish police confirm male-born rape suspects are recorded as female, where requested, regardless of legal (or biological) status
18 Apr, 2021 13:37
FILE PHOTO. Protest in the aftermath of the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard in London. ©REUTERS / Henry Nicholls
Transgender women suspected of sexual crimes are recorded as female by Police Scotland, even if they didn’t legally change their sex. Critics say the practice deceives the public about crime prevalence.
As the Scottish government is considering ways to make it easier than ever for people to change their legal sex, skeptics say the drive to embrace trans rights is often going in the wrong direction. One latest example is the way Police Scotland records suspects’ self-identified gender rather than biological sex, even when the alleged crime in question is rape.
UK law defines rape as penetration of the vagina, anus or month with a penis without the victim’s consent. When such an act is committed or attempted by “a male who self-identifies as a woman,” Police Scotland would register this as a rape or attempted rape, but the alleged perpetrator would be “recorded as a female on relevant police systems.” The law enforcement agency said this in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. “Male” in this case means “a person who does not have a gender recognition certificate and has not changed their legal sex,” as per the request.
The explanation was revealed earlier this week by the Edinburgh-based policy analysts Murray Blackburn. The group’s Lucy Hunter Blackburn cited it in an opinion piece explaining how she believes the practice distorts crime statistics and thus misinforms the public on crime policy issues. A better approach would be to record the biological sex and possibly seperately the gender, the group says.
The recording policy “evolved as best practice and ensures all people are treated fairly and with respect,” Police Scotland said in 2019. It also seems to contradict what Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf told MSP Johann Lamont in a letter reported by the Times on Sunday. There, he said a person born male would need a full gender recognition certificate – “and so is legally female” – for that person to be statistically recorded as a female.
Earlier in January, Lamont questioned Yousaf about a draft guidance by Scotland’s chief statistician, which recommends that self-identified gender rather than biological or legal sex should be recorded by the government bodies, “except potentially where there is direct relevance to a person’s medical treatment.” Lamont asked how the government expects to “measure the scale of offending by men” and the effect of preventive measures if it won’t track the biological sex of the offenders. Yousaf said it was his understanding that the rape statistics are supposed to be an exception to the guideline.
Treatment of trans women by the criminal justice system is a thorny issue. Trans rights activists tend to dismiss any doubts about giving such people all the privileges of those who were born female as transphobic. Critics point out uncomfortable facts to argue that this approach is inherently harmful towards biological women. For instance, British prison statistics indicate that trans inmates are five times more likely to commit a sex attack on other prisoners at female jails.
‘Insane’ VIDEO of children being paraded and tipped at
DRAG SHOW causes uproar
19 Apr, 2021 16:09
© Twitter / @DistortedLinds
Footage from a drag show in Los Angeles is causing uproar on social media as it shows children posing for the crowd and being tipped cash.
Caution: Language is pretty disgusting.
“Why in the hell do these people got these f***ing little-bitty a** kids at this f***ing drag show,” the unidentified person in the video says, before a couple of young girls are brought out onto the stage.
The person filming notes it is nearly midnight. An adult drag performer can be seen encouraging the kids to take cash tips from the audience, as they direct the children in poses and take them on a catwalk.
The user who posted the video, podcaster Lindsay Platoshyn, followed up her tweet with a YouTube investigative piece on the trend of underage performers earning money at adult drag shows – a hot topic in recent years, and one that has become wrapped up in a larger debate about gender identity.
Critics online have expressed shock over the video.
“I can’t fathom what kind of woke a** stupid parent lets their little girls parade suggestively in front of a room full of horny sauced-up freaks while they get bills thrown at them like strippers,” one user commented.
“11.40pm. People giving money to children. This is insane,” another wrote.
When some Twitter users defended drag shows in general, saying many performers would balk at the idea of using children in their acts, Platoshyn pushed back saying, “Now is not the time to be ignorant.”
“The fact is it happened, and has been happening & no one is saying anything. Now is not the time to remain ignorant with our heads down, making random claims of ‘but the others are innocent!’ That’s entirely not the point,” she wrote.
You know the world must be close to coming to an end when Richard Dawkins joins J.K. Rowling in finding common ground with Christians.
Richard Dawkins stripped of ‘humanist of the year’ award after inviting discussion on transgender issues in tweet
20 Apr, 2021 05:26
FILE PHOTO: Biologist and atheist author Richard Dawkins speaks to a crowd during an event at Fort Bragg army base in North Carolina. © Reuters / Chris Keane
The American Humanist Association has withdrawn its top honor from evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins over a tweet calling for dialogue on transgender issues, accusing the atheist speaker of “demeaning marginalized groups.”
Just a curious thought here: If marginalized groups weren't demeaned, how could the theory of 'the survival of the fittest' ever have worked out?
The organization said Dawkins had recently implied that “the identities of transgender individuals are fraudulent, while also simultaneously attacking Black identity as one that can be assumed when convenient,” noting he would be stripped of an award granted to him some 25 years ago. It declined to specify the offending comment.
“Regrettably, Richard Dawkins has over the past several years accumulated a history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalized groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values,” the AHA said on Monday.
Don't humanists adhere to 'the survival of the fittest' aspect of evolution? If not, what do they believe in?
Consequently, the AHA Board has concluded that Richard Dawkins is no longer deserving of being honored by the AHA, and has voted to withdraw, effective immediately, the 1996 Humanist of the Year award.
While the Humanist Association gave few other details and offered no examples of Dawkins’ “accumulated history” of inflammatory remarks, an April 10 tweet from the biologist drawing comparisons between transgenderism and the self-described “trans-black” activist Rachel Dolezal is a likely culprit.
“In 2015, Rachel Dolezal, a white chapter president of NAACP, was vilified for identifying as Black. Some men choose to identify as women, and some women choose to identify as men. You will be vilified if you deny that they literally are what they identify as,” Dawkins wrote, calling on his followers to “discuss” the apparent contradiction.
He followed up with another post days later, presumably in response to netizens outraged over the first missive, saying he did not “intend to disparage trans people.”
“I see that my academic ‘Discuss’ question has been misconstrued as such and I deplore this. It was also not my intent to ally in any way with Republican bigots in US now exploiting this issue,” Dawkins added.
Oh, horror of horrors! Agreeing with Republicans! Perhaps even Christians!
The later post apparently did nothing to appease the AHA, which said that Dawkins’ “subsequent attempts at clarification” were “inadequate” and did not convey “sensitivity” or “sincerity.”
While some observers said rescinding Dawkins’ award was a “good call,” the move also triggered an outpouring of criticism online, with many suggesting the atheist org had become beholden to “woke gods” and adopted a “pseudo-religious” devotion to political correctness.
“Identity politics is the new religion. We can be good without it,” one user wrote, putting a spin on the AHA’s slogan, “Good Without a God.”
One self-avowed humanist and Dawkins critic called on AHA members to terminate their ties with the association over its decision, which other users deemed an overreaction to the biologist’s “reasonable” call for discussion.
Dawkins’ April 10 tweet is far from his first controversial post, stoking a wave of condemnation in February after suggesting that eugenics could “work in practice,” while also indicating that he “deplore[d]” the idea on “ideological, political [and] moral grounds.” Before that, he was accused of racism in 2018 after tweeting that the bells of England’s Winchester Cathedral were “so much nicer than the aggressive-sounding ‘Allahu Akhbar’” heard at Muslim mosques, one among several hot-button posts about Islam over the years.
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