Dear Nick Brown,
You might have seen the story of Gayle Newland in the media. She was convicted last week of rape by deception for pretending to be a man and using a prosthetic penis while in bed with her blindfolded female partner.
Gayle's case, and many others like it, has disturbing implications for the LGBT community. The idea that it can be a crime not to disclose your "true" gender to your sexual partner - that idea doesn't exist in statute. It's a creation of the CPS and of judges and it's an unfair creation. If deceiving someone as to your gender is illegal, why is it legal to deceive them as to your race, age, relationship status, income or favourite football team? If a BNP supporter alleged rape by deception after he unwittingly slept with a Muslim, the legal system would give him extremely short shrift! It speaks volumes about our own homophobia when "making someone do something gay" is an especially heinous crime. It's reminiscent of the infamous "gay panic defence".
Even more worrying is the notion that everyone has a true gender to start with. If Gayle had been a pre-op transsexual identifying and living as a man, would she still have been guilty? At what point in her transition is she sufficiently male that she doesn't have to disclose her birth gender? If a man mistakenly believed her to be female based on her appearance, and she failed to correct his unstated assumption, would that invalidate his consent?
This effect of this law, or rather this legal precedent, by its nature will be felt disproportionately by those whose gender identity is somewhat fluid. I would find it very hard to convince someone I was female, therefore it would be very hard for me to break the law in the same way as Gayle. When a crime exists that can only be committed by members of a certain group, and that group is already marginalised in our culture, we don't call that justice; we call it apartheid.
If Labour are committed to LGBT rights, I ask them to pledge to rewrite this law to make it clear what is rape by deception and what isn't. It may be that Gayle remains guilty under a clearer law. But there are thousands more LGBT, genderfluid and non-binary folk who deserve the right to form intimate relationships without looking over their shoulders for the gender police.
Yours, etc.
„HOMOPHOBIA is the worst desease“ as a song of Chumbawamba says.
ReplyDeleteAnd they were right as a trial in Chester Court proofed.
A trial that bases on: I'm not gay, but my girlfriend is.
Once, a rape victim does remember when it happened, but the contemplaint in this trial did not. She gave wrong dates, and the court just left out three assaults where the contemplaint obiously lied, the trial should have been finished here.
Secondly scorning rape victims by saying „ I would have prefered to be raped by guys“
she looses all credibility. Rape is NOT a sexgame, where you choose this or that, in opposite it does NOT have to do anything with sex. Image the contemplaint would have said" I would have preferred to be raped by a white ( instead of a black)"
Third point, yes women can bandage their breasts, but it depends on the size. Seeing pictures of the defendant:No chance to bandage them down to get near to a flat cheast. Unless she had a breast enlargement recently. No chance to cuddle with her without noticing that is a female.
Believing a straight girl willingly spreading her legs blindedfolded, ignoring that she lied several times shows the homophobia of british ladies. I say this as there were 5 times more females than males in the jury.
The story the contemplaint told plays around with all prejudices about lesbians, as well as their sexuality. Further it plays around with the fear of becoming a rape victim.
Getting the straight society on her side – look I follow the man I love blindfolded. Straight women who did that all their lifes are invited to identify with her. Look I want to kill this „man“, yes not for me; I'm not a murderer, but I want to protect other girls. You will love me for that, even if you caught me lying on some points. I do protect the society, you can't call me a murderer.
A perfect setting for a crime which never happened. A perfect analyse of the society, which I believe only an outsider can have in young years. Maybe a migrant, who would love to be part of that society, but can't, as in her society homosexuality is punish by prison or death.
Anyway a brilliant mind behind this story, knowing what stories the media will jump on. A deep understanding how a character assasinnation campaign works and the knowlegde that once it is set, noone can stopp it and least of all with true facts, the majority doesn't want to know they have been played games on.
The crime the contemplaint is comitting stays unrevealed. Murdering her lesbian lover, literally and murdering the lesbian in herself.
The defendant never outed herself as a transgender, so don't abuse her for your policies.
To close we all know how much we suffered under the first break up, it is a shock.
And be incriminated of having commited a crime under shock, specially a crime which one has experienced and survived is psychological terror. This is what the contemplaint did.