Why Gayle Newland's case matters for LGBT rights

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.

Centrebit

"Here's your crowbar, and your centrebit,
Your life preserver you may want to hit,
Your silent matches, your dark lantern seize
Take your file and your skeletonic keys."

We did a pop-up Pirates of Penzance in Hall One, there wasn't a soloist to sing Samuel, so the eager-looking tenors in the front row of the risers each got little chunks of Samuel to sing. That bit above was mine. I was the only one singing it, and thus was fulfilled Bucket List Thing Number 23. I don't know what a centrebit is.

Champion

Bucket List Thing number 3 is complete. Being Mensa chess champion turned out to be quite hard, but I did it anyway because I am fabulous.

Pennies

Bucket List Thing the Second is achieved. My collection of pennies from every year since decimalisation is, for the next month, complete.

If you're reading this, you probably saw on facebook that I offered one Yorkie bar per day remaining in the year to anyone who could present me with a 2012 penny.

This wasn't as interesting a challenge as I'd hoped. At least four people claimed to have 2012 pennies for me, and Jonty and Hannah dropped in the next day to claim the maximum prize.

This is what 35 Yorkie bars looks like...

...and this is what a penny from every year between 1971 and 2012 looks like.

Kilometres

I crossed the first thing off my bucket list. I ran 5k in 24 minutes and 44 seconds, which as any mathematician will tell you, is less than 25 minutes.

I wasn't expecting great things of my Saturday morning parkrun this week, largely because I'd been up partying until 2am. But the combination of new running shoes and significantly colder weather lent Mercury wings to my feet.

I'm wondering what new goal should replace it.

Parkrun is an amazing thing & you should check it out immediately: http://www.parkrun.com/home

Bucket

Everyone's making bucket lists. Coincidentally, I made a bucket list!

NB: I am an individual and don't do things cos they're fashionable

1. Become free of mental illness
2. Learn to drive so I can be more prepared for number 3
3. Reproduce
4. Walk between Carlisle and Newcastle in either-not-both direction in 1 calendar day
5. Enter the Southern Hemisphere
6. Be the highest person in England as measured by whether I'm on the top of Scafell Pike and everyone else in England isn't
7. Go to a Major League Baseball game preferably a Toronto one
8. See QPR win a Premier League match
9. Be individually praised for my workwork by someone above Head of Department level
10. Be Mensa chess champion (should this turn out to be really difficult I may settle for Sell champion)
11. Be president of the Northumbria Chess Association
12. Be able to checkmate with bishop+knight vs. king
13. Learn Oracle
14. Know all the capitals of all the countries in all the world
15. Collect a penny from every year since decimalisation
16. Run 5 kilometres in 25 minutes
17. Run 1 mile in 7 minutes
18. Camp in Wimbledon Park to get Centre Court tickets
19. Be able to tell the difference between Costa Rican, Colombian and Brazilian coffee by taste
20. Have a bit of music that I write get used in a video game
21. Advance the theory of mathematics in some way
22. Advance the practice of barbershop harmony in some way
23. Perform in Hall One and be the only one singing/playing my part
24. Play trombone at a level above total beginner
25. NaNoWriMo
26. Comprehend a whole foreign-language radio program
27. Live somewhere south of Yorkshire
28. Fix my feet
29. Fix my asthma
30. Fix my inability to pee when there are people in the same room and I'm not drunk
31. Have sex in a moving vehicle (air/water craft count)
32. Reduce my pile of dirty laundry to 0

32 is enough for now. I may add more. Bye!

Discovery

I have made a startling discovery.

The sum of the first (12/2) triangular numbers, plus 1, is 57.
(10 + 9) * (12 - 9) is also 57.

THEREFORE

12^3 + 1^3 = 10^3 + 9^3.

I may have omitted a few steps in this reasoning, which will follow later.