It seems the British legal system while on one hand protective of transgender people shoots itself in the foot by two recent cases of people who've lived their entire adult lives as female being sent to male prisons because they hadn't reregistered as legally female. In the first case a voluble protest by activists caused the woman to be sent to a female prison, in the second it turned to tragedy and the woman concerned seems to have carried out her threat and taken her own life. I suspect guidelines might change now that it's too late for poor Vicky Thompson.
Perhaps it should be emphasised to individuals to go through the Gender Recognition process and get recognised in their new gender to prevent these things happening at the same time it's understood some gender different people lead chaotic lives or have money issues which disincline to focus on such things as legal status.
One could say loads about the need for some sort of provision for an alternative to prison for vulnerable people who frequently attempt or succeed in taking their own lives. The people who frequently live on the edges of society often have mental or social issues which when exposed to the brutality of a male prison, cause them to harm themselves. Obviously, if people break the law there have to be consequences, but surely the object of the legal system is to punish the offence while helping the offender to change their behaviour for release. It's clearly failing.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/19/transgender-w...
Comments
The law (and Germaine Greer) is an ass
Having lived most of my public life in the female gender role I was aware that until April 2005 if I were sent to a UK gaol it would be a men’s prison. To get my paperwork changed I needed money and had to stand in public before people who until that moment had no idea I had ever lived in a male role accepting the power of others to designate me as a man or woman (by chance a couple of years later I met a court official I saw that day in my normal work situation who was sure she knew me from somewhere but couldn't remember where).
From my experience it is no wonder that there are girls like Vicky Thompson who are for some years caught legally and perhaps physically betwixt and between. They are not cyphers to be dropped into legal boxes and I would expect any judge with an ounce of humanity or common sense to refuse to imprison somebody without regard to their safety.
Following your link Angharad I found this definition by Germaine Greer of what defines someone a woman:-
“Being a woman is a bit tricky. If you didn’t find your pants full of blood when you were 13, there’s something important about being a woman you don’t know.”
I challenge anyone to make something socially or legally useful of that!
Rhona McCloud
Germaine Greer ...
... is clearly an intelligent woman despite her generally unpleasant attitudes. So it seems odd that she's unable to understand the difference between sex and gender. Worse, she has a total lack of empathy for what we might call difference and empathy is sometimes thought of as essentially a femine trait. I can only assume that her extreme dislike of men overcomes any other considerations.
Robi
Does she dislike men?
She wrote a 30000 word love letter to Martin Amis with whom I believe she had an affair.
The problem isn't people like Germaine Greer it's that things are changing quickly in a social environment and the legal system runs on snail power. We either need some intermediary body that can make short term alterations before they become law or judges need to be able to use more discretion in doing a very difficult job.
The article doesn't say what she was sentenced for but for a custodial sentence it wasn't likely to be shoplifting.
Angharad
30k words as a single letter of any kind...
...should attract attention from mental health specialists.
Just to type it up takes at least two full workdays for professional typist.
BTW, If you try to send it by snail mail, it will weight almost exactly 1 pound.
Anyways, 30k words love letters are not a healthy behaivour. If I lived in UK or US and received 30k characters love letter I would have filed for restraining order to prevent any kind of contact with author...
As for judges... There is no precedent. So it is a situation where it shows if a judge deserves status of a judge. Anyone can make a ruling based on previous cases. As in every of the 7 billion of humans. It takes legal knowledge, guts, and a bit of brains to be able to rule on the unprecedented case.
In that situation those judges had just shown their total incompetence. They are too afraid to make a ruling based on their bigoted views. And too afraid to make a ruling based on common sense as it could disappoint ones who appointed them as judges.
Very sad indicator for British legal system :-(
(sorry, just realised it was a year old post i've totally missed... Otherwise sentiment is the same...)
I don't know about the UK but
I don't know about the UK but helping the offender change their behavior is that the goal of prisons in America no matter what progressives say. The goal of US prisons are to be excessively punitive and make judges and lawyers who invest in the prison system money. Let me make one thing clear, the last thing the prison system is concerned about is inmates.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
Death & Armley
Hi Vicky used to be a regular at Adams Café in Keighley market hall. Unlike some transsexuals who are easy to spot Vicky was not. Neither my wife nor myself realised Vicky was not a genetic girl. What we did spot was the tattoo stars on her arms. We were both watching Look North and both of us realised it was the girl we both have chatted to in the market hall. SHARPHAWLAD
SHARPHAWLAD (Sharp)