Feminist campaigner Maya Forstater has hit out at CPS guidelines stating they could be charged with domestic abuse for refusing to pay for their child’s transgender treatment or not using their preferred pronoun.
Updated legal guidance for prosecutors that was quietly published by the Crown Prosecution service last year includes a list of examples of abuse of ‘trans and non-binary victims’.
One is ‘withholding money for transitioning’, while another is ‘refusing to use their preferred name or pronoun.’
A third adds: ‘Body shaming or criticising the victim for not being ‘a real man/woman’ if they have not undergone reassignment surgery.’
The guidance could conceivably apply to wives ‘abusing’ their transgender husbands or vice versa, or even children referring to their parents as ‘mum’ or ‘dad’ if they have transitioned.
Ms Forstater, who last week won more than £100,000 in compensation from a think-tank that dropped her over her view that people cannot change their biological sex claimed the new guidelines showed how the CPS has been ‘ideologically captured’.
She told MailOnline: ‘Parents of children who identify as transgender should not be seen as abusers if they do not affirm their child as being ‘born in the wrong body’.’
Yesterday an Employment Tribunal ordered that Ms Forstater (pictured), 49, should be paid a total of £106,404 by her former employer, including £27,000 for injury to feelings and £64,000 for loss of earnings
Updated legal guidance for prosecutors that was quietly published by the Crown Prosecution service last year includes a list of examples of abuse of ‘trans and non-binary victims’. One is ‘withholding money for transitioning’, while another is ‘refusing to use their preferred name or pronoun.’ A third adds: ‘Body shaming or criticising the victim for not being ‘a real man/woman’ if they have not undergone reassignment surgery.’
Last week, Ms Forstater won more than £100,000 in compensation from a think-tank that dropped her over her view that people cannot change their biological sex.
The Center for Global Development did not renew the researcher and tax expert’s contract after she tweeted ‘gender critical’ beliefs – that ‘male people are not women’ – in 2018.
Although the guidance was updated more than a year ago, it was noticed by Mumsnet users today, many of whom were critical.
A press release put out by the CPS in April last year made no reference to the new passage on transgender and non-binary people
The guidance was introduced to ‘reflect changes brought in by the Domestic Abuse Act 2021’, according to the CPS.
As a result of a consultation on the document, the CPS updated it in December and announced that children affected by domestic abuse would automatically be treated as victims, ‘regardless of whether they were present during violent incidents.’
Reacting to the section on transgender and non-binary victims, Ms Forstater said: ‘The whole thing is written in the language of gender ideology and does not accept that other people in a relationship may not see their husband or wife, or their son or daughter as truly being the opposite sex.
”Trans widows’ ( wives who discover that their husbands cross-dress and then want ‘be women’) are some of the least heard voices.
‘They are often the victims of coercive control. Their husbands lie to them and spend family money on women’s clothing, trips away, hormones and surgery.
‘They often have no one to turn to as all the authorities and services that are meant to help are busy affirming their husband.’
She added: ‘The CPS has shown itself again and again to be ideologically captured.
‘They have produced materials telling school girls that they must accept males in girls toilets and guidance on rape by deception that forgets what sex people are.
‘The CPS is so confused by gender ideology it is is liable to mistake the victim for the perpetrator.’
Mumsnet users also hit out at the guidance. One said the section on pronouns was ‘surely compelled speech’
Another wrote: ‘So if my husband decides he’s a woman, I could be arrested for telling my husband that I don’t agree, he’s still a man and he’s not spending £20k of our savings on a boob job?’
Mumsnet users also hit out at the guidance. One said the section on pronouns was ‘surely compelled speech’.
Another wrote: ‘So if my husband decides he’s a woman, I could be arrested for telling my husband that I don’t agree, he’s still a man and he’s not spending £20k of our savings on a boob job?’
The guidance, under the sub-heading ‘trans and non-binary victims’, claims: ‘Gender identity is not the same as anatomical sex.
‘Gender identity is what you know your gender to be and can only be decided by the individual for themselves.
‘Gender identity might be the same as assigned sex (cisgender) or different to assigned sex (trans).
‘Gender identity is not the same as sexuality; trans and non-binary people identify as heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, and aromatic [sic], amongst other identities.’
Also among the list of abuse examples is ‘threatening or sharing pre-transition images’, and ‘minimise or disregard the abuse by blaming the victim’s ”perception” on their hormones.’
A CPS spokesperson said: ‘Domestic abuse is a severe crime and leaves victims with a lasting impact.
‘Our guidance, which was updated following a public consultation, lists the types of abuse all victims face through physical and non-physical abuse. This assists prosecutors to ensure that any victim, regardless of who they are, can get justice for the abuse they have faced.
‘The list is not exhaustive and should be used as guidance, when considering appropriate charges in line with our legal test.’
