Child rapist cleared of charges on a technicality

[Anakin McFly]

...namely, that he was discovered to be a trans man. The courts decided that this meant he was a woman, and that women can't be rapists, even though he had pleaded guilty.

The victim was a 13 year old girl who was raped 6 times over the course of 2 years. So basically... some guy has been repeatedly raping her, the case made it to court, and the judge goes "oh hey your rapist actually has a vagina. That makes her a woman, and women can't rape. Next!"

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/c ... ted-ruling

I cannot get over how profoundly stupid this is.

EDIT: if it makes a difference, the girl allegedly 'consented' to the sex. which makes it less bad, but it's still statutory rape.

[Derived Absurdity]

That... that... is a very specific form of profoundly fucking stupid. Wow.

This story is amazing in its almost serpentine fucked-upedness.

[Anakin McFly]

I know, right? I can't even imagine how anybody at all benefits from this ruling. The victim doesn't get justice done, the culprit just got outed and misgendered to an entire country, the ~moral majority~ now have to deal with a pedophilic transgender rapist lose on the streets, and cis women and trans men of this country were just implicitly given the go-ahead to rape with impunity.

It's almost beautiful in how wrong this is.

[Derived Absurdity]

And man... is that article itself shitty or what.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Singapore generally does not seem to be particularly super-progressive on LGBT rights.

[Anakin McFly]

lolyes

This is nowhere as bad as an earlier one that blatantly mocked a trans woman who had been denied asylum in Canada or somewhere; they used a lot of scare quotes around 'woman' and seemed to find it hilarious that she identified as a lesbian. The headlines described her as a male cross-dresser. I think she'd been living in that country most of her life, had transitioned in her early teens and didn't want to come back to Singapore to do the mandatory military service for legally male citizens. Possibly at least because they'd have made her shave bald and spend all her time doing brutal physical army exercises with a bunch of male soldiers who'd likely be fascinated with her boobs. Although the army itself here is surprisingly trans-friendly and often exempts trans women, so she might have got out of it after all. But so far no other article has succeeded in infuriating me as much as that one did.

but I'll always have fond memories of this one other article that referred to a trans woman as a 'sex-change man'. That's a great superhero name right there.

That said, there seems to be a few journalists steathily introducing the gay agenda everywhere, because one weekend's list of events to catch had not one but two large photos featuring LGBT-themed movies (one was Carol) with glowing reviews.

[Gendo]

So is this a case where a trans person should be happy to be misgendered?

[Cassius Clay]

Reminds me of OJ Simpson getting acquitted of a murder he likely committed because of racism. Sometimes racism pays off.

[Anakin McFly]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that if I were to grab a stranger off the street and rape them, the law would say I did nothing wrong. Not that I would, because I'm not a sociopath, but the fact that it's legal for me to do so blows my mind.

[Anakin McFly]

Looks like my initial impression was correct after all - the victim had no idea he was trans, and was distressed by the sexual (and some physical) abuse:

She was 13 then and told The Straits Times that they developed feelings for each other. Her own family was crumbling and he was there for her. But he also repeatedly had sex with her. ... She was only allowed to leave for school, after which she had to go straight home to clean the flat. If she was late or did not do her chores well, she alleged that Zunika would either hit her with a cane, hanger or her hands, on her back or the soles of her feet so that any marks would not be obvious.

So why did she put up with it? Because she thought she was in love with Zunika, who had promised to marry her when she turned 16. ... The victim, now 18, says she still suffers nightmares and can hardly sleep. "She took advantage of my family situation, betrayed my trust and destroyed our lives."

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/c ... tims-trust