Our view

THE claim that one convicted rapist transitioned to become a woman in a bid to avoid male prison in the UK has reignited the currently ever burning topic of trans rights.

Let’s be clear; the level of respect any one human being is entitled to can never have anything to do with their race, gender, sexuality, or other inherent characteristic. However, the issue of whether trans people can compete in their new gender’s sports’ categories, change in their dressing rooms in shops and serve time in their prisons is one that sees an almighty clash of rights, most often between women and trans people.

While it wouldn’t be right to dismiss the needs of a trans person to be treated with respect in their new gender, it can never be right to make other women fear for their safety. Especially not in surroundings in which control over your own space and safety are at a minimum, like prison.

Whenever issues surrounding equality are brought up for the first time, there is often a period where the courts (and often the general public) take time to work out how this should be balanced. When gay marriage was first introduced, there were multiple Christian businesses who asserted their own rights not to recognise this as a Christian concept.

In short, there’s always a clash when one set of rights ends up conflicting with another.

With tensions getting higher and higher over the trans issue though, and with the safety of both women and trans people being put at risk in the fallout, let’s hope there is a resolution to this one sooner rather than later.

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