A transgender woman has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a male partner by failing to disclose her gender status to him, meaning he could not consent to the sexual activity, British prosecutors said on Friday.
Ciara Watkin, 21, performed sex acts on the man, also 21, who she had met on social media site Snapchat in June 2022, but did not disclose her transgender status to him.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Watkin had told the man that she was on her period and meaning he could not touch her below the waist.
A few days later the pair met again, after which Watkin blocked all contact with the man until she eventually got back in touch and told him during an exchange of text messages that she was transgender and had male genitalia, the CPS said.
“It is clear from the evidence in this case that, prior to engaging in sexual activity with the victim, Watkin had made no attempt to inform him of her transgender status,” said Senior Crown Prosecutor Sarah Nelson.
“The victim has made clear in police interview that he would not have engaged in sexual activity had he known that Watkin was transgender and, consequently, these events have had a significant impact on his mental wellbeing.”
Watkin, from Stockton-on-Tees in northeast England, had admitted lying but her lawyers told her trial that it would have been “blindingly obvious” to the man that she was not biologically female, the BBC said.
She was convicted of two charges of sexual assault and one charge of assault by penetration following a trial at Teesside Crown Court and will be sentenced on October 10.
Pardon’ if You find me rude, I’m noob, trying to learn stuff. Aside to things happen in UK, that have lot trans-oriented problems recently, thing could happen anywhere…
But as possible transgender myself (I’d call myself late-egg), I would find myself in 3 situations at meeting new persons:
We are not into any romance/sexual stuff, just friends, any gender stuff is not related, we don’t talk it at all, whatever. Still wouldn’t want to befriend bi*ots, but that’s another topic.
We found each other on sex-finder app, we both knew we want to go into bed together and have fun. In this case now, if I keep hiding my trans-gender secret, wouldn’t that be non-con to my partners? should I respect them as other humans? As much as I have rights to live my life in my way, they have same, with both side respect?
Similar in romantic relations from a date-app or some other pick-up line in a cafe’, if I’m about to build some relations, based on trust, how any of us could build trust with hiding such info?
Both 2 or 3 are questions related to hiding if asked moments, aside to other person respecting me being “uncommon” or not. Other one could even very politely and friendly refuse going deeper in relation knowing my secret, and imHo that would be ok too.
Personally, I would feel bad if I had to cheat that on partner, either sex or life partner.
How do You deal with that?
Dating straight-cis people is a bit of a mindfield as a trans person. You’ll have to learn how to navigate this through some trial and error but realistically you should disclose to a partner if it looks like you’re going to hook up, or if you intend on dating you should disclose it fairly early on, basically as soon as you can tell things are going well (and probably try to make sure you’re in a public place when doing so just in case)
Regarding friends, bigots tend to out themselves pretty damn fast, especially if you’re white and male. Culture war issues are an easy place to brush on and see how they react if they haven’t outed themselves yet
You deal with it by asking what the harm truly is and why the onus is only on trans people to placate cis people
Thx for reply, with so many upvotes already, super valuable info from many!
Wearing big signs. Super bad for sake of both haters and chasers. lol nupe. I think we all agree here.
Genitals are often quite important in most sex activities, and imHo there is nothing bad with liking cute dicks and vaginas. It is about physical parts in crotch, not about gender I feel, identify, express self as. Even more, it has nothing to person being respectful or not to the partner.
For gendered spaces like toilets, do we even talk about them, or relations between two adults, that both wants to be con?
I believe we are of what we feel like, what our minds are thinking, how our bodies do look, something something genes, how we presence self, how other see us. If someone wants to be an asshole and build relations or even marriage with kids based on how the partner look, totally ignoring the character of other person. Like, for own social status only, what’s then? Do You want to force them into liking my personality too? (Sure, humanity expect us all to note my personality too, but some just wants to be assholes and ignore some parts of me). What about family being very important to someone, with own kids, “made” in traditional way with partner, in the primal natural way. Then vasectomy is also a problem, lacking breast of mother may be too. Do You want to force these soon-to-be-parents to surrogacy or adoption? Or maybe respect their way of life?
All Your mentioned what-ifs may be problematic to some, even big no-no barrier. In very same way as dating trans persons. That’s why I’ve asked to talk first before acting. No, not by signs, or arm band (lol).
Call me old, but that’s why we used to have “no sex until 3rd date” rule, to get know other person at least a little.