From Salon: http://www.salon.com/2013/07/06/does_gender_matter_when_it_comes_to_sexual_consent/
A teen is jailed and registered as a sex offender for having sex with a female peer while “pretending” to be a boy
By Tracy Clark-Flory
Saturday, Jul 6, 2013
The young relationship started as so many do these days — online. Thirteen-year-old “Scott” and 12-year-old “M” developed a friendship that over the course of three years and many instant message conversations, bloomed into romance. M began calling Scott her boyfriend — they even talked about getting married and having kids. After M’s 16th birthday, Scott, then 17, traveled from his home in Scotland to visit her in England. They watched a movie, kissed and, before long, things went further.
It may sound like a sweet story of teenage love — but Scott was sentenced by a court in England to three years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for life as a result of the relationship. That’s because Scott was born Justine McNally and assigned at birth as female. In an appeal of McNally’s sentence, which was made public late last week, a U.K. court reduced McNally’s sentence but affirmed that the 18-year-old had violated M’s sexual consent by presenting as male. It was deemed a “deception” and “abuse of trust.”
I’ll be referring to McNally as female from here on out because that appears to be how she currently identifies. As the court ruling put it, though, she had a history of “self-harm” and “confusion surrounding her gender identity and sexuality.” McNally also told police that she took on the identity of Scott online — at the pivotal age of 13 — “because it made her more comfortable,” according to the ruling. Regardless of how McNally identifies, this case could be significant for those who identify as transgender — as well as those who are exploring their gender and sexuality. That’s because it sets a possible precedent in the U.K. for prosecuting people for failing to announce before a sexual encounter the gender they were assigned at birth.
Matt Kailey, author of “Just Add Hormones: An Insider’s Guide to the Transsexual Experience,” points out the potential challenges that could arise. He asks, “What happens if a person who does not identify as ‘trans’ in any way is accused of being so … because his penis is too small for his sexual partner’s tastes or her breasts are too small or not the right shape for her sexual partner’s tastes? What about a person whose genitals do not meet the ‘standard’ appearance that society expects for male and female genitalia?”
Continue reading at: http://www.salon.com/2013/07/06/does_gender_matter_when_it_comes_to_sexual_consent/
