Pronunciation of names & gender pronouns
The protocol.
The protocol “does no more than allow lawyers and others to inform the court of the correct pronunciation of their name and their preferred gender pronoun”
Stop right there.
That’s smuggling. That’s smuggling the concept of “preferred gender pronoun” concealed by “correct pronunciation of their name.” Those two items are not the same thing. Preferred is not the same as correct, and pronouns are not a thing one gets to customize.
I suppose it’s possible to think of ways the correct pronunciation of their name could be misused the way luxury pronouns are. I suppose people could claim that “Alice” or “Fred” is pronounced “Fuck” or “Arthur Two-sheds Jackson” or similar. But if they did the court would say nope.
The two things are not the same kind of thing. Pronunciations of names can vary, and there’s little or nothing at stake when they do. I suppose Americans could say “the correct pronunciation of my name is Charles, Charrrrles, not Chahlz.” I suppose if they did it would make no difference, because you can’t order people to speak in a different accent, but even more because it doesn’t matter. Pronouns, on the other hand, do matter, especially in a court of law. “She raped/assaulted/abused me” is very different from “He” did all that.
So it’s very unnerving to see a judge bundling the two together.
“My name’s Al (not Alphonse) Capone and my adjectives are ‘not’ and ‘guilty’.” Yep. Can’t see any problems there.
The interesting thing about the judge’s “correction” is that it does the transgender no favor. From what I can tell he’s basically saying that a rape victim is allowed to say that a transwoman is a man because her trauma over being (allegedly) raped is more important than the trauma of the accused (and by proxy every other trans-identified person on earth) being officially misgendered in a matter of public record. But NO trauma is worse than the stab-to-the-heart pain of being called “he” when you’re really a “she.” And it’s written down too. O the inhumanity. No respect at all.
Next the judge will be dealing another blow to the famous transphobe by informing her in withering terms that of course trans-identified males will not be allowed in women’s rape shelters, what a fevered imagination she has.
@Sastra, South Australia only ever had one women’s shelter, and it went “fully inclusive” some time ago, not sure when (I probably shouldn’t name it). It also lost its government contract to supply services to women I think last year. No idea if any shelter supplies services to women specifically anymore, I’ve asked and had no answers.