Dennis Noel Kavanagh Profile picture
Jun 27 10 tweets 2 min read Read on X
1/ In a criminal trial a jury can ask questions by sending notes to the Judge. Here are 10 jury notes that would derail a Conversion Practices trial:

"I am gender critical and do not believe in transgender identity which is just really gender identity, can I sit on this case?"
2/

"The Prosecution say the Defendant mother caused her daughter serious distress by not sending her to gender GP and this was controlling and economic pressure. I think she was just a good mum doing her best, can I acquit on that basis?"
3/

"How do the Prosecution prove beyond a reasonable doubt the daughter in this case had a gender identity, can they call evidence and can we hear from someone like Helen Joyce?"
4/

"The Prosecution say the child in this case "identified as neither male or female". I do not believe in this sex category and it does not exist in law. Can I disregard the prosecution "evidence" as frivolous nonsense?"
5/

"The Prosecution say the Defendant was controlling by refusing to purchase cross sex hormones, but I think responsible parents do have to take control of important things like a child taking irreversible medicines. Can I take that into account as evidence?
6/

"Can I take into account that gender critical speech is legally protected under the Equality Act or can a belief simultaneously be a protected characteristic and a crime?"
7/

"Do the prosecution have to prove as a matter of objective fact that the daughter had a gender identity or is enough they prove the defendant thought they did and intended for them not to have it?"
8/

"We have been told that having a transgender identity is "not limited to" the protected characteristic. What is the limit and where do we draw the line? Is the Complainant saying they had one enough?"
9/

"Serious alarm or distress to the individual which has a substantial adverse effect on their usual day-to-day activities is not unusual when a teenager is told "no". Can we take that into account as a normal part of family life?
10/

"We have been told a conversion practice can be "any conduct", is there a lower limit on this or can it be literally anything, even a normal conversation?"

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More from @Jebadoo2

Jun 27
1/ Just collecting together my threads and YouTube video on the (pretty awful and quite strange) draft Conversion Bill, (I suspect there will be more and I'll add them here). First, here's my initial reaction to the general shape of the bill:

2/ Here's my YouTube analysis of the bill which is basically that last thread but narrated with a deep dive into some of the more obviously silly and wide provisions:

3/ This bill contains no statutory defences or care outs for parents or free speech, (this is very odd in a criminal statute to have literally no defences) - that bothers me quite a bit and explain why here:

Read 7 tweets
Jun 27
1/ As the Conversion Practices Bill is primary legislation, section 3 of the Human Rights Act requires that it must be read and given effect in a way which is compatible with the Convention rights. This is going to cause some issues with Article 8, the private and family life. Image
2/ The reason for that is the Bill is very wide and "any conduct" can be a conversion practice if it causes serious alarm or distress that has a substantially adverse effect on someone's day to day functioning. A depressed teenager denied puberty blockers could easily meet that. Image
3/ Let's consider a parent prosecuted in such circumstances. As I've remarked elsewhere they have no statutory defence in this bill of "I had my child's best interests at heart" (which is odd), but their Counsel could try to argue the prosecution was an infringement of Article 8 Image
Read 10 tweets
Jun 26
1/ The conversion practices bell contains no statutory defences. This is unusual. Let us imagine a parent who wants their daughter to grow up to be a happy lesbian rather than to take puberty blockers and hormones. There is no defence of "her welfare was my paramount concern" Image
2/ That seems draconian. A parent in this situation would probably admit they intended by some act (like conversations about drugs) to cause their daughter not to have a transgender identity or believe she does. So the parent here admits the first part of the offence in clause 1 Image
3/ In order to secure a conviction the Crown then need only prove the daughter was caused serious alarm or distress that had a substantially adverse affect on her day to day functioning. Serious distress is, of course, (sadly) very common in children in this situation. Image
Read 6 tweets
Jun 26
1/ Let's just compare the draft Conversion Bill with the Serious Crime Act 2015's offence of Controlling and Coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship offence to get a sense of the scope of the offence. You can see here that for CC you need some real connection. Image
2/ Now if you compare and contrast that to the Conversion draft bill there's no such requirement and there is no duty of care/proximity requirement at all. This is very wide for a criminal offence combined with the fact the offence can be "any conduct". Image
3/ That certainly means parents could be prosecuted, but there's no reason to stop there. Companies can commit this offence and can be prosecuted for failing to reasonable steps to stop the offence being committed. Some charities are body corporates depending on their structure. Image
Read 6 tweets
Jun 26
1/ As it stands, The Conversion Practices Bill permits a private prosecution of the conversion offence. I predict big trouble ahead here with various outfits like the Good Laugh Project and Stonewall weaponising this legislation and I'll explain why. Image
2/ First point to make is the default position under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 is that any either way offence can be privately prosecuted in England and Wales (but not Scotland). Now, you can see in s.6 there the CPS can jump in if they like and take over/drop the case Image
3/ Now what you normally do with serious offences or politically contentious areas of criminal law is to put them beyond the reach of private prosecutors by requiring permission to prosecute from the AG or DPP. Here are some DPP examples from the CPS website. Image
Read 8 tweets
Jun 25
1/ We do have conversion therapy in the UK, but we call it "gender affirming care". 80-90% of the kids and teens that constituted the Tavistock cohort were same sex attracted

Today, Labour's announces their own section 28 to cement this vile practice with a "conversion bill" Image
2/ The first point is that offence includes "inchoate" offending (which means attempting).

As I read this, attempting to persuade your teenage lesbian daughter not to take testosterone is an attempt to cause her not to have a transgender identity, so that's that box ticked Image
3/ Saying you won't pay for the testosterone is economic pressure and saying it will harm her is emotional pressure. Preventing her from seeing some quack like Helen Webberley is controlling behaviour. You with me so far? Image
Read 11 tweets

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