There’s a strange fact which you may not know about the UK. You live in the world’s only country that tells the world that no person (man or woman) can ever be raped by a woman.
Imagine telling a lesbian that they don’t count because their assaulter wasn’t a man? We live in a time where it is in vogue to put on a rainbow in June but gay or lesbian survivors of same-sex assault aren’t even recorded. Is this not the peak of homophobia? But this is our law.
Here’s another funny fact. We’re the world’s only jurisdiction that records sexual violence against men as a crime against women and girls. The state telling men who are sexually assaulted that they are actually women is one of the worst and most demeaning insults male survivors can endure. I know, because I am one. It implies that my manhood is gone because I was victimised. Alas, neither Labour or the Conservatives seem to think this is a big problem.
The situation for male survivors especially is worsening. Today a little under half of crisis centres will turn men away from their door. But in 2025, the government is cutting the country’s only support line for male survivors. The cost of maintaining this line is not much, a mere £250,000 pa.
Empathy is a value that our party puts first. I am a survivor of sexual violence. I live in a world that is hostile to my existence.
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