A 19-year-old teenager with Aspergers was convicted of a “transphobic” hate crime and ordered to pay a fine after he questioned the gender of a transgender police officer in the United Kingdom.
The police officer, a woman who identifies as a man, took great offense when the suspect shouted, “Is it a boy or is it a girl?”
The Daily Mail reports Declan Armstrong was convicted under Public Order Act 1986 – which makes it a crime to use abusive or insulting words with the intent to cause harassment. The teen was sentenced to a curfew and had to pay a fine
Edward Marsh of the Crown Prosecution Service told the newspaper that “comments deliberately targeting a person in this way have no place in modern society.”
“The CPS takes any hate crime allegation extremely seriously and we will robustly prosecute cases that meet the Code for Crown Prosecutors,” he said.
Greg George, head of Diversity at North Wales Police said, “The sentence reflects the importance of holding individuals to account when they commit hate crime.”
“I would encourage anyone who has been subject to a similar ordeal to come forward and report it to the police,” he added.
What the teenager shouted may have well been boorish, but did it really rise to the level of a hate crime?
Regardless, in the United Kingdom it is apparently a crime to offend a girl who thinks she’s a boy or a boy who thinks he’s a girl.