The BBC has been accused of violating the journalistic principle of accuracy by changing the testimony of a rape victim to avoid “misgendering” the accused rapist, a biological male who identifies as a transgender woman.
In the testimony, the anonymous rape victim, who is a lesbian, referred to the transgender rapist as “him,” saying that “he” raped her.
In the article, the BBC changed the woman’s words by referring to the rapist as “they” instead of “him.”
The original statement read: “I was too young to argue and had been brainwashed by queer theory so he was a ‘woman’ even if every fibre of my being was screaming throughout, so I agreed to go home with him. He used physical force when I changed my mind upon seeing his penis and raped me.”
According to The Times, the decision to censor the woman’s words to respect the rapist’s preferred pronouns was debated in the editorial room.
“Some journalists argued that the quote should remain intact, while others said it should reflect the trans woman’s preferred she/her pronouns,” The Times reported.
A source for The Times said: “They were originally all male references but the woke bros at the news website wanted to make them female because of misgendering. It’s quite shocking. I can’t think of any other situation where we would change the words of an alleged rape victim.”
Commenting on the issue, the BBC said: “It’s routine to have editorial discussions about different stories. Our only intention when deciding on language is to make things as clear as possible for audiences.”
