There’s a good piece by Sasha Baker about how the UK has enshrined “trans panic” in law.
Trans panic is a variation of the gay panic defence, which is a tactic used in murder and assault cases to blame the victim rather than the attacker. In the UK it’s sometimes known as the Portsmouth Defence. It argues that if a straight person experiences sexual advances from someone who is gay, or has sexual activity with someone they then discover is trans, any ordinary person would be so horrified, outraged and disgusted that they would lose control and beat, stab or shoot the gay or trans person. It’s been abolished as a legitimate defence tactic in courts in many countries, but in the UK it’s been enshrined in law.
Baker:
Watkin’s case is not – as it may first appear – an aberration. It is part of a long history where Trans+ people’s right to privacy has been trampled on to flatter cis people’s self-perception.
The complainant’s assertion that he does not “swing that way” as he said in court, is one of the starkest examples of the legal system being wielded against a trans person to guard cis straight people’s sexualities.
…All we can really conclude from the available data is that if someone stabs you, the CPS is unlikely to prosecute you for being trans – but if you lie about your gender history to a sexual partner, even to protect your privacy, you could be facing jail.