A district attorney in California might be forced into referred to an alleged rapist by their preferred pronouns during prosecution.
During a hearing this past July, a judge determined district attorney Eric DuTemple had presented enough evidence to prosecute 51-year-old Tremaine Carroll, a man who identifies as a woman, for two felony counts of forcible rape and one count of dissuading a witness while incarcerated at a California women’s prison.
Yesterday, the judge made a final decision: DuTemple has to refer to the alleged male rapist as a “she/her” during the trial.
The ruling stems in part from California law SB 132,which requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation “to, during initial intake and classification, and in a private setting, ask each individual entering into the custody of the department to specify the individual’s gender identity whether the individual identifies as transgender, nonbinary, or intersex, and their gender pronoun and honorific.”
“The bill would prohibit staff, contractors, and volunteers of the department from failing to consistently use the gender pronoun and honorific an individual has specified in verbal and written communications with or regarding that individual that involve the use of a pronoun or honorific,” it also states.
