Rejected petition The man, The man: Change the Sexual Offences Act so rape is gender neutral

Under Current Uk legislation, within the 'Sexual Offences Act 2003', rape can only be committed by a male with a penis, the focus is on him penetrating another person without consent. This petition aims to change the legislation to ensure a rape offence is taken from a gender neutral perspective.

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Under the current Uk legislation, the definition of rape only focuses on a male forcibly penetrating another person and completely disregards the forcible penetration by the individual being penetrated, which has similar psychological effects on the victim. The current law places these acts under 'Causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent', which not only undermines the individual experience but has a lesser sentence compared to a rape crime (life vs 10 years imprisonment).

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

You may wish to sign this petition calling for the same action: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300270

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 19 June 2020
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