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This petition was submitted during the 2010 to 2015 Parliament

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Closed petition Rape law to be made gender neutral

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In the Sexual Offences Act 2004, perpetrators of rape and sexual assault are defined with the "he" pronoun, which implies that only men commit these acts. Also, the definition of rape states that the act must be done with a penis.

As it stands, this description is incredibly biased against men and harmful to people of all genders due to the glaring loopholes in its wording. The entire section should be revised to replace male pronouns with gender neutral words such as "they" and rape should be redefined as any penetration - not just that performed with a penis.

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    This petition will stay open until 8 July 2014.