‘Transgender’ politician condemned for saying rape exists on a ‘spectrum’

(LifeSiteNews) — A trans-identifying Member of Scottish Parliament with the Green Party has claimed that rape “exists on a spectrum,” and the Scottish Conservatives are calling for the Greens to “remove the whip” from Q Manivannan. This would mean that Manivannan would have to sit in Parliament as an independent, and would lose access to party meetings, briefings, and official party designation.

The resurfaced viral comments are from a February 2025 episode of The Subjective Space podcast. During the discussion, the host commented that she had no empathy for rapists, and that the act of rape is unforgivable because it is so violating.

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Manivannan, who identifies as both non-binary and transgender and uses “they/them” pronouns, replied: “As much as I don’t seek to lighten [rape], it is a spectrum – none of which is less or more worse, but it is a spectrum of things that constitute that one homogenized word: rape.”

“I think this idea that the rapist is the ‘big burly man’ is not necessarily unfounded, because that’s the individual I’m most scared of on a day-to-day basis, but it’s also an entity that is misconstrued simply because I think any individual is capable of it, including yourself [Manivannan’s female podcast host] and me,” he added.

For good measure, Manivannan also added his musings about consent. “There’s also different modes of, well, not just consent, but also ideas, but also contexts and conditions under which rape is, well, rape,” he said. As Celia Walden asked sarcastically in the Telegraph: “So what he’s saying, to be clear, is that there are contexts and conditions under which rape is not, in fact, rape?”

The remarks have sparked a massive backlash. Reem Alsalem, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, responded to the comments in a post on X that is worth quoting at length:

Rape is a grave, systematic, and widespread human rights violations in international, regional and national law, that could also amount to torture. While victims of rape can be of any sex or age, rape continues to be committed on a wide scale against women and girls, and is therefore also a specific form of sex and gender-based violence against them.

There is no doubt that allegations of rape should be investigated swiftly and impartially to determine if rape has occurred; and that victims should be provided with access to effective, trauma-informed and victim centered reporting, assistance and justice mechanisms. However, that most certainly does NOT turn rape into a spectrum nor should it ever be spoken of in those terms.

Insinuations that acts of rape could fall on a spectrum, risk undermining the important progress we have made around the globe in criminalizing rape, which – as my mandate has argued – should cover rape against all persons, including marital rape and all acts of penetration of a sexual nature, with the lack of consent at its center.

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Tory equalities spokeswoman Meghan Gallacher concurred. “It is deeply alarming that anyone – but especially an elected representative – would ever seek to minimise the seriousness of rape and suggest that there is a spectrum of offences,” she stated. Several prominent women’s rights activists concurred; the Scottish Rape Crisis Alliance condemned the MSP for minimizing sexual violence.

“Q Manivannan’s comments were so unacceptable that I believe Scottish Greens’ co-leaders, Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, must now remove the whip from them,” Gallacher said. “Any failure to do so would send a horrendous message to victims of rape that Q’s comments were in any way appropriate and run the risk of them saying something similar in the Holyrood chamber.”

Manivannan, for his part, claimed that his remarks had been taken out of context and apologized. He has been a vocal activist pushing for the idea of “trans women using women’s bathrooms,” called on Scottish Parliament to review and consult on its policy banning trans-identifying males from female bathrooms and private spaces, stating that it is “not only harmful for trans people, but actively harmful for women and for people across genders, who would be soon questioned for not conforming to a gender stereotype.”