An Indian-origin transgender and non-binary Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) representing the Edinburgh and Lothians East region, Q Manivannan, is facing severe public backlash following controversial remarks in which he described a crime as horrific as rape as “existing on a spectrum.” Manivannan, who was elected to the Scottish Parliament in May, made these statements during an episode of the podcast The Subjective Space, hosted by Dr Sindhu Rajasekaran.

Although the episode was originally recorded in February of last year, a clip from the discussion recently went viral across social media platforms, sparking intense debate and widespread public criticism.

During the podcast episode, which was titled “On care, grief and words,” Manivannan actively argued against what he described as the “demonisation of rape” and instead advocated for expressing care toward rapists. He began his argument by explaining that, in his view, a rapist should not be viewed through a stereotypical lens as a “monster rapist.” He asserted that any individual, including a person like himself, was fully capable of committing such a crime. He went on to claim that these types of extreme portrayals of perpetrators serve to distract the public and take attention away from the broader discussion surrounding why such crimes happen in the first place.

“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 and me,” the MSP stated during the broadcast.

He further claimed that an offense like rape is ultimately just a question of “circumstances” that lead a person to commit such an act. Building on this logic, he argued that perpetrators of crimes like rape deserve sufficient care. Manivannan maintains that society should condemn the act of rape itself rather than the person who commits it. According to his framework, rape exists on a spectrum, and no single act on that spectrum is “less or more worse.”

When these insensitive remarks drew widespread criticism from the public and advocacy groups alike, Manivannan defended his position by claiming that his words were taken out of context and misconstrued.

At first glance, Manivannan’s statement might appear to some as a sophisticated observation regarding the complexities of crime. However, a closer examination unravels an underlying attempt to blur the traditional boundaries that separate a victim from a perpetrator. His remarks reflect an insidious effort to interchange empathy and shift the burden of proof away from the perpetrator and onto the victim. This approach represents a classic maneuver among subscribers and propagators of certain radical leftist and trans ideologies, designed to construct a society driven by individual whims rather than grounded in justice, accountability, and objective morality.

This distorted worldview, which often stems from a deep-seated sense of insecurity and victimhood, focuses on systematically eliminating essential societal distinctions: between a victim and a perpetrator, between a man and a woman, and even between right and wrong. It is a philosophy that prioritizes feelings over objective facts, emotional states over biological reality, and subjective opinions over truth. Within this framework, a person with a penis can be considered a woman, an individual with a uterus can be considered a man, a child can be viewed as adult enough to be sexualized, and a violent criminal can be reframed as a victim simply if they identify as one.

The blurring of these foundational societal categories is a defining trait of the identitarian left, of which modern trans ideology functions as a sub-part. This movement treats vital boundaries—such as man and woman, adult and child, or victim and perpetrator—as nothing more than artificial constructs imposed by what it views as a repressive society. The overarching goal of this movement is to break free from established societal frameworks, allowing actions to be guided by emotional perception rather than sanity, evidence, and reason.

The core principle driving this line of thought is that individual self-determination should always trump observable reality. Manivannan directly applies this principle to the crime of rape, suggesting that a rapist can effectively be viewed as a self-determined victim of their own circumstances.

Proponents of this ideology seek to convince broader society that womanhood is merely an emotional state rather than a biological fact. The dangerous real-world implications of this philosophy have already become visible across the West, where biological males who identify as women have been permitted to compete against biological females in sports, claiming titles and medals. After decades of relentless effort, women successfully built protected spaces for themselves in athletics and other fields historically dominated by men. Today, under the growing influence of trans ideology, those hard-won spaces are being directly threatened by a self-determined class of perceived victims.

As these distorted ideologies gain ground, serious questions arise regarding the long-term feasibility of raising children in a culture where some actors normalize pedophilia and seek to justify sexual crimes against minors by dissolving the clear lines between victims and abusers. Ultimately, the troubling costs of this ideological shift are borne overwhelmingly by women and children. Removing the basic safeguards that protect physical privacy and bodily autonomy leaves the most vulnerable members of society exposed—a outcome that stands in stark contrast to the ideology's stated goal of protecting and empowering the marginalized.