[user104658]

Originally Posted by Cherie

But I thought self identification would never be abused

The concern of course is when something is successfully abused, not in people attempting to abuse it, so I don't necessarily see that this is an example of that (he has been convicted and his claims don't appear to have changed his sentence).

HOWEVER I have recently amended my stance on Self-ID from "not that worrying" to "worth keeping an eye on". There are some governments and institutions running off half-cocked (..... ... ... .... I...) with it and implementing changes and policies with absolutely NO basis in research or impact studies being carried out first. Which is never good, for ANY reason. There are also some very dubious activist groups abusing the issue for a sort of "shielded status" / playing into all of the "cancelled culture" BS.

But would still add that people need to be wary of allowing the anger and frustration they're feeling towards extreme elements and people abusing the system to bubble over. It's worth remembering that extremists are LOUD, and so it's easy to mistake them for a large proportion of the whole group.