Reddit Community vs Aimee Knight. The Story.
32Reddit Community vs Aimee Knight. The Story.
From Wikipedia:
Aimee Knight (née Challenor, born 1 October 1997) is a British transgender activist and former spokesperson and electoral candidate for the Green Party.[2] In 2017, she stood for election in Coventry South, receiving 1.3% of the votes.
In 2018, Challenor's father, who had been serving as her election agent, was convicted and jailed for raping and torturing a 10-year-old girl.[3] Challenor's recruitment of her father, despite her knowledge of the charges for 22 sexual offences, led to an investigation and Challenor's suspension from the Green Party. She later resigned and joined the Liberal Democrats, but was suspended in 2019 over paedophilic tweets apparently posted by her partner.[4] Challenor resigned from Stonewall UK at around the same time, leaving the United Kingdom for the United States.
Contents
1 Personal life
2 Career
3 LGBT activism
4 References
Personal life
Although assigned male at birth, Knight says she realised she was a girl around the age of 10, but her parents were unaware of the existence of trans people.[5] Knight and her two younger siblings were taken into care in 2013, following a police investigation of a online threat made by Challenor in a YouTube video, which resulted in neglect charges against her parents.[6][7] Knight came out as trans in 2014; Challenor's older sibling is also a transgender woman.[8]
As a child, Knight was diagnosed with autism[9][10] and oppositional defiant disorder.[11] She was educated at Lewis Charlton Learning Centre, an independent special school for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties.[12][13] Challenor then attended Henley College Coventry, where she was the college's National Union of Students (NUS) lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) officer.[14][15] Challenor lived with her mother in Coventry in 2018, while studying for a B.A. in philosophy, politics and economics at the Open University.[16]
During 2019, Knight went through the process of changing her legal gender through the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the British government issued a new birth certificate recognising Challenor as female.[17]
Challenor married Nathaniel Kinght, an American, in December 2019.[18]
Career
Knight joined the Green Party of England and Wales in November 2014. She was the chair of LGBTIQA+ Greens (LGBT, plus intersex, queer, asexual, and other) between 2015 and 2017.[19] Knight became the party's equality spokesperson in 2016.[16] According to the Green Party, Knight was the only trans spokesperson for a UK political party.[20]
In April 2017, Knight helped co-found the Global Greens LGBT+ Network alongside colleagues from Die Grünen, Groen, Taiwan Tree Party, and Taiwan Green Party.[21]
In July 2017, Knight was the Green candidate for Coventry South. She received 1.3% of the vote share, with 604 votes.[22] Knight stood for Coventry City Council elections as a member of the Green Party in February 2016[23] and May 2016.[24] She stood in a May 2018 local election and was not elected.
Knight stood in the 2018 party election to be deputy leader, which closed at the end of August.
In August 2018, Knight's father David Challenor was sentenced to 22 years in prison for raping and torturing a 10-year-old girl in the attic of the home shared by him, his wife Tina Challenor, and Knight. Knight's father had been reported to the police in 2015 and charged in November 2016. Following this, Knight chose her father as her election agent for the 2017 general election and also the 2018 council elections. Knight had given her father's name as "Baloo Challenor" on campaign materials, later commenting that he was known locally by this nickname.[6] After her father's sentencing, Knight – who insisted she did not know the allegations against her father in full – stood down from the Green Party's deputy leadership election.[6][7][25]
Knight was consequently suspended from the party on a no-fault basis, and the party launched an inquest into possible safeguarding failures as Challenor was allowed to act as Knight's election agent after having been charged.[26][27] In September 2018, Knight resigned from the Green Party citing transphobia;[28] however, Knight continued to cooperate with the inquest. The inquest by Verita found in January 2019 that she had committed a "serious error of judgement" in appointing her father as her campaign manager.[29][30] The report also said that the Green Party, who were told by Knight that her father had been arrested but not that he was a party member, could have done more to investigate the matter.[31]