A 19-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome has been placed under house arrest and fined after asking how a transgender police officer identifies.

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The incident took place in October while PCSO Connor Freel, a 25-year-old transgender police officer from England, was on duty in Mold, North Wales. 19-year-old Declan Armstrong was with his friends when he noticed Freel and “very loudly” asked: “Is it a boy or a girl?” When Freel looked over, Armstrong repeated his comment, prosecutor Rhian Jackson claimed.

The prosecution claimed that this left Freel “feeling upset and embarrassed,” Jackson said, according to the Daily Mail. “To have something shouted at him that had such personal connotations whilst he was on his own in the middle of a public place that was rather busy due to market day footfall did leave him vulnerable, distressed, and embarrassed,” Jackson continued, saying the comments made Freel feel reluctant about patrolling the streets.

The teenager was charged with violating the Welsh Public Order Act 1986 for “using abusive or insulting words with intent to cause harassment,” which Armstrong denied. His lawyer argued “he doesn’t hold any prejudice against anyone in society.”

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The Mold Magistrates’ Court gave Armstrong a 12-week curfew, between the hours of 9 p.m and 7 a.m. local time, and fined him £590, about $800 USD. District Judge Roger Lowe said his sentence was raised from “a low level to a medium level community order because of its transphobic nature,” Metro reported.

Worth noting: Freel, born as a biological female, began identifying as male at the age of 15 and was often the subject of bullying. “I came out first as being gay and got a bit of abuse for that and I almost didn’t want to come out as transgender,” he said.

He is an LGBTQ activist and has taken part in projects and done other work to raise awareness about hate crimes against transgender individuals.

A case of thought policing? “Was it inappropriate and untactful for Armstrong to voice his curiosity in this way? Well, sure. Just as it’s inappropriate and untactful for a child to ask a woman who is overweight, ‘is there a baby in your tummy?’ But while this is obviously awkward, it is not clear that it is ‘hateful.’ And in any case, it is surely the job of the adult — or in this situation: the police officer — to shrug it off?” writes The National Review’s Madeleine Kearns.

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