SCOTTISH POLICE WON'T CHARGE J. K. ROWLING FOR "MISGENDERING" TRANS CONVICTS UNDER NEW "HATE SPEECH" LAW

National Review

 

Scottish Police Won’t Charge J.K. Rowling for ‘Misgendering’ Trans Convicts under New Hate-Speech Law

By CAROLINE DOWNEY

April 2, 2024 3:38 PM

 

The Scottish police announced Tuesday that they won’t charge J.K. Rowling under the country’s new hate-speech law after the Harry Potter author challenged the measure by “misgendering” transgender convicts.

 

Scotland’s 2021 Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act went into effect on Monday, which was also April Fool’s Day. To mark the occasion, Rowling mockingly lauded ten transgender-identifying men whose crimes against women included sexual abuse, abduction, possession of child pornography, and indecent exposure.

 

Rowling mentioned Scottish man Isla Bryson, a convicted double rapist, who transitioned to a woman “shortly before she was due to be sentenced.”

 

“Misgendering is hate, so respect Isla’s pronouns, please. Love the leggings!,” Rowling gibed. Another felon she pretended to praise was “fragile flower” Katie Dolatowski, who Rowling said sexually assaulted a ten-year-old girl in a women’s public bathroom. Dolatowski, who claimed to identify as female, was sent to a women’s prison in Scotland after conviction.

 

“Only kidding,” Rowling wrote on X. “Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren’t women at all, but men, every last one of them. In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls.”

 

The law criminalizes making derogatory comments based on disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex. Under the Public Order Act of 1986, stirring up hatred based on race, nationality, or ethnicity was already illegal in Great Britain but is also encompassed by the Scottish measure, the BBC reported.

 

The writer and women’s-rights advocate added that “freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.”

 

“I’m currently out of the country, but if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new Act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,” she said.

 

On Tuesday, the Scottish police announced that they would not treat Rowling’s allegedly inflammatory comments as criminal. Rowling celebrated the news, writing that she hopes this standard will be applied to all citizens who speak honestly about biological reality.

 

“I hope every woman in Scotland who wishes to speak up for the reality and importance of biological sex will be reassured by this announcement, and I trust that all women – irrespective of profile or financial means – will be treated equally under the law,” Rowling reacted on X.

 

Prior to the police development, U.K. prime minister Rishi Sunak backed Rowling, saying the Conservative Party would protect free speech.

 

“People should not be criminalised for stating simple facts on biology,” the leader said in a statement to the Telegraph. “We believe in free speech in this country, and Conservatives will always protect it.”

 

Prior to his assurances, member of the Scottish National parliament Fulton MacGregor, who sits on a criminal justice committee in Edinburgh, the city where Rowling lives, said she could face police complaints under the law. MacGregor acknowledged that “deliberately misgendering someone” could be considered a crime.

 

Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, said: “People such as J.K. Rowling could have the police at their door every day for making perfectly reasonable statements,” the Telegraph reported.

 

Last month, Rowling received criticism for accurately recognizing the male sex of U.K. TV presenter India (previously Jonathan) Willoughby.

 

On X, a user posted a video of Willoughby pouting and suggestively dancing and asked if Rowling thought “this lady should use the men’s locker room.” Rowling replied: “You’ve sent me the wrong video. There isn’t a lady in this one, just a man reveling in his misogynistic performance of what he thinks ‘woman’ means: narcissistic, shallow and exhibitionist.”