A contentious new law against hate crimes took effect in Scotland on Monday, and J.K. Rowling, who is known for provoking anti-trans sentiments, took advantage of the opportunity to challenge the determination of Scottish authorities to enforce it.
“I have been INTENTIONALLY REBELLIOUS,” Rowling posted to X yesterday in a series of tweets that pushed the boundaries of hate speech, implying that trans people were violent criminals, including axe murderers. Rowling listed several trans-identified criminals and public figures, claiming that each had either violated or stolen important positions from girls and women.
The author of Harry Potter masked her hateful remarks as sarcasm under the guise of an April Fools post, but then went on to deliberately use the wrong gender pronouns for her criminal subjects.
“🎉🌼🌸April Fools! 🌸🌼🎉”, Rowling said, “Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren’t women at all, but men, every last one of them.”
Rowling labeled all of the controversial posts #ArrestMe.
The recently approved Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 complements the country’s existing hate speech protections with a new offense of “stirring up hatred” related to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or being intersex. If someone makes statements against these groups that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive, they could face up to seven years in prison.
The law also includes safeguards for free speech, including for “ideas that offend, shock or disturb,” which means that Rowling is unlikely to face legal action for her hateful tweets.
“In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act,” Rowling tweeted, “Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed greater importance on the feelings of men presenting their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls. The new law is open to misuse by activists who aim to silence” Rowling and her anti-trans allies, Rowling wrote.
The issues that have preoccupied Rowling for over four years, since she began garnering attention with her anti-trans opinions, include the following: “eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces,” “the misrepresentation of crime data if violent and sexual assaults committed by men are recorded as female crimes,” “the unfairness of allowing males to compete in female sports,” and “the injustice of women’s jobs, honors and opportunities being taken by trans-identified men.”
Reasonable people might possibly discuss these issues, but her assertion that biological sex is “unchangeable” casts a shadow over all of her other claims. It is a biological fact that sex, and the gender associated with it, are not fixed — the existence of intersex individuals proves this.
Rowling’s views on the subject were not always so fixed.
The author once expressed empathy for transwomen, stating, “feeling affinity because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women – ie, to male violence.”
She also showed an ability for subtlety, saying, “I respect every trans person’s right to live in any way that feels genuine and comfortable to them. I’d stand in solidarity with you if you were discriminated against because of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not think it’s hateful to say so.”
Since that time, her opinions have become firmer to the point that her recent series of posts on social media supported an incarcerated double rapist as the ultimate example of trans womanhood.
Susan Smith of For Women Scotland, a group that advocates for the rights of biological women, opposes the new law that Rowling criticized.
“The criteria are somewhat unclear and we are unsure how individuals will interpret this,” she stated BBC News the day before Rowling posted her rant. “We do expect that there will be numerous unfounded complaints, many rather insignificant complaints, and possibly individuals under investigation will have their lives turned upside down.”
“I anticipate that there will be numerous complaints made against J.K. Rowling,” she further commented.
