JK Rowling has challenged the police to arrest her under Scotland’s new hate crime laws after making a series of posts on social media calling trans women men.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act took effect on Easter Monday, creating a new offence of stirring up hatred against protected characteristics including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity.
As reported by the Times, it was already an offence to stir up hatred on the basis of race. Sex was omitted from the Hate Crime Act in favour of future standalone legislation designed to tackle misogyny. The report continues:
The law was immediately tested by the Harry Potter author, who highlighted well-known transgender people in a thread on Twitter/X. She included the broadcaster India Willoughby, who reported Rowling to police in England for misgendering her last month, and the activist Munroe Bergdorf, along with convicted sex offenders.
Rowling has become one of the world’s leading gender-critical activists.
After posting about each person she wrote: “April Fools! Only kidding. Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren’t women at all, but men, every last one of them.”
She finished her social media posts with the hashtag “arrest me”.
Scottish ministers previously said that “misgendering” people would not be a crime under the new legislation. However, on Monday Siobhian Brown, minister for victims and community safety, said people risked being investigated for misgendering someone online under the new law.
Asked whether misgendering someone on the internet was a crime under the new law, she told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “It would be a police matter for them to assess what happens. It could be reported and it could be investigated — whether or not the police would think it was criminal is up to Police Scotland.”
Worth reading in full.
If you’re concerned about the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, and the number of innocent Scots likely to be get entangled in its net, please do consider donating to our newly established Scottish Fighting Fund.
Any money generated by this fundraiser between now and 31st March 2025 that we don’t spend on Murdo Fraser’s case will be spent on fighting cases related specifically to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act.
To provide FSU members with as much peace of mind as we can, we have an arrangement in place with a top firm of criminal lawyers in Scotland so we can assign a solicitor to FSU members who are arrested or questioned under caution because they’re suspected of committing a speech-related ‘hate crime’ (as defined in the new law), although whether we help them in this way, and whether we continue to help them after the first police interview, will be discretionary.
Another benefit of joining the FSU is we can help you get NCHIs deleted from your record, as we just did with Conservative MP Rachel Maclean, who had an NCHI recorded against her after tweeting about the Green Party candidate in her constituency, a trans woman (on which more in a moment).
We will also be publishing an FAQs on what to do if you are contacted by Police Scotland, having been reported for a ‘hate crime’, shortly.
Any money left over in the fundraiser after 12 months will be transferred to our general funds.
In light of this new threat to free speech, we hope FSU supporters will consider becoming members, particularly if they’re resident in Scotland.
