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