Why is JK Rowling challenging the new Scottish hate crime law?

The best-selling creator of Harry Potter, JK Rowling, has sparked a heated debate with her scathing criticism of a recently-enacted Scottish law that allegedly favours transgender individuals at the expense of women.

The Edinburgh-based Rowling slammed the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which came into force on April 1, wading into an issue that has sharply divided public opinion in the constituent country within the United Kingdom.

“Women gain no additional protections, of course, but well-known trans activist(s) falls within a protected category,” the renowned author wrote on her social media account.

In a series of posts on X, Rowling listed some of the prominent transgender rights activist figures, ranging from rapists and convicted sexual offenders to activists and appointed political figures, and called them “men”.

Her comments sparked a wave of online backlash and official complaints. The Scottish police, however, said Rowling’s remarks did not constitute criminal behaviour and took no further action.

Women’s safety overlooked?

The newly-implemented law makes it a criminal offence to use threatening or abusive behaviour to incite hatred on the grounds of age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity.

However, mounting criticism suggests that the Scottish Parliament may be overlooking women’s rights in favour of what Rowling describes as a “neo-religious concept of gender”.

“For several years now, Scottish women have been pressured by their government and members of the police force to deny the evidence of their eyes and ears, repudiate biological facts and embrace a neo-religious concept of gender that is unprovable and untestable,” Rowling said.

In 2022, the Scottish government passed another controversial law, allowing people to change their legally recognised gender through self-declaration without needing medical certification.

Rowling suggested that this “re-definition of ‘woman’ to include every man who declares himself one has already had serious consequences for women’s and girls’ rights and safety in Scotland, with the strongest impact felt, as ever, by the most vulnerable, including female prisoners and rape survivors.”

Although this legislation was later vetoed by the British government in 2023, Rowling believes that the new hate crime law remains vulnerable “to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces”.

'April fools'

Rowling mocked the new law with a flood of 11 posts on her X account, spotlighting some of the well-known transgender activists in the UK and implying that they were leveraging the “woman card” for their own advantage.

“Lovely Scottish lass and convicted double rapist Isla Bryson found her true authentic female self shortly before she was due to be sentenced. Misgendering is hate, so respect Isla’s pronouns, please,” the author mocked in one of her posts.

She has also been vocal against positive discrimination for the use of women-only spaces by transgenders, including prisons, bathrooms, sports teams, and changing rooms.

“Fragile flower Katie Dolatowski, 6’5”, was rightly sent to a women’s prison in Scotland after conviction. This ensured she was protected from violent, predatory men (unlike the 10-year-old girl Katie sexually assaulted in a women’s public bathroom),” she wrote.

She went on to accuse Scottish lawmakers of placing “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.”

Rowling defended the right to “call a man a man” and not be persecuted for “freedom of speech and belief”.

“It is impossible to accurately describe or tackle the reality of violence and sexual violence committed against women and girls or address the current assault on women’s and girls’ rights unless we are allowed to call a man a man,” she said.

“Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.”

Rowling ended the flood with a sarcasm-laced post, “April Fools! Only kidding. Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren’t women at all, but men, every last one of them.”

'Arrest me'

Police in Scotland said they had received complaints about Rowling’s post under the Hate Crime and Public Order Act, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

“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,” Rowling said.

In a separate post, she reiterated her stance, “If they go after any woman for simply calling a man a man, I’ll repeat that woman’s words, and they can charge us both at once.”

Police Scotland responded to the backlash and complaints by saying that JK Rowling would not be investigated for her comments on the controversial law.

“The comments are not assessed to be criminal, and no further action will be taken,” a police spokesperson said.

In response, Rowling reaffirmed her stance on free speech, stating, “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.”