J.K. Rowling will not be arrested for comments about transgender women, police say - eviltoast

The “Harry Potter” author slammed a newly enacted hate-crime law in Scotland in a series of posts on X  in which she referred to transgender women as men.

J.K. Rowling shared a social media thread on Monday, the day a new Scottish hate-crime law took effect, that misgendered several transgender women and appeared to imply trans women have a penchant for sexual predation. On Tuesday, Scottish police announced they would not be investigating the “Harry Potter” author’s remarks as a crime, as some of Rowling’s critics had called for.

“We have received complaints in relation to the social media post,” a spokesperson for Police Scotland said in a statement. “The comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken.”

Scotland’s new Hate Crime and Public Order Act criminalizes “stirring up hatred” against people based on their race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender identity.

  • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    We have hate speech laws where I live. 99% of us don’t even realize it because 99% of us aren’t running around being bigots and calling for the extermination of groups of people based on race, gender, etc. You only need to worry about those laws if you’re the kind of person who those laws are in place for. Nobody is gonna arrest you if you’re a bigot, but if you’re standing on a street corner calling for blood you just might

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The issue with this thought is that when the party you hate comes into power they just might decide to add their own groups to these type of laws. Would you be ok if people got arrested for protesting against Trump?

      • avonarret1@programming.dev
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        8 months ago

        That’s why you have multiple instances such laws have to go through. It would all work so much better if people would vote, too.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Lol no it’s not, it’s why no one dumb enough is willing to pack the courts. They know what happens if the other side gets in control again. Might work out for 2-4 years but after that it’s anyone’s guess on how much damage the other side will do.