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.

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.

  • A_Toasty_Strudel@lemmy.worldEnglish
    218·
    9 months ago

    While I want to agree with the sentiment behind what you said I find it really hard to get behind government legally telling people what they can and can’t say. I personally feel like it’s every skinhead assole’s right to say racist awful shit. I also feel like if you’re going to exercise that right with reckless abandon, you’re gonna get fucked up by some people who don’t take kindly. As detrimental as their regressive views may be, I believe we simply cannot have legal punishments for saying something the government doesn’t agree with. It’s a very slippery slope.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
      95·
      9 months ago

      I’m tired of having to do this work and it never ending. Get a law passed and start enforcing. People are being harmed and it shouldn’t be this much work to defend them. Perhaps absolute free speech regulated by individuals was scalable when not every deplorable pos had a worldwide megaphone.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      1511·
      9 months ago

      I personally feel like it’s every skinhead assole’s right to say racist awful shit. I also feel like if you’re going to exercise that right with reckless abandon, you’re gonna get fucked up by some people who don’t take kindly.

      Is that what happened in 1930s Germany or the 1950s U.S. South?

      Racism is an implicit call to violence. Suggesting that it can also be solved by violence is not borne out by history.

    • OsaErisXero@kbin.run
      34·
      9 months ago

      So you’re saying we should form a mob and fuck her up then, that’s your preferred solution to this problem?