JK Rowling in 'arrest me' challenge over hate crime law

[Coventina]

JK Rowling has challenged Scotland's new hate crime law in a series of social media posts - inviting police to arrest her if they believe she has committed an offence.

The Harry Potter author, who lives in Edinburgh, described several transgender women as men, including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures.

She said "freedom of speech and belief" was at an end if accurate description of biological sex was outlawed.

Earlier, Scotland's first minister Humza Yousaf said the new law would deal with a "rising tide of hatred".

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 creates a new crime of "stirring up hatred" relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.

The law does not protect women as a group from hatred.

The Scottish government is expected to include this later in a separate misogyny law.

Ms Rowling, who has long been a critic of some trans activism, posted on X on the day the new legislation came into force.

She wrote: "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."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c51j64lk2l8o

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So infuriating!!

Why, Ms. Rowling, WHY?!?!?!?

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. She just doesn't get it.

[FreeState]

33. Oh she gets it

She’s just a transphobic hate monger.

[progressoid]

2. Yeah, she's in this hole and keeps digging.

Pretty disappointing.

[unblock]

22. She's got, as they say, "f*ck off money"

She's a billionaire. She feels entitled to say or do whatever she wants. She doesn't need to ever sell another book, and she may well be gaining more bigots than losing trans supporters. Even if not, she doesn't seem to care about that.

She's on a mission to take away freedoms from trans people all the while moaning about her own freedoms.

[Joinfortmill]

3. She's a public figure, so her words are heard.

This will become part of what history will record about her. It may well overshadow her work. Words matter, as she well knows.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. "It may well overshadow her work." For many, it does.

[Coventina]

8. In the Fan Fiction world, many no longer write in her fandom, due to her

anti-trans statements.

[NanaCat]

5. Why?

Religion, what else?

[Coventina]

7. Not in her case. n/t

[whathehell]

17. Did Rowling state "religion" as the

the basis of her attitude?

[Johonny]

19. Her odd view of ultra feminism

Somehow fixated on sex as opposed to gender. Note she never seems to comment on all trangender people, just the "ones" she dislikes. Whom she thinks are men faking being women which somehow devalues her as a "real" woman. She's never really said anything profound on the subject, but bigots love to quote her. Which you'd think would tell her something.

[Aristus]

6. I was never a big Harry Potter fan.

I couldn't get passed the first two books. But I've seen all the movies, and Mrs. Aristus remains a fan.

I liked the message of inclusivity, and its 'stronger together' vibe.

Don't know what happened to J.K. Rowling. Unless she took a crash course in "How To Alienate The Biggest Fan Base In The World".

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. "Don't know what happened to J.K. Rowling."

There is a lot of racism and bigotry in her books.

[Aristus]

13. Like I said, I never got past the first two books.

I'm glad now, if that's the way the whole story went.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

20. Well, the hook-nosed goblins who ran the bank were right there in the first half of the first book.

[unblock]

16. Antisemitism too

[WhiskeyGrinder]

21. I'm saying.

[unblock]

23. ...

[ProfessorGAC]

10. Took A Course?

From what I can tell, she's writing the curriculum!

[Zeitghost]

11. It's odd that gender hatred is not included

I can see why that would offend many.

[ms liberty]

12. She seems to miss the fact that some biological women transition to men.

Narrow thinking on her part.

[maxsolomon]

31. Considering that this all started when she objected to an article using the description

"people who menstruate" instead of "women", she probably hasn't.

[msongs]

14. remember when people were murderded for "blasphemy", a bogus crime. oh wait,

people are still being murdered for that, heads and hands chopped off, life long prison sentences. all because someone said something that disagreed with other peoples' belief systems.

[mvd]

15. It is an obsession of hers like she sees a personal threat

Just nuts. I am a Harry Potter fan and she is embarrassing.

[maxsolomon]

18. I doubt that law would hold up in America.

Scotland, no 1st Amendment though.

I think Scotland will be reluctant to charge her with "stirring up hatred"; it would be a shitstorm.

[Sky Jewels]

24. Sad she's actually a Slytherin.

[Elessar Zappa]

25. Why is she so obsessed on this subject?

Did a trans person hurt her or something? She’s pathetic and has utterly destroyed her legacy.

[maxsolomon]

29. This breaks it down:

https://www.glamour.com/story/a-complete-breakdown-of-the-jk-rowling-transgender-comments-controversy

Now she's pushing back against the pushback.

[Sympthsical]

26. Staggeringly terrible law

People support these things, because they think it'll only be used against their opponents. Maybe that will be true. For a time. Until it is inevitably wheeled around.

And this law is really something. People should read it. Some of those Easter posts on DU over the weekend making fun of Christianity and Christians? Many of them would violate this law. You'd just need a few very sensitive Christians willing to get law enforcement going. Fortunately, I have never heard of an incredibly sensitive Christian, so whew. No danger there.

Liberalism cannot be achieved by illiberal means. It doesn't work. History has proven time and again it doesn't work. Authoritarianism is not the first step on the road to liberty.

Thankfully, America has the First Amendment, and shit like this is precisely why.

This doesn't make Rowling not an asshole or absolve her in any way. However, it could garner her supporters. She likes to play persecuted on Twitter. Actually making her persecuted would only serve her ends.

People don't think these things through. They should once in a while.

[Lunabell]

27. Attention w#@&e.

I say we just ignore her like a pesky brat. She's irrelevant now that the Harry Potter franchise is done. She hasn't done anything else of note in her life.

[Johnny2X2X]

28. Who the hell does she think she is?

She said "freedom of speech and belief" was at an end if accurate description of biological sex was outlawed.


She feels she’s qualified to answer this question? It’s not as simple as all that. And why do people care so much? Worry about your own self!

[Baitball Blogger]

30. Rowling, it's not an either/or situation.

That's a MAGA logic derailment.

[SouthernDem4ever]

32. Being an entertaining write doesn't mean you have good ethics or moral

she is proof of that.