The once-beloved children’s author is working herself up over Scotland’s new bias law.


U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has jumped to defend J.K. Rowling, who is once again using her one wild and precious life to post obsessively about transgender women instead of doing literally anything else with her hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Harry Potter author took to X, formerly Twitter, on April 1 to share her thoughts on Scotland’s new Hate Crime Act, which went into effect the same day. The law criminalizes “stirring up hatred” related to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, trans identity, or being intersex, as the BBC reported. “Stirring up hatred” is further defined as communicating or behaving in a way “that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive” against a protected group. The offense is punishable by imprisonment of up to seven years, a fine, or both.

In response to the legislation, Rowling posted a long thread naming several prominent trans women in the U.K., including Mridul Wadhwa, the CEO of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, and activist Munroe Bergdorf. Since it was April Fool’s day, Rowling decided to commemorate it by sarcastically affirming the womanhood of all the people she named in her thread. In the same breath that she said that a convicted child predator was “rightly sent to a women’s prison,” she also called out a number of trans women making anodyne comments about inclusion, seemingly implying that trans identity is inherently predatory.

read more: https://www.them.us/story/jk-rowling-rishi-sunak-social-media-trans

  • soggy_kitty
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    17
    ·
    9 months ago

    Do you really want to live in a police state where they do this?

    • jak
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      9 months ago

      Prevent hate speech? Yes, desperately

      • soggy_kitty
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        14
        ·
        9 months ago

        Wait you think arresting her is proportionate?

        • jak
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          14
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          9 months ago

          If she sows hate speech? Yes.

          • soggy_kitty
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            11
            ·
            edit-2
            9 months ago

            Quote exactly some hate speech by her which is deserving of being locked up and link sources

            Not stuff which is considered offensive, but quotes which genuinely deserve jail time

            A proportionate response is banning of her social media accounts and any of her products which create revenue, not FUCKING JAIL.

            So please, quote away.

            • jak
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              8
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              9 months ago

              if

              That’s a quote from my comment that you replied to.

              • soggy_kitty
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                arrow-down
                10
                ·
                edit-2
                9 months ago

                Holy shit really? You’re going with that?

                You just turned the conversation on its head and then accused me of doing the same? hypocritical behaviour

                Wait you think arresting her is proportionate?

                If she sows hate speech? Yes.

                What you really meant to say is: “no, arresting her isn’t proportionate, but she should be arrested if she does something she hasn’t done”

        • exocrinous@startrek.website
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          The woman has appeared in parliament to advocate for laws that will kill children. Yes, she deserves to go to prison.

          • soggy_kitty
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            9 months ago

            Can you link me a source, I’ve never heard about this and don’t know the details and validity of these laws

            • exocrinous@startrek.website
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              6
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              9 months ago

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_J._K._Rowling#Transgender_rights

              In March 2022, Rowling criticised Labour party leader Keir Starmer who said “trans women are women” in his personal opinion and according to British law. She accused him of misrepresenting the law and said “the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights”

              In October 2022, Rowling voiced opposition to the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill aimed at expanding the rights of trans people, calling Nicola Sturgeon a “destroyer of women’s rights”

              In February 2024, Rowling donated £70,000 to a crowd-funding appeal by For Women Scotland in support of their legal case challenging the definition of “woman”. The appeal was started after the UK Supreme Court decided to grant the case a judicial review.[101][102][103] The case is one of many through which For Women Scotland are seeking to overturn the inclusion of trans women with gender recognition certificates in the legal definition of “woman” in some laws in Scotland.

              On 13 March 2024, Rowling dismissed the fact that the Nazis burned books on early transgender healthcare during their raids on the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft as “a fever dream” on Twitter. Rowling went on to quote tweet another user’s tweet which claimed trans people weren’t targeted by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Her comments received widespread criticism, including from Alejandra Caraballo. Some, such as The Mary Sue, accused Rowling of Holocaust denial.

              Not all of these are relevant to your question but they seem like the kind of thing you oughtta know

              • soggy_kitty
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                4
                ·
                edit-2
                9 months ago

                You’re right, none of those “advocate for laws which kill children”.

                Weird take

                I know she’s said some outrageous things but nothing in the above is deserving of jail time. Proportionality is completely lost on social media

            • off_brand_@beehaw.org
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              9 months ago

              Ugh this is sea lioning. Do you or do you not think JKR is transphobic? And do you or do you not think that trans rights are human rights?

              • soggy_kitty
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                9 months ago

                Yes water is wet however thats importantly not what I’m discussing. I’m asking for sources about the previous claim that she’s advocating for British laws which kill children.

                People really love twisting conversations comment by comment. Let’s stay on track here

                • off_brand_@beehaw.org
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  9 months ago

                  Alright! Tbh it’s hard to see the line sometimes, and it’s impossible having a discussion with someone who just wants to launder some right wing view through a veneer of “just asking questions”.

                  I (not the person you’re responding to) make no claims that she has called for laws to execute kids. I do agree that anti trans laws that JKR advocates for will kill children, but the added layer of “via depression-induced suicide” is something hard to prove and easy to shift responsibility around.

                  I’m not British though. Maybe she’s also argued for some sort of “death penalty for going into the ‘wrong’ bathroom” type law. I wouldn’t know.

                  • soggy_kitty
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    9 months ago

                    Nothing I’ve said is remotely right wing, I’m calling out extreme leftism crying to lock up anyone that disagrees with them.

          • soggy_kitty
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            9 months ago

            It almost feels like that given people’s comments on this site. Clearly I need to hang for being devils advocate