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

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

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.

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Sorry but is free speech dead or something? If this constitutes a crime then I have no hope for the human race anymore!

If you are popular person you must keep in mind that your words could ruin someone's life. She cherry picks people here that "changed" gender to avoid man prison but in reality those are outliers. In the process, she is putting negative light on a whole group of people. This is similar to what politicians do to manipulate groups of people for votes

Does the new law account for how famous one is?

Based on your comment, this is doing the exact same thing that you are blaming her of: Enforcing a law on everyone when it should apply to a minority of people who have a massive following

I am not familiar with law there, I just commented based on common logic and my human decency expectations. Imo, all hate should be equally punished, but non public hate will obviously be harder to pinpoint

This is all a reaction to a new law in Scotland, as described in the actual post above:

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.

It is a vague definition, but people have been using it to go after JK Rowling for her stance on transgender people . I am not taking sides and not saying that her opinions are right, but I am just saying that people should be allowed to have and state their own opinion. It is the individuals responsibility to evaluate that opinion, and decide for or against it, not any law. Also a law should apply to everyone and not only to people who have a massive followage.

The same law prohibits age hatred. If it was to be enforced like people here want it to, you'd get penalised for calling someone a boomer. Or maybe calling someone disabled instead of a person with a disabillty

Sure its wrong but you can't go around regulating people like that

Sure thing, boomer. Go take your meds before you turn to dust.

Exactly! You should be allowed to call me a boomer without fearing that id call the police on you.

So what you're saying is that it's okay for me to call you a braindead moron-ass motherfucker with your own head lodged up your wide and prolapsed asshole destroyed by years of sitting on rightwing dick?

Are you saying you should be fined for it? Or just that you should be fined only if you have over X followers?

I'm saying you're an idiot for having that opinion

This is exactly how it should be! You shouldn't be able to call the police on me for having it though or on anyone else for having an opinion that you don't agree with. This is the main topic of this discussion.