JK Rowling Could Be Investigated Over Misgendering

Harry Potter author JK Rowling could come under police investigation for "misgendering" a person under a new hate crime introduced in Scotland.

Rowling moved to Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, in the 1990s before she published any of the Harry Potter books that would go on to make her a household name and one of the richest women in the U.K.

But in more recent years she has become more infamous for sharing her controversial views about transgender people, which some LGBTQ+ activists have deemed as "transphobic," a label she has always denied.

But regardless of her perception about the matter, some of her comments, including deliberately labeling someone by the incorrect gender, could land her in hot water under Scotland's new Hate Crime and Public Order Act, according to a minister of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP).

Siobhian Brown, the SNP's community safety minister, told The Telegraph that, for example, calling a transgender woman "he" instead of by the pronouns which align with their gender identity could be considered a criminal offense.

"It could be reported and it could be investigated. Whether or not the police would think it was criminal is up to Police Scotland for that," she said.

Brown added that police in Scotland had received a "lot of training in the last year", around the new law which came into effect on Monday and that she felt confident they would execute the law properly.

"There's a very high threshold, which is in the Act, which would be up to Police Scotland, and what would have to be said online or in person would be threatening and abusive," she said.

But Brown further explained that while the SNP supported "everybody's freedom for expression," it was not acceptable that people "in our society should live in fear or be made to feel like they don't belong," she said on BBC 4 radio program, Today. She also added that Rowling was "not entitled to make people feel uncomfortable and to misgender someone" but it would ultimately be up to the police what would happen under individual circumstances.

The amended hate law expands the existing law which was brought into effect decades ago to prevent racist abuse and makes the "stirring up of hatred" a criminal offence.

Response to the Bill has been mixed, with Rowling who does not believe trans women are women, promising to go on "calling a man a man" after the "ludicrous law" comes into effect, per The Telegraph.

But others defended it, including Gemma Stone, a transgender writer and co-founder of the Trans Writes news site.

"The new law looks to include transgender people and other protected characteristics in legislature that seeks to protect those groups from the stirring up of hatred," Stone told Newsweek.

She also accused transgender critics, such as Rowling, of "already leaping at the opportunity to fall on their swords and martyr themselves for the cause, even going as to imagine prison sentences they would happily serve."

"Which honestly I'm all for," Stone added. "Anything to get her to log off for a bit. I'm bored of hearing about her when there's so many amazing trans people to talk about instead."

Rowling doubled down on her position in a series of posts on Monday.

"In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, 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," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"The new legislation is wide open to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women's and girls' single-sex spaces, the nonsense made of crime data if violent and sexual assaults committed by men are recorded as female crimes, the grotesque unfairness of allowing males to compete in female sports, the injustice of women's jobs, honours and opportunities being taken by trans-identified men, and the reality and immutability of biological sex."

But Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf downplayed concerns the law could be misused by activists.

"Unless your behaviour is threatening, or abusive, and intends to stir up hatred, then you have nothing to worry about," he told Sky News on Monday.

LGBTQ+ Hate Data

Almost half of all transgender people in Scotland had experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity in the last 12 months, according to a 2017 report by LGBTQ+ advocacy group Stonewall Scotland.

Research by the British Government also found the number of hate crimes recorded by
the police on the grounds of sexual orientation and being transgender had risen by 27 percent according to the 2017 National LGBT+ survey.

More recent data from the Scottish Police found that in the "vast majority (89 percent) of transgender identity aggravated hate crimes, the perpetrator showed prejudice towards those from the transgender community."

Opinions Divided

One person who supported the bill and has often sparred with Rowling on X is transgender TV newsreader, India Willoughby, who recently threatened the author with legal action over her comments. She questioned why the gender component of the law was attracting so much attention and debate.

"Why is this law being presented as 'controversial' by British Media? Scotland opposes hate? Wow. What's telling is that while the new laws also apply to Race and Religion, it's ONLY the fact that transphobic abuse could be stopped that's attracting criticism," she wrote on X.

Others, however, agreed with Rowling.

"Is Scotland a democracy or totalitarian state? @theSNP deserve to be annihilated & consigned to history forever for delivering this hate speech legislation. 01.04.2024 will be remembered as truly dark day for Scotland 😔," wrote @ozzyjellyellie on X.

And @gardensr4health added: "Scotland's draconian hate speech laws go into effect today. Interestingly, misogyny is protected. Shocker. This law is meant to break up the feminist movement against men in women's spaces. Women will get arrested for not wanting a man in their locker rooms! Insane."