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.

  • Gakomi@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

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

    • lorkano@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      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

      • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        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

        • lorkano@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          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

          • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            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.

    • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      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

    • Gabu@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      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?

      • reallyNaughty@lemmynsfw.com
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        7 months ago

        I mean…yeah. you get to express your opinion. He gets to express his.

        I don’t agree with JK, but I’ll defend her right to say it. We stop what she is saying by being more compelling, not by prosecuting her for saying it.

        • Gabu@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          That’s the kind of moronic thinking that led to the current wave of fascism to begin with.

      • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

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

          • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            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.