JK Rowling vows to defend women eyed by cops for misgendering trans people after daring police to arrest her
JK Rowling has vowed to defend other women who speak out against transgenderism after daring Scottish police to arrest her for misgendering transgender people under a new woke hate crime law.
The “Harry Potter” author tested the newly-enacted Hate Crime and Public Order Act on Monday as she shared a thread naming and misgendering well-known transgender people in the UK.
But the police force announced on Wednesday it would not be taking any action against the billionaire.
“We have received complaints in relation to the social media post,” the department said in a statement to the Scottish Sun.
“The comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken.”
Rowling celebrated the news in a post on X.
“I hope every woman in Scotland who wishes to speak up for the reality and importance of biological sex will be reassured by this announcement and I trust that all women — irrespective of profile or financial means — will be treated equally under the law,” she wrote.
“If they go after any woman for simply calling a man a man, I’ll repeat that woman’s words and they can charge both of us at once,” she added.
Scotland’s new hate crime law, which went into effect on Monday, bans hatred on the basis of age, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity.
The country of 5.45 million is part of the United Kingdom, but has its own laws and police force.
Critics like have argued that the law is overly broad and could curtail free speech.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak even slammed the law, citing the country’s “proud tradition of free speech.”
“We should not be criminalizing people saying common sense things about biological sex, clearly that isn’t right,” he said, publicly backing Rowling’s stance, according to the BBC.
Susan Smith, of For Women Scotland, also said “it was a great relief” that Police Scotland decided not to arrest Rowling for her comments, but argued the department only decided not to charge her criminally “because she pushed it,” Smith said on the BBC’s Newscast podcast.
“Now, hopefully anybody else who says something similar will know that they are protected.”
But Community Safety Minister Siobhian Brown has refused to say whether Rowling’s comments could be recorded as a non-crime hate incident, according to the Sun.
She said it would be an operational matter for Police Scotland.
A non-crime hate incident occurs in Scotland when an incident does not meet the threshold to be considered a crime but is believed to be “motivated (wholly or partly) by malice and ill-will towards a social group,” according to the Sun.
Katie Neeves, one of the transgender women whom the children’s author singled out in her social media thread, has warned that she would file a complaint.
“JK Rowling is a bully and this act was designed to stop bullying, and if they’re not going to enforce it, then that’s very disappointing,” she said of Police Scotland’s decision.
“She listed me and some other trans people along with some sex offenders and put it out to 14 million of her followers.
“That was inciting hatred and it resulted in me receiving thousands of messages of hate,” Neeves continued. “So it’s done what she set out for it to do.”
Neeves claimed that the story has been published all over the world and was “all misinformation about me.
“It’s horrible and it’s really harmful,” she said.
