J.Okay. Rowling Karwai Tang/WireImage
Harry Potter writer J.Okay. Rowling has dared police to arrest her as new hate crime legal guidelines come into impact within the U.Okay.
The 58-year-old, who has frequently voiced her disagreement with the Scottish authorities’s views on transgender rights, slammed the brand new guidelines — that are to be enforced within the nation beginning Tuesday, April, 2 — in a sequence of messages posted by way of X.
In view of her 14 million followers, she wrote: “Freedom of speech and perception are at an finish in Scotland if the correct description of organic intercourse is deemed felony.”
She added: “I’m at present overseas, but when what I’ve written right here qualifies as an offense underneath the phrases of the brand new act, I sit up for being arrested once I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.”
J.Okay. Rowling is taken into account one of the prolific authors of all time for writing the fictional Harry Potter sequence, however her real-life opinions have been marred with controversy. The U.Okay. native first got here underneath fireplace in 2007 shortly after the sequence’ closing guide, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was revealed. Rowling revealed to […]
Rowling additionally argued that the brand new legislation may result in campaigners being wrongfully arrested.
“It’s inconceivable to precisely describe or sort out the fact of violence and sexual violence dedicated in opposition to girls and ladies, or deal with the present assault on girls’s and ladies’ rights, until we’re allowed to name a person a person,” she argued. “The laws is broad open to abuse by activists who want to silence these of us talking out concerning the risks of eliminating girls’s and ladies’ single-sex areas.”
J.Okay. Rowling with the forged of Harry Potter in 2002 Dave Benett/Getty Photographs
She ended her submit with the hashtags, “#ArrestMe #AprilFools #HateCrimeActScotland.”
Rowling’s feedback got here after the Scottish parliament warned that Scots “could possibly be investigated” for wrongly labeling somebody’s gender on-line underneath the brand new guidelines of The Hate Crime and Public Order Act. The brand new measures intention to sort out the hurt attributable to hatred and prejudice, extending protections from abusive habits to folks on grounds together with age, incapacity, faith, sexual orientation and transgender id.
Final yr, Rowling admitted that she would do jail time for her transgender views. In October 2023, she shared a photograph by way of X which learn, “Repeat After Us: Trans Girls Are Girls,” to which she replied, “No.”
“I’ll fortunately do two years if the choice is compelled speech and compelled denial of the fact and significance of intercourse,” she continued. “Convey on the courtroom case, I say. It’ll be extra enjoyable than I’ve ever had on a pink carpet.”
The facility of Twitter. On Saturday, June 6, writer J.Okay. Rowling got here underneath fireplace after posting a number of tweets that seemingly slammed the trans neighborhood. The controversy started when the Harry Potter creator, 54, shared an article titled “Opinion: Making a extra equal post-COVID-19 world for individuals who menstruate.” Along with linking to the submit, […]
The writer initially sparked backlash again in 2019 when she tweeted her help for a British researcher who misplaced her job after making transphobic feedback on-line.
“Gown nevertheless you please. Name your self no matter you want. Sleep with any consenting grownup who’ll have you ever. Dwell your finest life in peace and safety,” Rowling tweeted on the time. “However pressure girls out of their jobs for stating that intercourse is actual? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill.”
Lower than one yr later, Rowling posted a sequence of controversial tweets in June 2020, writing, “‘Individuals who menstruate.’ I’m positive there was once a phrase for these folks. Somebody assist me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
She continued: “If intercourse isn’t actual, the lived actuality of ladies globally is erased. I do know and love trans folks, however erasing the idea of intercourse removes the flexibility of many to meaningfully talk about their lives. It isn’t hate to talk the reality.”
A number of days after receiving backlash for her tweets and being labeled a “TERF” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), Rowling responded in a prolonged essay defending her opinions.
“It isn’t sufficient for ladies to be trans allies,” she wrote on the time. “Girls should settle for and admit that there isn’t a materials distinction between trans girls and themselves. However, as many ladies have mentioned earlier than me, ‘girl’ shouldn’t be a fancy dress. … The ‘inclusive’ language that calls feminine folks ‘menstruators’ and ‘folks with vulvas’ strikes many ladies as dehumanizing and demeaning. I perceive why trans activists take into account this language to be applicable and sort, however for these of us who’ve had degrading slurs spat at us by violet males, it’s not impartial, it’s hostile and alienating.”
