JK Rowling could possibly be arrested for misgendering trans individuals, says SNP minister
JK Rowling could possibly be investigated by police for misgendering trans individuals beneath Scotland’s new hate crime legislation, an SNP minister has admitted.
Siobhian Brown, the SNP’s neighborhood security minister, initially said that misgendering – for instance calling a trans girl “he” – would “under no circumstances” fall foul of the laws.
However after being challenged over calls for JK Rowling to be prosecuted beneath the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, she then admitted it could be for the police to resolve.
Talking because the Act got here into pressure on Monday, Ms Brown mentioned: “It could possibly be reported and it could possibly be investigated. Whether or not or not the police would suppose it was felony is as much as Police Scotland for that.”
The minister was additionally challenged over the “odd” omission of ladies from the record of protected teams included within the laws.
Which means threats made towards Rowling and other feminists critical of trans ideology couldn’t be investigated beneath the Invoice. Ms Brown admitted “extra work must be achieved” and mentioned a misogyny Invoice can be launched.
Humza Yousaf oversaw the passage of the hate crime laws at Holyrood in 2021, when he was justice secretary in Nicola Sturgeon’s authorities, however it has solely now come into pressure as Police Scotland mentioned it wanted time for coaching.
The regulation creates a felony offence of “stirring up of hatred”, increasing on an analogous offence primarily based on racist abuse that has been on the statute guide for many years.
The brand new laws covers hatred on the premise of age, incapacity, race, faith, sexual orientation and transgender id.
Nonetheless, an modification so as to add intercourse to the record of protected traits at this stage was voted down, regardless of cross-party MSPs elevating issues about why girls had been excluded.
‘Chilling’ impact
Considerations have additionally been expressed that the laws’s definition of a hate crime is simply too ambiguous, doubtlessly resulting in a “chilling” impact on freedom of speech and a torrent of vexatious complaints being made to police.
Particularly, Rowling’s allies have recommended that trans activists have her “of their sights”. The writer has usually argued that trans girls aren’t girls and final week vowed to proceed “calling a person a person” after this “ludicrous regulation” comes into pressure.
The Telegraph has additionally disclosed that attendees at an official Police Scotland hate crime occasion in February had been introduced with a state of affairs involving a personality known as Jo who thinks that intercourse is binary and bizarrely requires transgender individuals to be despatched to gasoline chambers.
Feminist teams claimed that the character was a thinly veiled parody of Rowling, whose first title is Joanne and who known as Jo by buddies.
Pressed by BBC Radio 4’s As we speak programme whether or not misgendering was a criminal offense, Ms Brown mentioned no, including: “We respect all people’s freedom for expression and no one in our society ought to reside in worry or be made to really feel like they don’t belong.”
Nonetheless, challenged over a declare by an SNP councillor that Rowling is “not entitled to make individuals really feel uncomfortable and to misgender somebody”, she then admitted that it “can be a police matter for them to evaluate what occurs”.
Ms Brown mentioned it could be “an operational choice” and “it could not be for me as a minister to dictate what the police” did.
She mentioned officers had obtained a “lot of coaching within the final yr”, together with a two-hour on-line course, and she or he believed this gave them the standards on which to base their choice.
“There’s a really excessive threshold, which is within the Act, which might be as much as Police Scotland, and what must be mentioned on-line or in particular person can be threatening and abusive,” she mentioned.
“In case you’re conveying a private opinion that’s difficult or offensive, for instance, that might not be – I might say – wouldn’t be [illegal].”
