Author JK Rowling’s commentary usually viewed as anti-transgender could potentially bring legal repercussions under Scotland’s newly enacted hate crime legislation.
A minister in the Scottish government stated that Rowling’s remarks misgendering trans people could be investigated by police as a potential hate crime offense.
The Hate Crime and Public Order Act, which went into effect this week, criminalizes abusive behavior targeting protected characteristics like transgender identity.
While previously, officials claimed misgendering would not constitute a crime, Scotland’s Community Safety Minister Siobhian Brown indicated the law leaves such determinations to police discretion.
“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,” Brown told BBC Radio regarding JK Rowling’s anti-trans comments.
The author has faced some amount of backlash for her outspoken stance that transgender women should not be recognized as biological women.
She has refused to delete past social media posts deliberately “misgendering” transgender individuals like activist India Willoughby, whom Rowling described as a “misogynistic male fantasy.” Willoughby in turn condemned the Harry Potter writer’s “grotesque transphobia.”
While aimed at curbing hate speech, critics like Rowling argue the Scottish law’s vague definitions excessively impinge on free speech.
Human rights advocates like Peter Tatchell have criticized Scotland’s exclusion of women as a protected group under the law. Minister Brown acknowledged “more work needs to be done” to address misogyny through future legislation.
For now, the law’s implementation essentially cedes authority to law enforcement to investigate complaints of transgender identity-based vitriol like JK Rowling’s on a case-by-case basis. Police will have wide discretion in determining whether such speech crosses a criminal line or constitutes allowable public debate.