JK Rowling challenges the Scottish Government and questions the existence of trans women again

The debate around gender long ago lost any hint of temperance in the United Kingdom. It is a political and cultural battle in which the least relevant thing is the text of the law, or the intentions of the legislator. Both sides of the conflict see hidden attacks on their freedom in every move of the other. The writer JK Rowling has become the standard bearer of all those who deny that a trans woman is a woman. Hours before the entry into force last Monday in Scotland – where the creator of the saga of Harry Potter― of the new Hate Crimes and Public Order Act, the author launched a series of provocative messages on her X account (formerly Twitter) and challenged the Scottish Government of nationalist Humza Yousaf to try to stop her.

“Scotland's Hate Crime Act comes into force today. Women will not get additional protection through it, of course, but well-known trans activists such as Beth Douglas, the favorite of so many prominent Scottish politicians, will be included in a new protected category. [por la ley]. Ugh! ”Rowling wrote, at the beginning of a thread of almost a dozen messages that included the cases of the rapist Isla Bryson, who he transitioned into a woman shortly before being convicted; trans Katie Dolatowski, locked up in a women's prison after sexually assaulting a ten-year-old girl in a public bathroom; or activists in defense of trans women such as Mridul Wadhwa, Munroe Bergdorf or Katie Neeeves.

All of them in the same bag. All, according to Rowling, are now included in the protection of the new law. “Scottish legislators have decided that the feelings of men who dedicate themselves to representing their idea of ​​femininity, no matter how misogynistic or opportunistic it may be, have a higher value than the rights and freedoms of real women and girls,” it concluded. Rowling, who challenged the Scottish Government to arrest her after her words.

The content of the law

The new law, which has been in parliamentary process for three years, contemplates those crimes “that stir up hatred”, and considers that someone would incur them when “they behave in a way that a reasonable person would consider threatening, abusive or insulting”, or when “communicates to another person any material that a reasonable person would consider threatening, abusive or insulting.”

By carrying out this behavior, the legal text explains, the offender intends to “stir up hatred against a group of people that is defined in reference to one of the following characteristics: age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or variations in their sexual characteristics.

It is precisely this lack of clarity and indefinition of the law, by leaving the decision in the hands of a “reasonable person”, or speaking generically of “variations in sexual characteristics”, which leads many of its critics to glimpse a attempt to cancel or censor speeches like Rowling's, which deny transsexuality.

Law experts, however, rule out the possibility that a complaint against the writer would succeed. The Yousaf Government, scalded by a debate on gender self-determination that took down, among other causes, the previous chief minister, Nicola Sturgeon, introduced an amendment to the law that demands taking into account, when detecting a possible hate crime, “the right to freedom of expression provided for in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the general principle by which that right protects the expression of ideas that may offend, shock or annoy.”

In fact, it was the police themselves, through a spokesperson, that ruled out any action against Rowling hours after she published her tweets: “We have received complaints in relation to that publication on social networks, but the comments have not been considered criminal nature and no further action has been taken,” it said.

Those opposed to the new law – nearly three hundred people demonstrated in front of the Scottish Parliament this Monday – also denounce that the text does not include a specific defense of women against possible hate crimes. Yousaf's Government assures that it is working on a new legal text focused exclusively on misogyny and machismo.

The Tories' culture war

In an election year in which the Scottish results could be key to determining who will be the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the Conservatives have plunged headlong into the “culture war” against progressivism, hoping to win votes. Rishi Sunak, who already blocked in January last year, with the use of his express prerogative and in defense of the Equality Act, the new Gender Recognition Reform Act approved by the Scottish Parliament, has fully entered into the new debate to side with Rowling, with a statement constantly repeated by the hard wing of his party: “We should not criminalize people for saying common sense things about biological sex,” the prime minister has assured. “Not well. We have a proud tradition [en este país] of freedom of expression,” he concluded.

Any citizen, according to the new law, can report a hate crime. It is not necessary for him to be an alleged victim. You can do so at a police station, in centers designated for that purpose or by calling 999 or 101. It is up to the police to initiate a criminal investigation or not, based on the “reasonableness” of the complaint required by law and “the intention to stir up hatred against groups with certain characteristics.”

In the event that the investigation is not successful, the “hate incident” would still be recorded: not in the criminal record of the accused, but in the personal file that the police keep for that person.

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