The “Harry Potter” author slammed a newly enacted hate-crime law in Scotland in a series of posts on X  in which she referred to transgender women as men.

J.K. Rowling shared a social media thread on Monday, the day a new Scottish hate-crime law took effect, that misgendered several transgender women and appeared to imply trans women have a penchant for sexual predation. On Tuesday, Scottish police announced they would not be investigating the “Harry Potter” author’s remarks as a crime, as some of Rowling’s critics had called for.

“We have received complaints in relation to the social media post,” a spokesperson for Police Scotland said in a statement. “The comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken.”

Scotland’s new Hate Crime and Public Order Act criminalizes “stirring up hatred” against people based on their race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender identity.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    But will she continue bitching about it like Jordan Peterson still does about the law in Canada that he didn’t get arrested for supposedly violating?

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        8 months ago

        Oh my goodness, that’s a tragic tale that explains so much. Back story really does make a difference in perspective, but she’s still a massive anal fissure of a person for alienating others and perpetuating the suffering she was passed.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          Yeah if the most dramatic interpretation of all that is true, and I’m not saying it is, it’s not an excuse. A lot of the worst things done at anti gay conversion groups are done by people who objectively experience significant same gender attraction. That doesn’t absolve the straight people who taught them to hate themselves but their self hate manifests as torturing those who don’t hate themselves. It’s still evil to torture them no matter why you do it.

      • LwL@lemmy.world
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        Oh, it’s the trans version of being gay is a choice i guess…

        Would explain a lot, because to most transppl the thought of someone wanting to be what they were assigned at birth makes no sense whatsoever. But regardless it’s not hard to accept that others might feel like you do but in reverse. Shows one hell of a lack of empathy to then conclude that must mean anyone claiming they do want to must have ulterior motives.

        Maybe that at least means there’s hope for her to realize what kind of bs she’s spouting, but she’s probably a lost cause.

      • fuego@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        It’s sad watching you people twist your brains into knots to avoid realizing that some people don’t agree with you.

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      8 months ago

      Misinterpreted the law and went on a campaign about how he’d protest it and go on some sort of hunger strike like a martyr. Everyone that platformed him during that time owes everyone an apology.

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    8 months ago

    A law is a strong as its enforcement. Without enforcement, it’s just political posturing.

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      What makes laws strong is precedent and this law doesn’t have any. Her case is too flimsy and we don’t want her to set precedent since she has infinite lawyers to defend her. Its better to get more solid cases first and then go after her when there is solid precedent.

      • fuego@lemmy.ca
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        It’s better not to persecute people just because you disagree with them.

        It’s sad how you people are literally pushing for a world where someone can get arrested for not calling a trans woman a woman.

        You’re going to make way more enemies than friends with that rhetoric, trust me.

        • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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          8 months ago

          Hello baby account that was created in order to comment on this thread but is also asking me to trust you.

          The bill does not say that people will be arrested for “Not calling trans women women”. it’s the fucking Jordan Peterson thing again. You need to make clear threats towards the group and calling for the group to be abused to the same standard required by individual harassment charges.

          • fuego@lemmy.ca
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            8 months ago

            So what’s the problem? She’s not making clear threats to the group or calling for them to be abused, but people in this thread still think she should be arrested.

            • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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              Why do you think I want to defend the opinions of people that isn’t me? Go reply to their comments instead you weird little goblin.

              • fuego@lemmy.ca
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                Why are you insulting me? Lol.

                If you don’t agree with them, then why are you commenting?

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    Hilarious that this wretched lump of hate is being a crybully about how she’s supposedly putting herself in legal danger, even though she sends legal threats to people in the UK who call her a TERF. And I do mean people posting shit on Twitter, not newspapers publishing stories about her. “Free speech” (the right to incite hatred against minorities) for me but not for thee.

    • Omega@lemmy.world
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      Why would she object to being a TERF? Isn’t she pretty open about her beliefs?

      • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        TERFs love to play this game where TERF is actually a misogynistic slur, even when it completely accurately describes their bigotry. It reframes them as victims of misogyny instead of bigots.

        • Omega@lemmy.world
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          Do they pretend that they don’t hate trans women? Is this like the “I’m not racist, but…” people?

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            Depends on the audience, very often they will pay lip service to the idea that trans people shouldn’t be criminalized out of existence, and then with a more fashy audience just start goose stepping and talking about all the ways trans people should be criminalized out of existence. Even JKR has done that song and dance, saying that “if trans people were oppressed” she would march for them. 🙄

          • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            8 months ago

            Do they pretend that they don’t hate trans women?

            Rowling has done that, yeah.

            She’s literally said that she’d march with trans people if our rights were under attack, whilst attacking our rights.

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    8 months ago

    Notice how they said

    Not assessed to be criminal

    And not

    Assesed to be not criminal

    Scottish Cops are still Cops I guess

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    8 months ago

    The tweet makes it plainly obvious where she stands regarding trans people. Disgusting.

    Im ashamed to admit that I thought the previous allegations against her were wrong and only based on maliciously misinterpreted tweets.

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      Yeah, two years ago I was kinda not sure what the issue was not actually following the thing too closely. Then I watched Shaun’s video essay on YouTube, discussed with some trans friends about the issue and started checking her twitter.

      She literally only tweets about trans people all day every day and often insinuates they are rapists/pedo etc.

      She’s crazy.

  • ALQ@lemmy.world
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    This TERF needs to just accept that she’s not relevant anymore. She is just a washed up, miserable person and not even her bottomless wallet can bring her happiness.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
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      You say this yet people keep throwing money at her. Studios and HP fans alike.

      She is still unfortunately relevant to a huge swath of people

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        That’s why I sail the seven sees, especially if it’s about content she might get royalties from.

        But also, there hasn’t been anything good since the first fantastic beasts movie…

        Also also, I made harry potter themed fuck JK pins, so a few lgbtq friends of mine could still wear their hp merch without endorsing her.

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    While i agree with the sentiment i am concerned by this idea of policing how other people talk to each other. It seems completely insane that a government should be able to legally punish people for talking disrespectfully with each other. That is the essence of freedom of speech. People are able to express themselves freely without fear of the state punishing it.

    • kaffiene@lemmy.world
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      Not everyone is a free speech extremist like many Americans. When the idea of free speech was developed, it was to protect political speech from legal consequences, not to guard some kind of right to incite hatred or violence towards minorities. These ideas are very different and shouldn’t be conflated.

      • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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        I am not an American, in fact I am German, a country which actually has restrictions on free speech in place.

        Nowadays we use it to squash anti Israel protests.

        • kaffiene@lemmy.world
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          Yeah thats not a free speech issue, that’s a German national guilt gone mad issue.

        • anon987@lemmy.world
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          They are cracking down on the anti Israeli protests because antisemitic hate crimes have doubled.

          • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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            So its only antisemitic if its against Israel? We are arresting and silencing other Jews and Israelis who are against this campaign of genocide. That’s okay with you?

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          I fully support Palestine and yet I’m 100% OK with Germans having the sense to keep their opinions to themselves on the matter.

          • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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            We don’t keep our opinions to ourselves, we dissolve demonstrations for Palestine and arrest even Jews who speak out against the genocide. We also confiscate their assets.

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      Denying somes’s personhood is more than speech. It’s dangerous, and can cause actual harm, especially for someone with such a huge platform, with special influence over children

      • A_Toasty_Strudel@lemmy.world
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        While I want to agree with the sentiment behind what you said I find it really hard to get behind government legally telling people what they can and can’t say. I personally feel like it’s every skinhead assole’s right to say racist awful shit. I also feel like if you’re going to exercise that right with reckless abandon, you’re gonna get fucked up by some people who don’t take kindly. As detrimental as their regressive views may be, I believe we simply cannot have legal punishments for saying something the government doesn’t agree with. It’s a very slippery slope.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          I personally feel like it’s every skinhead assole’s right to say racist awful shit. I also feel like if you’re going to exercise that right with reckless abandon, you’re gonna get fucked up by some people who don’t take kindly.

          Is that what happened in 1930s Germany or the 1950s U.S. South?

          Racism is an implicit call to violence. Suggesting that it can also be solved by violence is not borne out by history.

          • Shake747@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            Racism isn’t an implicit call to violence. Violence is one of the ways it can manifest if it’s deranged enough, but most racism is just sorta quiet and often unconscious.

            It’s not a good idea for the government tell you what you’re allowed to say - that change has to come naturally from the bottom up, not artificially from the top down

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              that change has to come naturally from the bottom up, not artificially from the top down

              Cool, when is that change going to happen? Because from what I’ve seen, there’s still a vast amount of racism in this world.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  You didn’t answer my question.

                  You said change has to come naturally from the bottom up in order to stop bigoted attacks. Bigotry has been around for a very long time.

                  So… when is that natural change going to happen? Are we talking centuries?

        • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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          I’m tired of having to do this work and it never ending. Get a law passed and start enforcing. People are being harmed and it shouldn’t be this much work to defend them. Perhaps absolute free speech regulated by individuals was scalable when not every deplorable pos had a worldwide megaphone.

        • OsaErisXero@kbin.run
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          So you’re saying we should form a mob and fuck her up then, that’s your preferred solution to this problem?

      • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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        While this specific case may even be somewhat justified, where does it end? What constitutes an insult so grievous that the government should punish you for it?

        Misgendering, alright. Attacking someone’s honor? Probably. Putting together an angry, slur-filled rant? Perhaps. Insulting someone’s parents? Hmm.

        And so forth. This is an incredibly slippery slope, one that virtually all democracies currently existing have avoided to go down because it inevitably leads to oppression.

          • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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            I am German. We have restrictions on free speech in place, primarily around Nazism and Israel.

            Our government is literally curbing anything critical of israel with those restrictions at this very moment.

              • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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                I don’t think that’s the lesson here. More that even the most well intentioned restrictions can and will be abused by the government once they have that power. If our far right gets into the government I cant imagine what kind of dystopian crap they will try to do with it.

                I am similarly very sceptical of the constant debate for more surveillance and online control in the name of ”protecting the children”. Another very worthy, and very emotionally charged cause where most people will instinctively agree before even thinking about the consequences.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  Again- that did not happen when Bolsonaro took power in Brazil.

                  So maybe the problem is your laws, not hate speech laws in general.

                  You’re acting like Germany is the only country in the world that has these laws.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      We have hate speech laws where I live. 99% of us don’t even realize it because 99% of us aren’t running around being bigots and calling for the extermination of groups of people based on race, gender, etc. You only need to worry about those laws if you’re the kind of person who those laws are in place for. Nobody is gonna arrest you if you’re a bigot, but if you’re standing on a street corner calling for blood you just might

      • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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        The issue with this thought is that when the party you hate comes into power they just might decide to add their own groups to these type of laws. Would you be ok if people got arrested for protesting against Trump?

        • avonarret1@programming.dev
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          That’s why you have multiple instances such laws have to go through. It would all work so much better if people would vote, too.

          • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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            Lol no it’s not, it’s why no one dumb enough is willing to pack the courts. They know what happens if the other side gets in control again. Might work out for 2-4 years but after that it’s anyone’s guess on how much damage the other side will do.

      • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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        Freedom of speech is, very much so, the freedom of consequences from the government for anything you are saying. In fact that is pretty much the textbook definition.

        The consequences are for other citizens to mete out, like ostracizing bigots. But fundamentally the government has no right to police what anyone says, aside from inciting of violence and such.

    • dumbass@lemy.lol
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      So telling an entire group of people, who some of them used your books as a safe escape from the bullying they suffered in the real world, that you think they are vile, disgusting and shouldn’t exist, is just simply being disrespectful?

      I believe that once you become part of the global zeitgeist you should be held more accountable for your words and actions, like old racist Jimmy Noneck down at a local bar can’t encite hate and violence on the same level as a global household name can.

      Freedom of speech isn’t freedom from consequence.

      • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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        It isnt freedom of consequence. It is freedom from the government interfering or penalizing you for what you are saying. The consequences are for the civil society to determine, but never the government.

        • dumbass@lemy.lol
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          Hate crime laws were because of civil society, that’s how this system works, these laws always came after some sort of civil unrest.

          Plus we’re not talking about a random normal person like us, were talking about someone who has a global reach and some power to wield, they should be held responsible for what they say, she can get someone hurt or killed way easier than you and I could.

          Yeah the law could be tweaked a bit, like all laws, but to leave it up to society to dish it out is, in my opinion, a bit more dangerous.

    • FanciestPants@lemmy.world
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      To a large extent I agree, but i think anti slander laws are a generally accepted precedent that limit what people can say to or about another person. It’s possible that the new law follows similar logic, and is intended to prevent harm in much the same way.

      • fiend_unpleasant ☑️ @lemmy.world
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        Oh I agree it’s a shit law, but if you are going to have shit laws make sure they apply evenly. I also have a personal vendetta against JKR. HP was just crappy Stsr Wars fanfic, and she is a trashcan of a human being.

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        Thatcher hated trans people and Rowling is a Holocaust denier. what do we gain by allowing her to continue spewing hateful rhetoric to a massive audience?

        • ZeroTHM@lemmy.world
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          We have far too much to lose by allowing the government to dictate what people can and can not say.

          • redempt@lemmy.world
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            so you’d rather lose the trans people to violence or suicide than regulate hate speech against them?

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              “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

              I don’t wish anyone harm, but I will always choose the right to speak freely over what a governing body considers “safe”.