J.K. Rowling challenges new Scottish hate crime laws

"If you genuinely imagine I'd delete posts calling a man a man, so as not to be prosecuted under this ludicrous law, stand by for the mother of all April Fools' jokes," the writer responded when rebuked for her comments about transgender people.

Published by

Williams Perdomo

20 de marzo, 2024

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Backlash from the woke culture has failed to silence J.K. Rowling. The renowned writer of the "Harry Potter" saga assured that she will not remove her comments about transgender people and the LGBT community despite the new Hate Crime and Public Order Act coming into force in Scotland.

The controversial law, which will take effect April 1, will make it a crime to incite hatred against protected traits, including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, Scottish publication The National reports.

When warned by Rajan Barot, a former fraud lawyer, about the law coming into effect, Rowling made it clear that she has no intention of censoring herself or retracting her past comments. "You are best advised to delete the posts about [India Willoughby] as they will most likely contravene the new law. Start deleting!" Barot wrote on X.

Rowling replied, "If you genuinely imagine I'd delete posts calling a man a man, so as not to be prosecuted under this ludicrous law, stand by for the mother of all April Fools' jokes."

Something 'dangerous' behind the transgender movement

Rowling has had a very clear position regarding transgender people. She has insisted that it is a danger to allow biological men to participate in spaces that should be strictly for women only. Last year, the author claimed on "The Witch Trails of J.K. Rowling" podcast that she had tried to understand the transgender movement but ultimately came to the conclusion that there was something "dangerous" behind the movement:

Time will tell whether I've got this wrong. I can only say that I've thought about it deeply and hard and long and I've listened, I promise, to the other side. And I believe absolutely that there is something dangerous about this movement and it must be challenged. But at the same time, I have to tell you, a ton of "Potter" fans were still with me. And in fact, a ton of "Potter" fans were grateful that I'd said what I said.

The author also dedicated a few words to people who claim that she had "betrayed" what she published in the "Harry Potter" saga. According to her, she never betrayed her books, but rather that readers did not understand them, since she at all times has defended the same position she held at the beginning:

I’m constantly told that I have betrayed my own books, but my position is that I’m absolutely upholding the positions that I took in "Potter." My position is that this activist movement in the form that it’s currently taking, echoes the very thing that I was warning against in "Harry Potter." ... I am fighting what I see as a powerful, insidious misogynistic movement that I think has gained huge purchase in very influential areas of society. I do not see this particular movement as either benign or powerless.

2019: The year Rowling was canceled

Rowling has not been afraid to speak out, even though she knows her position generates controversy. In fact, in 2019, she went so far as to warn her representatives not to force her to change her mind just before posting the tweets that sparked the controversy:

I was thoughtful enough to call my rep team and tell them they couldn't argue with me to change my mind. And I read aloud what I was going to say because I felt they needed a warning.

Rowling's comments were met with backlash. For example, she was canceled for replying to an opinion piece referring to women as "menstruating people":

"People who menstruate." I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?

For this comment, a simple tweet, Rowling received aggressive epithets in her replies such as "b*tch" and "feminazi." However, Rowling had the support of several personalities, such as two of the actors who belonged to the cast of the "Harry Potter" film saga, Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter.