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Rowling, a outstanding gender essential campaigner, made the feedback on Monday, the day that the crime of “stirring up hatred” regarding age, incapacity, faith, sexual orientation and transgender id got here into impact.A conviction may result in a high quality and a jail sentence of as much as seven years.
The brand new hate crime legislation has additionally confronted criticism over its affect on freedom of speech and considerations that it may very well be used to silence some views, together with from those that advocate for women-only areas.
Rowling examined the legislation by itemizing 10 trans girls, together with a convicted rapist, intercourse abusers and excessive profile activists, on X and saying they have been males. “Freedom of speech and perception are at an finish in Scotland if the correct description of organic intercourse is deemed prison,” she mentioned. “I am at the moment in a foreign country, but when what I’ve written right here qualifies as an offence underneath the phrases of the brand new act, I look ahead to being arrested after I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.”
When requested in regards to the criticism, Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf mentioned the invoice was about “defending individuals from a rising tide of hatred”. “It’s not Twitter police. It’s not activists, it’s not the media. It’s not, thank goodness, even politicians who determine finally whether or not or not crime has been dedicated,” Yousaf mentioned. He mentioned it might be as much as “the police to analyze, and the edge for criminality is extremely excessive.” “Except your behaviour is threatening and intends to fire up hatred, then you don’t have anything to fret.”
Police Scotland mentioned it had acquired complaints in relation to Rowling’s submit. “(However) The feedback should not assessed to be prison and no additional motion will likely be taken,” it mentioned.
Earlier, PM Rishi Sunak mentioned Britain had a proud custom of free speech and that the brand new legislation had given the police the mistaken priorities. “We shouldn’t be criminalising individuals saying frequent sense issues about organic intercourse,” he advised reporters. “Clearly that is not proper.”
India Willoughby, Britain’s first transgender newsreader and a kind of who was listed by Rowling, questioned why anybody ought to “publicly denigrate and mock” trans individuals. “The very best-known creator on this planet sitting up all evening to put in writing a mega-long troll submit about me, as a result of she’s consumed by a hatred of trans individuals.”
Scotland has been on the forefront of extending rights to the transgender group however a earlier bid to make it simpler to alter a authorized gender was blocked by London over considerations it might impinge current equality laws.
(Reuters and NYT)
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