JK Rowling has responded after Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf referred to as the writer’s current social media posts “offensive”. (Getty)
JK Rowling took a swing at Humza Yousaf after the Scottish first minister described the writer’s criticism of Scotland’s ew hate crime laws as “offensive” to trans folks.
Harry Potter writer Rowling repeatedly criticised the brand new legislation – which expands current laws and provides a brand new crime of “stirring up hatred” in the direction of sure protected traits, together with trans identities – because it got here into impact on Monday (1 April).
Yousaf informed BBC Scotland that posts Rowling made on X/Twitter misgendering a sequence of trans ladies – together with activists, public figures and convicted sexual offenders – have been “offensive, upsetting and insulting to trans folks”.
Nonetheless, he stated her posts didn’t “meet a threshold of criminality of being threatening or abusive and meaning to fire up hatred”. This was confirmed when Police Scotland stated Rowling’s statements weren’t felony.
Responding to Humza Yousaf’s remarks, JK Rowling claimed “most of Scotland” was “upset and offended” by the First Minister’s management.
“Most of Scotland is upset and offended by Yousaf’s bumbling incompetence and intolerant authoritarianism, however we aren’t lobbying to have him locked up for it,” she wrote.
JK Rowling, who has a historical past of espousing anti-trans views, used her social media profile to lambast the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act for allegedly putting “increased worth on the sentiments of males performing their thought of femaleness” than on ladies’s rights.
She then challenged the police to arrest her below the brand new hate crime laws in the event that they believed she dedicated an offence.
Katie Neeves, who was appointed a UN Girls UK delegate and runs Cool2BTrans, was among the many trans ladies talked about by Rowling in her criticism of Scotland’s hate crime legislation.
She described Rowling as a “bully” and stated she’s obtained “hundreds of messages of hate” after the writer named her in her posts.
In line with the BBC, Police Scotland has obtained over 3,000 hate crime stories because the new legislation went into impact on Monday.
A quantity involved a 2020 speech by Yousaf, who was then justice secretary, highlighting white folks in outstanding public roles.
Yousaf believed nearly all of the “vexatious” complaints got here “from the far-right”. He vowed the backlash wasn’t going to cease him from “persevering with to talk out about racism or speak about the truth that we want extra range in public life”.