Achi news desk-
READ MORE: A third of Police Scotland officers have yet to undergo Hate Crime training
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 consolidates some existing laws and creates a new offense of inciting hatred against protected characteristics, including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and transgender identity.
It does not include sex. Humza Yousaf promised a separate misguided law in his first governing programme, although it has not yet been announced.
The First Minister has previously insisted that the protections for freedom of expression in the legislation mean that it will not be a crime to say that a trans woman is a man.
However, speaking today, his Minister for Victims and Community Safety, told the BBC that it would be up to Police Scotland and that those who misbehave could be subject to investigation.
In a series of posts on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, Ms Rowling shared photos of transwomen, including Isla Bryson, a double rapist formerly known as Adam Graham who began identifying as a woman after being accused.
The Edinburgh writer tweeted: “Lovely Scottish girl and double convicted rapist Isla Bryson found her real woman just before she was due to be sentenced. Misgendering is hate, so respect Isla’s pronouns, please.”
Scottish sweetheart and double convicted rapist Isla Bryson found her true female self shortly before she was due to be sentenced. Misgendering is hate, so respect Isla’s pronouns, please. Love the leggings! 2/11 pic.twitter.com/aKgOWRdb4K
— JK Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 1, 2024
He also shared pictures of Amy George, also known as Andrew Miller, the Borders butcher who abducted an 11-year-old girl while wearing women’s clothes and then sexually assaulted her and held her captive for over 27 hours.
“No idea why this was mentioned in court – of course she was wearing women’s clothes, she is a woman!” Ms Rowling tweeted.
In another post, she mocked Mridul Wadhwa, the trans woman in charge of Edinburgh’s Rape Crisis Centre, who caused controversy in 2021 by suggesting that “bigoted” rape survivors should be re-educated about transgender rights as part of recovery from their trauma.
Ms Rowling tweeted: “She doesn’t have a gender recognition certificate, but she was still appointed to a job advertised for women only. It’s time to be ‘challenged on your prejudices’, rape victims!”
The author then added: “Just kidding. Clearly, the people mentioned in the above tweets are not women at all, but men, every last one of them.”
He then accused MSPs of placing “a higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femininity, however misguided or opportunistic, than on the rights and freedoms of real women and girls.”
Ms Rowling said the new hate crime legislation was “very open to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us who speak out about the dangers of eradicating single-sex spaces for women and girls, the nonsense made of crime data if violent and sexual assaults. committed by men being recorded as female crimes, the grotesque unfairness of allowing males to compete in female sports, the injustice of women’s jobs, honors and opportunities taken by trans-identified men, and the reality and immutability of biological sex .”
He added: “I’m out of the country at the moment, but if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offense under the terms of the new act, I’m looking forward to being arrested when I will return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment. ”
READ MORE: Hate crime law could ‘damage confidence in the police’
His comments came after Scottish Government Minister for Victims and Community Safety Siobhian Brown told Radio 4’s Today program that misgendering someone could be an offense under the new legislation.
He said: “It would be up to the police to assess what is happening. It could be reported and it could be investigated – it’s up to Police Scotland whether the police would think it was criminal or not.”
The MSP added: “There is a very high threshold in the Act that would be up to Police Scotland, and what would have to be said online or in person would be threatening and offensive.”
Ms Rowling was reported to Northumbria police last month for sexually abusing transgender broadcaster India Willoughby.
Speaking to the media earlier Mr Yousaf said he was “very proud” of the new laws and “very confident in the ability of Police Scotland to implement this legislation in the way it should”.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “We have not received any complaints.”
