JKR's tweet may soon be criminalised

I don't think all these people trying to cancel JKR actually understood Harry Potter when they read it. They'd all be jumping up and down volunteering for Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad...

I think you're right!

I keep reading the tweets of people saying JKR has "ruined their childhoods" and how she "created a magical world where everyone could be themselves" - they missed the central theme of the books, which was anti-authoritarianism.

I've rarely seen a more authoritarian movement that the extreme transactivists who are going after her - telling people what they must think, what they are allowed to say, and shouting "heresy" at those who resist.

I also don't understand that if this is hate speech, why the abuse she received isn't.

Because sex is not a protected characteristic under the proposal. I was at one of the engagement sessions organised by the Scottish Government about the proposed Hate Crime Bill and it was clear that sex is going to be omitted because hate crime against women and girls is arguably the most common hate crime in the country and the police have made it clear that all of their time would go into dealing with crimes motivated or exacerbated by hatred against the female sex. Can't have that, can we?

I did wonder at the time if anyone would dare express this view about any other protected group. We know the answer is no, of course.

Not yet the law, this merely an opinion piece written by a legal analyst about the proposed new Hate Crime Bill.

There is yet another consultation going on about it, and there will be several stages for the Bill to go through parliament afterwards. At each stage, MSPs get to vote yay or nay to the proposal.

FAOD there are a lot of issues with the proposal, not just about the recent women's rights debate all of which are rooted in the refusal to specify an objective way of weighing up the offense and in the way that it seems to go beyond the existing principle of "there can be no hate crime without a crime" which would indeed interfere with people's freedoms of expression and belief.

Ironically, the proposal seeks to repeal an existing blasphemy law while introducing a de facto new one.

Well, they can stimulate their post-Covid economy building lots of new courtrooms and prisons; they're going to need them!

There’s one interesting point on this new Bill that I haven’t yet seen any press comment on ( and which could be productive of some amusement). The Bill also protects nationality and national origins so all the anti-English rhetoric beloved by some elements of the Nationalist lobby may be problematic....the law of unintended consequences

Jesus, what next? Are we all going to be made to carve 'I must not tell lies' into the backs of our hands?

I don't think all these people trying to cancel JKR actually understood Harry Potter when they read it. They'd all be jumping up and down volunteering for Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad...

Siablue, that is a very good question.

As we're all doing the dreaded homeschooling at the moment, I was listening into my DD's science lesson. She's 12 and in year 7.

The lesson was variations - environmental vs hereditary - and the science teacher VERY clearly distinguished between biological sex - male and female - and gender.

I tell you, it was music to my ears - I'm so sick of reading the rebuttals to JRK's tweets, where they all waffle on about sex being spectrum, or worse still, say biological sex doesn't exist.

I mean, where can this end? Are they ACTUALLY going to start interfering with science lessons with their gender woo-woo? They can't... can they? What about when it's more advanced - A level? They can't start teaching "sex is a spectrum" then - because it just isn't.

If it's still part of academic science, and science lessons - how can a woman be imprisoned, or threatened with prison for saying it?

The only hope is that this woke shit will go down very badly with the more knuckle dragging male SNP supporters in the rough end of Glasgow! If it causes a split within the SNP ranks, I for one will cheer.
I believe there are already a few voices crying in the wilderness - Joan Cherry for one - but one doesn’t expect science, reason or logic from the SNP, a party rooted entirely in emotional nationalist grievance and anti English hatred.

I honestly give up.

How can we teach biology if we are not allowed to talk about? Is science going to be a crime.

Notably, “sex” has not yet been labelled a protected category among those proposed – a surprising omission, considering only last year, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon proudly heralded Scotland “a feminist place to be”.

She who also intends to make single sex spaces mixed-sex and obliterate ‘sex’ as a political and biological class and remove it as a demographic for government policy

Sex is now to your title on a gas bill - miss/Mrs etc - obviously for the SNP - having a title of Dr,Prof etc cant be a woman.

Nicola - you ain’t no feminist.

Fuddy duddy females - saying biological sex exists. Coming to Scotland and talking about your wombs and stuff, objecting to being called menstruators... Burn her! Burn them all!

Fuddy duddy

Binterested totally agree re Canada syndrome. SNP wants to be seen as so modern and young and progressive compared to its fussy duddy Ye Olde England neighbour. The further it feels culturally from the rest of the UK, the more appetite for independence will grow.

Bloody hell, they'll be pointing and shouting burn the witch next.

The TRAs would love this wouldn't they - the ability to put women in prison for saying that being born female shapes your experience.

I think it’s the Canada syndrome. Let’s be cooler than our bigger, more powerful neighbour. We can’t get them on any number of metrics so we’ll be woker.

Women of Scotland don’t stand a chance. Funny how things pan out - still some hope in bigoted old England with those wretched Tories and their awful braying voices. I’m not 100pc confident in England but I’m more confident than I would be in Scotland.

So, from the article, I assume this is the specific tweet in question:

“I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”

Or is it the initial tweet criticising the use of the word 'menstruators' that is the problem?

I don't understand what is deemed to be 'stirring up hate' in these tweets - if you're reading this and think this is hateful transphobia, please could you explain it to me because I really don't understand.

I also don't understand that if this is hate speech, why the abuse she received isn't.

Scotland’s trying to go all in, isn’t it? I wonder why?
(Not a sarcastic question, I really do wonder).

And yet 'Choke on my girl dick you TERF cunt' will be fine and dandy.....

The actual hatred that JK received? Not a problem apparently?

I quite often wonder about retrospective laws actually and wondering how I will be affected by them. Not in an IF way but a WHEN.

Ah yes let's make JKRs tweets a criminal offence but then at the same time allow death and rape threats to be called "free speech". What a load of cack.

Disturbingly, offences motivated by prejudice toward someone’s sex are not considered by Scots law to be hate crimes.