JK Rowling will not be arrested under new
Scottish hate law, say police
‘No further action’ over posts by author and
gender-critical activist despite complaints
Libby
Brooks Scotland correspondent
Tue 2 Apr
2024 18.21 BST
Comments by
JK Rowling challenging police to arrest her for online misgendering do not
amount to a crime, Police Scotland said.
As the
Scottish government’s contentious hate crime law came into force on Monday, the
author and gender-critical activist posted a thread on X saying the legislation
was “wide open to abuse” after listing sex offenders who had described
themselves as transgender alongside well-known trans women activists,
describing them as “men, every last one of them”.
She stated
that “freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate
description of biological sex is deemed criminal”.
On Tuesday
afternoon, Police Scotland confirmed they had received complaints about the
social media post but added: “The comments are not assessed to be criminal and
no further action will be taken.”
The act
brings together existing laws. Under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland)
Act 2021, it is a crime to make derogatory comments based on age, disability,
religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.
Responding
to the decision, Rowling said: “I hope every woman in Scotland who wishes to
speak up for the reality and importance of biological sex will be reassured by
this announcement, and I trust that all women – irrespective of profile or
financial means – will be treated equally under the law.”
Earlier on
Tuesday, the force also confirmed that racist graffiti found on Monday near
Humza Yousaf’s family home in Broughty Ferry had been recorded under the new
act.
The first
minister said the graffiti, which contained a racial slur against him, was a
reminder of why Scotland must take a “zero-tolerance” approach to hatred. On X,
he said: “I do my best to shield my children from the racism and Islamophobia I
face on a regular basis. That becomes increasingly difficult when racist
graffiti targeting me appears near our family home.”
The
Scottish National party leader robustly defended the legislation, which has
prompted a barrage of criticism about how it will be policed and how it could
affect freedom of speech, as well as fears that it could be used maliciously
against certain groups for expressing their opinions, in particular
gender-critical feminists.
Yousaf said
it “absolutely protects people in their freedom of expression” while guarding
“people from a rising tide of hatred that we’ve seen far too often in our
society”.
The prime
minister, Rishi Sunak, asked about Rowling’s comment on Tuesday morning, said
that while he would not comment on a police matter, “nobody should be
criminalised for saying commonsense things about biological sex”.
Robbie de
Santos, the director of campaigns and human rights at Stonewall, said: “The
prime minister and high-profile commentators are simply incorrect when they
suggest that misgendering or ‘stating facts on biology’ would be criminalised.
“This is no
more true than stating that the existing law has criminalised the criticism of
religion. This kind of misrepresentation about the act and its purpose only
serves to trivialise the very real violence committed against us in the name of
hate.”
He called
on political leaders to address the trend of “rising hate and escalating
violence” facing LGBTQ+ people. “We already have longstanding laws preventing
the incitement of hatred on the basis of race and religion, and the new Hate
Crime Act creates parity in the law in Scotland by expanding these protections
to cover sexual orientation, transgender identity, age and disability,” he
said.
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