9mo ago

J.K. Rowling will not be arrested for comments about transgender women, police say

www.nbcnews.com J.K. Rowling will not be arrested for comments about transgender women, police say

The "Harry Potter" author slammed a newly enacted hate-crime law in Scotland in a series of posts on X in which she referred to transgender women as men.

The "Harry Potter" author slammed a newly enacted hate-crime law in Scotland in a series of posts on X in which she referred to transgender women as men.

J.K. Rowling shared a social media thread on Monday, the day a new Scottish hate-crime law took effect, that misgendered several transgender women and appeared to imply trans women have a penchant for sexual predation. On Tuesday, Scottish police announced they would not be investigating the “Harry Potter” author’s remarks as a crime, as some of Rowling’s critics had called for.

“We have received complaints in relation to the social media post,” a spokesperson for Police Scotland said in a statement. “The comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken.”

Scotland’s new Hate Crime and Public Order Act criminalizes “stirring up hatred” against people based on their race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender identity.

165 comments

But will she continue removed about it like Jordan Peterson still does about the law in Canada that he didn't get arrested for supposedly violating?
- She did send Harry Potter into the ladies toilet though 🤔
  She also said she created Harry because she wanted to be a boy.
  If She is not against transgender men. Then she may want everyone to be a boy.
  https://medium.com/queertheory/harry-potter-transgender-hero-83094e02cd25
  “I was supposed to be a boy,” she notes in A Year in the Life, a 2007 documentary
  
  Oh my goodness, that’s a tragic tale that explains so much. Back story really does make a difference in perspective, but she’s still a massive anal fissure of a person for alienating others and perpetuating the suffering she was passed.
  
  Oh, it's the trans version of being gay is a choice i guess...
  Would explain a lot, because to most transppl the thought of someone wanting to be what they were assigned at birth makes no sense whatsoever. But regardless it's not hard to accept that others might feel like you do but in reverse. Shows one hell of a lack of empathy to then conclude that must mean anyone claiming they do want to must have ulterior motives.
  Maybe that at least means there's hope for her to realize what kind of bs she's spouting, but she's probably a lost cause.
  
  It's sad watching you people twist your brains into knots to avoid realizing that some people don't agree with you.
- Misinterpreted the law and went on a campaign about how he'd protest it and go on some sort of hunger strike like a martyr. Everyone that platformed him during that time owes everyone an apology.
- 100%
  
  So many bigots suffer from perpetual victimhood.

A law is a strong as its enforcement. Without enforcement, it's just political posturing.
- What makes laws strong is precedent and this law doesn't have any. Her case is too flimsy and we don't want her to set precedent since she has infinite lawyers to defend her. Its better to get more solid cases first and then go after her when there is solid precedent.
  
  Bingo. Just wanted to thank you for saying this
  
  It's better not to persecute people just because you disagree with them.
  It's sad how you people are literally pushing for a world where someone can get arrested for not calling a trans woman a woman.
  You're going to make way more enemies than friends with that rhetoric, trust me.
- You are correct, but laws like this do not need to be enforced. This is draconian.

Hilarious that this wretched lump of hate is being a crybully about how she’s supposedly putting herself in legal danger, even though she sends legal threats to people in the UK who call her a TERF. And I do mean people posting shit on Twitter, not newspapers publishing stories about her. “Free speech” (the right to incite hatred against minorities) for me but not for thee.
- She sends legal threats to people who write books about child wizards going to wizard school.
  https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/06/harry-potter-and-the-international-order-of-copyright.html
  She wants to invent news laws to push on others and make herself a martyr against one that already exists.
  
  Does she think there weren't wizard school books until she had the idea of one???
- Why would she object to being a TERF? Isn't she pretty open about her beliefs?
  
  TERFs love to play this game where TERF is actually a misogynistic slur, even when it completely accurately describes their bigotry. It reframes them as victims of misogyny instead of bigots.
  
  She’d rather be remembered as the biggest FART in history.

The laws don’t apply to rich people
- True, but she also isn't breaking any laws in this case.
  Do you people legitimately believe others should be arrested because they don't call you the words you want? Wow.
  
  This comment was removed for saying: True, but she also isn't breaking any laws in this case. Do you people legitimately believe others should be arrested because they don't call you the words you want? Wow.
  The reason given was saying "you people." It's painfully clear there is a a biased mod or group of mods on the mod team that wants to censor anything critical of the trans agenda.
  Here's another comment with someone calling me a "weird little goblin", but they support the trans agenda so their comment gets to stay: https://lemmy.ca/comment/8395791
  Lol. It's so transparent it's actually sad. I hope we get a new news community to replace this one.

Notice how they said
Not assessed to be criminal
And not
Assesed to be not criminal
Scottish Cops are still Cops I guess

The tweet makes it plainly obvious where she stands regarding trans people. Disgusting.
Im ashamed to admit that I thought the previous allegations against her were wrong and only based on maliciously misinterpreted tweets.
- Yeah, two years ago I was kinda not sure what the issue was not actually following the thing too closely. Then I watched Shaun's video essay on YouTube, discussed with some trans friends about the issue and started checking her twitter.
  She literally only tweets about trans people all day every day and often insinuates they are rapists/pedo etc.
  She's crazy.
- The sad thing is, I believe she didn't start in such an extreme position. If you read her work she clearly understands the benefits of diversity and inclusion.
  Cancel culture pushes people with one bad take in to extremist communities that foster and feed the ugliest parts of a person. By barring them from any community that might actually try to challenge their opinions and foster compassion, we essentially create martyrs that are exalted in extremist communities. All the while, we act like we defeated them and stick our heads in the sand. Like they're not still voting in every election. Like they're not still out there spewing darker and darker bullshit to an audience that eats it up and to the next batch of people we "cancel".
  If you disagree with someone, however painful it may be, treat them with basic respect and talk to them. You won't change their mind, but you might plant the seed that will. It's the only way out of this mess.
  
  It's not "cancel culture": it's calling out their horrific beliefs. If gettings called out on having horrible thoughts leads you to becoming more extreme in those thoughts then you're just a bad person.
  Plus JK Rowling is still rolling in millions of dollars. She has every resource and avenue to learn better, and actively chooses not to. Fuck JK Rowling and her transphobic bullshit.
  
  You're so right.. maybe your words will seed common sense in some people today. Take my petty upvote.
- Yeah me too. She's become what they said she was it seems.

This TERF needs to just accept that she's not relevant anymore. She is just a washed up, miserable person and not even her bottomless wallet can bring her happiness.
- You say this yet people keep throwing money at her. Studios and HP fans alike.
  She is still unfortunately relevant to a huge swath of people
  
  That’s why I sail the seven sees, especially if it’s about content she might get royalties from.
  But also, there hasn’t been anything good since the first fantastic beasts movie…
  Also also, I made harry potter themed fuck JK pins, so a few lgbtq friends of mine could still wear their hp merch without endorsing her.

Now have a poor person say the exact same shit and report that

She should really check on the other laws to see if they’ll be enforced, too.

While i agree with the sentiment i am concerned by this idea of policing how other people talk to each other. It seems completely insane that a government should be able to legally punish people for talking disrespectfully with each other. That is the essence of freedom of speech. People are able to express themselves freely without fear of the state punishing it.
- Not everyone is a free speech extremist like many Americans. When the idea of free speech was developed, it was to protect political speech from legal consequences, not to guard some kind of right to incite hatred or violence towards minorities. These ideas are very different and shouldn't be conflated.
  
  I am not an American, in fact I am German, a country which actually has restrictions on free speech in place.
  Nowadays we use it to squash anti Israel protests.
- Denying somes's personhood is more than speech. It's dangerous, and can cause actual harm, especially for someone with such a huge platform, with special influence over children
  
  While I want to agree with the sentiment behind what you said I find it really hard to get behind government legally telling people what they can and can't say. I personally feel like it's every skinhead assole's right to say racist awful shit. I also feel like if you're going to exercise that right with reckless abandon, you're gonna get fucked up by some people who don't take kindly. As detrimental as their regressive views may be, I believe we simply cannot have legal punishments for saying something the government doesn't agree with. It's a very slippery slope.
  
  While this specific case may even be somewhat justified, where does it end? What constitutes an insult so grievous that the government should punish you for it?
  Misgendering, alright. Attacking someone's honor? Probably. Putting together an angry, slur-filled rant? Perhaps. Insulting someone's parents? Hmm.
  And so forth. This is an incredibly slippery slope, one that virtually all democracies currently existing have avoided to go down because it inevitably leads to oppression.
- We have hate speech laws where I live. 99% of us don't even realize it because 99% of us aren't running around being bigots and calling for the extermination of groups of people based on race, gender, etc. You only need to worry about those laws if you're the kind of person who those laws are in place for. Nobody is gonna arrest you if you're a bigot, but if you're standing on a street corner calling for blood you just might
  
  The issue with this thought is that when the party you hate comes into power they just might decide to add their own groups to these type of laws. Would you be ok if people got arrested for protesting against Trump?
- Freedom of speech isn't freedom of consequences.
  
  Freedom of speech is, very much so, the freedom of consequences from the government for anything you are saying. In fact that is pretty much the textbook definition.
  The consequences are for other citizens to mete out, like ostracizing bigots. But fundamentally the government has no right to police what anyone says, aside from inciting of violence and such.
- To a large extent I agree, but i think anti slander laws are a generally accepted precedent that limit what people can say to or about another person. It's possible that the new law follows similar logic, and is intended to prevent harm in much the same way.
- So telling an entire group of people, who some of them used your books as a safe escape from the bullying they suffered in the real world, that you think they are vile, disgusting and shouldn't exist, is just simply being disrespectful?
  I believe that once you become part of the global zeitgeist you should be held more accountable for your words and actions, like old racist Jimmy Noneck down at a local bar can't encite hate and violence on the same level as a global household name can.
  Freedom of speech isn't freedom from consequence.
  
  It isnt freedom of consequence. It is freedom from the government interfering or penalizing you for what you are saying. The consequences are for the civil society to determine, but never the government.
- Would you still say this if some rando inspired by this cunt's incessant endorsement of anti-trans rhetoric assaults or murder someone?
  
  I'd say that's a matter for civil courts and the legal system to deal with. Not the government

So the new law is not enforce? or is it only for the plebs?
- TL;Dr like everything else TERFs whine about the law doesn't mean what they think it means
- This is a good thing, the law is draconian. Thatcher would have loved it.
  
  Thatcher hated trans people and Rowling is a Holocaust denier. what do we gain by allowing her to continue spewing hateful rhetoric to a massive audience?
  
  Oh I agree it's a shit law, but if you are going to have shit laws make sure they apply evenly. I also have a personal vendetta against JKR. HP was just crappy Stsr Wars fanfic, and she is a trashcan of a human being.

This is literally not news. It's literally not something happening.

Arrest her anyway, call it the Rowling challenge.

On a side note, what is with all those fake, AI generated, car ads down at the bottom?

Crazy how many people in here agree that you should be punished by the government for things you say

She looks like Putin in a wig and seems to share his views too.
Coincidence?
I've never seen them in the same room together, just saying.

"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
This whole law is absurd and draconian.
- I strongly disagree. some opinions are literally harmful to express. the narrative that trans women are dangerous, predators, or not really their gender, is hate speech. it is statistically linked to increased violence against trans people, especially when coming from someone with a huge platform. it's unclear whether Rowling actively intends to cause harm, but she has been associating with literal Nazis lately. we should respect each other's opinions, sure, but when people hold exclusionary opinions, we have to decide whether their right to spout hatred is more important than trans people's right to safety, comfort, and wellbeing. I choose the wellbeing of the trans community over Rowling's right to bigotry.
  
  "we have to decide whether their right to spout hatred is more important than trans people's right to safety, comfort, and wellbeing."
  In no uncertain terms, it is imperative that we do not allow any governing body to decide what we can and can not say. What is and isn't dangerous, what is and isn't hate, can not and should not be legislated, or we will be robbed of our voices lest dissent be considered dangerous, or hatred. It won't be long until calling the police "pig" is a hate crime and criticizing your leaders sedition.
  Shun them, malign them, discredit, and mock them publicly, but I can never see the good in giving the government the ability to punish someone for their speech, no matter how vehemently it goes against modern paradigm.

Sorry but is free speech dead or something? If this constitutes a crime then I have no hope for the human race anymore!
- If you are popular person you must keep in mind that your words could ruin someone's life. She cherry picks people here that "changed" gender to avoid man prison but in reality those are outliers. In the process, she is putting negative light on a whole group of people. This is similar to what politicians do to manipulate groups of people for votes
  
  Does the new law account for how famous one is?
  Based on your comment, this is doing the exact same thing that you are blaming her of: Enforcing a law on everyone when it should apply to a minority of people who have a massive following
- The same law prohibits age hatred. If it was to be enforced like people here want it to, you'd get penalised for calling someone a boomer. Or maybe calling someone disabled instead of a person with a disabillty
  Sure its wrong but you can't go around regulating people like that
  
  Sure thing, boomer. Go take your meds before you turn to dust.
- So what you're saying is that it's okay for me to call you a braindead moron-ass motherfucker with your own head lodged up your wide and prolapsed asshole destroyed by years of sitting on rightwing dick?
  
  I mean....yeah. you get to express your opinion. He gets to express his.
  I don't agree with JK, but I'll defend her right to say it. We stop what she is saying by being more compelling, not by prosecuting her for saying it.
  
  Are you saying you should be fined for it? Or just that you should be fined only if you have over X followers?

165 comments