LONDON According to statements made by the police on Tuesday, J.K. Rowling did not violate any laws when she posted tweets in which she criticized Scotland's new hate speech law and referred to transsexual women as men.
The rule, which went into effect on Monday and makes it unlawful to stir up hatred on the basis of traits such as age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and transgender identity, is opposed by the creator of the "Harry Potter" series.
Rowling is one of the critics who believes that the legislation might be used to suppress so-called "gender-critical" feminists. These feminists contend that the rights of transgender women should not come at the expense of the rights of those who are born biologically female from the beginning.
A number of well-known transgender women were referred to as men by Rowling in a series of posts that she made on X. There are certain situations in which the new law might make it a criminal violation to misgender someone.
If what I've written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested," Rowling said in a post on her website.
She stated that if the precise depiction of biological sex is considered to be a criminal offense, then freedom of speech and belief would be completely eradicated in Scotland.
Despite the fact that the Scottish police department had received complaints, they stated that "the comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken."
A new piece of legislation, which is being referred to as the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, is expected to assist in combating hatred and abuse, according to the semi-autonomous government of Scotland. On the other hand, critics argue that it will have a chilling impact on the right to free speech.
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