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JK Rowling has challenged Scotland’s new hate crime law in a series of social media posts - inviting police to arrest her if they believe she has committed an offence.
The Harry Potter author, who lives in Edinburgh, described several transgender women as men, including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures.
She said “freedom of speech and belief” was at an end if accurate description of biological sex was outlawed.
Earlier, Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf said the new law would deal with a “rising tide of hatred”.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 creates a new crime of “stirring up hatred” relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.
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Ms Rowling, who has long been a critic of some trans activism, posted on X on the day the new legislation came into force.
FYI, you shouldn’t use the term “transgenders”. Transgender is an adjective, so you would say “transgender people”. Using that word makes you sound similar to a grandpa who refers to his black neighbors as “coloreds”.
Thank you. I must admit that I don’t always get this right, but this is entirely due to English not being my main language. That said, I did think about using it in the same way as people with disabilities, but thought that sexuality(gender?) is more defining than what disability one may have and would not be perceived negatively. Actually, thinking about it, why is it any different than calling someone a man or a woman? I will note this for the future though, because although it does not necessarily make sense to me, it doesn’t hurt me to use it the way it is prefered. Thank you again.
“Man” and “Woman” are nouns. “Transgender” is an adjective. When you refer to a person as an adjective, it dehumanizes and stereotypes them. Here’s some sentences that show how awkward and off-putting it sounds:
I am only trying to understand this better, so excuse me stepping any toes here, but why is transgender not a noun too? Is this because it describes the type of man or woman one is? I would assume that if used neutrally, it could as well be a noun.
The type of man a transgender man is is a man.
The type of woman a transgender woman is is a woman.
Men and women are nouns.
Male and female can be nouns or adjectives depending on usage. It’s demeaning to refer to women as “females”, but calling someone part of your female friend group doesn’t make one sound like a Ferengi because it’s being used as an adjective to describe the friend group.
It’s an adjective because it describes a characteristic or identity of a person. This Reddit thread explains it better than I can: https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/tql7zh/why_are_a_lesbianbisexual_fine_but_a/
Yes, because ‘transgender’ is a modifier for nouns, but not one itself.
To make the descriptions even more awkward to demonstrate the point, you wouldn’t call tall women ‘the talls’ because it’s awkward as fuck and distills the person down to a single physical attribute. ‘The transgenders’ does the same thing.
This is stupid. People often say things like “the gays” or “the straights” to refer to the group of individuals who identify as such. Drawing the line at “transgenders” feels silly.
Are you a transgender person? If not, why would that determination be up to you?
I’m white and cisgendered and yet have no determination whether or not internet communities like “arethestraightsokay” are fine to exist. Am I not allowed a voice?
You are allowed a voice, yes. Haven’t you just used it?
Your right to use your voice doesn’t protect you from potential criticism from those who hear it. You do not have the authority dictate what is acceptable/unacceptable regarding trans issues as a cis person (nor what we should call trans people), just as I—another white cis person—have no right to claim what is or isn’t okay when it comes to issues unique to POC.
I don’t have the background and life experience of non-white/trans people, so I’ll continue to follow and amplify the words of those in any marginalized group that I am not a part of. There are enough people ignoring and talking over them already.
Well, you can continue being overly self righteous to your heart’s content While you write way too damn much on the subject, another lemmy post comes by and shock someone references the gays on a 196 post in a non offensive manner.
Get over yourself lol
It’s literally slur reclamation. The same way you’ll find the f slur in queer spaces sometimes but not others. Referring to trans people as “transgenders” or even just referring to someone as “a trans” is actively used in an extremely hateful way frequently. If you’re cis, it might be a good idea to just accept that people don’t like to be referred to that way.
Just an idea.