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.

Ms Rowling, who has long been a critic of some trans activism, posted on X on the day the new legislation came into force.

  • @Passerby6497
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    English
    78 months ago

    why is transgender not a noun too? Is this because it describes the type of man or woman one is?

    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.