this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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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.

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

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[–] kescusay@lemmy.world 214 points 8 months ago (34 children)

I am so fucking sick of these bigots pretending the science of "biological sex" is on their side.

In recent years, multiple studies of the brains of trans people have revealed areas of differentiation from those of cisgender people. And unless these bigots are prepared to argue that brains are not part of biology, they only have two choices: Deny the science somehow or accept that they're just bigots who want to hate, regardless of the science.

And because unlike bigots, I like to back my shit up:

On top of that, there's some indications of oligogenic causes resulting in various allele differences that wouldn't necessarily show up on a brain scan.

In conclusion: Fuck bigots and their attempts to co-opt science in order to support their bigotry.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 139 points 8 months ago (7 children)

I'm glad you're backing it up, but honestly, the answer to this whole "biological science" bullshit is simper- it's none of their fucking business how someone else identifies. I don't care what "science" says is a man or a woman. If someone says they're a woman, it's not my fucking business to tell them they aren't.

[–] kescusay@lemmy.world 60 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Absolutely agreed. I only bring it up because the bigots like to claim science is on their side (while usually rejecting science to back up some kind of religious nonsense). So it's nice to be able to throw actual science in their faces.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm glad to now have it for myself, so thank you for that, but I don't know that showing them real science will work because they are not coming at this from a rational position. All they see is "man = penis, woman = vagina" and no amount of science will change their mind. Even bringing up basic things like people born with both sets of genitalia doesn't phase them. "Well that's just the exception to the rule," as if that's a thing in science. So when they say that they have science on their side, what they mean is that they've found some scientific studies that agreed with their preconceived, unscientific notions.

As they say- you shouldn't play chess with pigeons.

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[–] foggy@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago (4 children)

The issue at stake is people's own fragile identities

Let me clarify: JK Rowling's childhood learning of "boys have penises and girls have vaginas" runs so deep into her understanding of how she understands being a human that giving it up is scary and threatening.

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[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 28 points 8 months ago

Deny the science

Sure thing Bob, let me just stack that in-between "Evolution" and "climate change" on my shelf of "Things that don't fit my bigoted, hateful, and selfish worldview, so I just conveniently ignore them."

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[–] BertramDitore@lemmy.world 194 points 8 months ago (23 children)

OR, and hear me out, you could just not be a total asshole? Maybe have a baseline of tolerance and respect for the people who made you a billionaire? No? Then fuck right off and accept the consequences of your hatred.

[–] dojan@lemmy.world 102 points 8 months ago (5 children)

It seems billionaires have really wacked out midlife crises. Instead of buying expensive cars and cheating on their partners, they come out as terfy nazis, build hate platforms, and crash companies. I mean to be fair, at this point the sample size is only two, JKKK Rowling and Musk, but it's still surprising that it'd happen twice.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 80 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Bill Gates started a charity.

Steve Jobs killed himself because he thought he knew better than his doctors. Well, that's wacked out too, but at least it's not being a Nazi...

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 61 points 8 months ago (8 children)
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[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 32 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (16 children)

Bill gates didn’t start the charity as a midlife crisis.

It’s a tax dodge and a lot of other ways of protecting his money while also doing a little reputation washing/ morality banking

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[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 117 points 8 months ago (45 children)

It's becoming harder and harder to be a Harry Potter fan nowaday.

I don't really understand what it is about X Formerly Known as Twitter that turns previously respectable people into, well, this.

Everybody should take a break from social media once in a while, it's better for your health.

[–] Shialac@lemmy.world 77 points 8 months ago (5 children)

It doesn't turn these people, they were shitty all the time, they just get a platform on X so it becomes visible

[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 26 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Part of it is that having a large captive audience hanging on to your every word really starts to amplify toxic characteristics in those with the predisposition for shittiness. Like Musk or Trump, their descend only came when they became active on social media.

Twitter is a horrible thing.

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[–] stoly@lemmy.world 53 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They were always awful. They just needed a platform where they could blossom into the terrible people they always were.

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[–] glimse@lemmy.world 29 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Oh yeah it was definitely Twitter that made her a bigot. She was an upstanding and progressive citizen before a website made her bad! /s

That's like saying "I don't really understand what it is about alcohol that makes people racist"

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[–] kellyaster@lemmy.world 87 points 8 months ago (16 children)

Rowling quote from the article:

Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls.

It's difficult to accept that someone I used to respect could say such hateful things about people like me. I'm not gonna lie, it hurts to read. What the fuck, Joanne? Is that all I am to you... just a man "performing" my idea of femaleness? Well, fuck you, then. Should I wish for you to feel the same pain you've inflicted on others? To be honest, judging by your "performance" in the media the past several years, I don't think you're resilient enough to survive it.

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[–] niva@discuss.tchncs.de 86 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (13 children)

This is mental illness by now! Seriously wtf? Why is this so important for her that she can't stop talking about it? If I had some irrational hate for trans woman, I would not go on about it in public all the time.

Don't we have more important problems then to bash people that are so unhappy with their body that they are willing to take hormones and let people operate on their genitals?

This is such a simple thought, everybody should be able to think it, right? But on the other hand, she is not the only one hating transgender women or men. I mean it is not right to hate people for that. But if I would hate trans people then I would just not invite them for dinner and would stop talking about them all the time.

It must be some form of mental illness I have no other explanation.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 75 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It’s not a crime to be an insufferable piece of shit. Usually. If they make an exception for her, okay then.

[–] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 67 points 8 months ago (7 children)

No, but it seems like "stirring up hate" is a crime. And, as a public figure who is publicly hateful, she potentially fits that description

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 26 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Yep, there really needs to be the distinction between private remarks and public instigation in free speech law.

Otherwise you're not protecting anything except the right of the loudest to monopolize the airwaves via intimidation of dissent and "the other"

It's not freedom of speech unless everyone feels safe using it, be it from fear of retaliation by the state, or by the tyranny of cousins.

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[–] Letstakealook@lemm.ee 65 points 8 months ago (21 children)

Why are some people so determined to be pieces of shit?

[–] guacupado@lemmy.world 32 points 8 months ago (2 children)

You don't get rich being nice.

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[–] Altofaltception@lemmy.world 53 points 8 months ago (45 children)

Friendly reminder that Scotland's freedom of speech laws are different from those in the US.

[–] hannes3120@feddit.de 26 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The freedom of one person ends where it starts limiting the freedom of another person

Unlimited freedom of speech just means that it's possible to verbally deny a group of people a place in society either by lying about them or by just ignoring their existence - and both are limiting that person's freedom - not just their freedom of speech.

I really don't understand how Americans don't seem to understand that one person's freedom should end when it limits the freedom of another person - and if it doesn't then it's just the stronger/more forceful one pushing the weaker/more defensive one into a corner.

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[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 49 points 8 months ago (20 children)

Trans people exist and deserve, like anyone, to be treated with dignity and respect. Get the fuck over it.

Ugh.

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[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 47 points 8 months ago (71 children)

Her opinion on trans folks is shit, but people should not go to jail for shit opinions. Broken clock and stuff.

[–] UnrepententProcrastinator@lemmy.ca 61 points 8 months ago (25 children)

It's more complicated than that. Like saying there is a fire in a theatre when there is none, saying transgender are undercover perverts and a danger to society when it's not supported by evidence will get people killed. Freedom of speech is great and all but when your lie and put people in danger there should be consequences.

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[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 53 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (8 children)

Have as many opinions as you want, but if you spread shit like "we should exterminate the lesser races" and "trans people are rapists" you earn a vacation at the greybar hotel for abusing your right of free speech to infringe on other people's rights.

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 32 points 8 months ago

And she won't. This is the same performative bullshit Jordan Peterson pulled in Canada.

[–] TheEntity@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago (4 children)

People shouldn't go to jail for shit opinions, I agree. That changes when their opinions become more than opinions.

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[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago (4 children)

She grossly misinterprets what the law is meant to achieve. It's not for somebody who dead names a trans person or calls a trans woman he or him. It's when someone Tweets out "Who will rid me of this troublesome trans person?" and then their one or more of their followers goes out and beats or murders that person.

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[–] Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee 46 points 8 months ago (8 children)

If I had her money, I wouldn't spend my time bullying people and starting fights with the police. She's clearly insane in the most fundamental way.

[–] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 30 points 8 months ago (4 children)

The more I know about rich people, the less inclined I am to think that they're usually well adjusted.

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[–] RatBin@lemmy.world 43 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

People who use biology as an excuse to hate on people have no grasp on how biology even works. You should know that gender disphoria, gender transitions and other genders as well come in fact with small noticeable differences, such as the way the brain is wired and even the many mechanisms inside your body. Unfortunately, such differences are not noticeable right off the bat. But they exist. Also FFS, she could have just enjoyed her harry potter money, maybe she could go silent after the first tweet but come on! There'se no reason to go any further, no reason. She now dwells with the likes of her conservative friends - She's no victim. There's more money there than many of us could see in a lifetime. She actually has too much -

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[–] Wayren@lemmy.world 42 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Can we just hold one big public figure accountable to the law? Please?

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[–] ultranaut@lemmy.world 38 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Ms Rowling, who has long been a critic of some trans activism

That's a particularly odd way for the BBC to characterize her behavior.

[–] AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 31 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Because the BBC is also a "critic of some trans activism". They actually have a Mastodon instance that immediately got defederated by a few other instances due to their transphobia.

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[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 38 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I live in Canada where we have hate crime laws, they don't affect 99% of us in any way, because 99% of us aren't walking around calling for the death of groups of people, based on race, gender, etc. Hate crime laws only affect the people who are truly beyond hateful. Nobody is gonna arrest you for being an anti trans asshole, but that will if you start inciting violence or calling for blood

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[–] brotkel@programming.dev 36 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Scotland was literally willing to leave the UK over this. I wouldn’t be putting money on Joanne to come out on top here.

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[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 30 points 8 months ago

Ironic: She tried to insert herself as Hermoine/McGonagall, but she really was Umbridge all along.

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 27 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

I'm glad that Harry Potter wasn't my favourite series growing up, knowing how bad of a person she is. With that said, it's still possible to separate the art from the artist, so it's okay either way but personally I just feel better knowing it wasn't my number one favourite series growing up.

[–] saintshenanigans@programming.dev 26 points 8 months ago (4 children)

I think the general argument against separating the art from the artist is that shes still alive and when we buy HP products, she gets that money and uses it to harm trans people.

Hp lovecraft iirc is known as a racist, but we can still purchase his books without funding him cause he's dead.

Buy your HP merch secondhand, i guess?

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[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago (6 children)

I’m always confused by people that are willing to tank their body of work and public image in order to yell on a soapbox for culture war bullshit.

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[–] JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world 26 points 8 months ago (2 children)

“Am I being detained!?!?!?”

–JK Rowling

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[–] ShadowRam@fedia.io 26 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

I look forward to the pending arrest video, where she is suddenly all apologetic and saying sorry, and not understanding why they won't let her go because she just said sorry to them.

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