Social media comments made by JK Rowling challenging Scotland’s new hate crime law are not being treated as criminal, Police Scotland has said.
The Harry Potter author described several transgender women as men, including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures.
The new law creates a new crime of “stirring up hatred” relating to protected characteristics.
The force said complaints had been received but no action would be taken.
Reacting to the news, Ms Rowling posted on X: “I hope every woman in Scotland who wishes to speak up for the reality and importance of biological sex will be reassured by this announcement, and I trust that all women – irrespective of profile or financial means – will be treated equally under the law.
“If they go after any woman for simply calling a man a man, I’ll repeat that woman’s words and they can charge us both at once.”
I see you link to the BBC report. It does not include a link to a Police Scotland statement about JKR. Nor did ANY of the other news outlets yesterday afternoon who slavishly copied the BBC.
Without a source, it’s not journalism. Maybe you can come back with a source link? Because none of the outlets and journalists I challenged about this have done so.
Without a source, I remain very cautious of this story.
Oh, do you kn why the BBC were able to come up with that figure of numbers of people who had used the report form? Because when you started filling it out, and then used “exit quickly”, you were bounced directly to a BBC website!
Obviously they had an agreement with Police Scotland to collect statistics for them!