The JK Rowling/Scottish Hate Crimes Law Kerfuffle, But With Jokes
She fought the law, and the law didn’t win
JK Rowling is the author of stories about a little demon boy who has the magical power to keep Warner Brothers Pictures afloat via endless sequels and spinoffs. Long an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, in recent years, Rowling has criticized the encroachment of trans women into certain women-only spaces. Basically, she has spent her 50s the way most people do: Fighting with strangers online. She just happens to have 14 million followers and has had more influence on Gen Y than their parents and ABC’s Friday night lineup combined.
Scotland is the country from Trainspotting. It is sort of Britain’s Maine, in that it’s way the fuck up there, cold, and they speak a language that sounds a bit like English but isn’t. They recently passed a law targeting hate speech that supporters tout as a powerful weapon against verbal abuse and also a minor little law that will hardly ever be used so everyone just chillax. It went into effect this week, and it’s already caused more Scottish uproar than a controversial late penalty in a match between Kilmarnock FC and St. Cowldenrock Strathclyde-McRenfnrenrewfrickshire.
Rowling used her prominence to force the Scottish government to interpret the law. In an April 1 post on X — dead name “Twitter” — Rowling referred to 10 trans women as “men”. They were not ten randomly chosen trans women: The people Rowling highlighted had either committed a heinous crime, taken a role reserved for a woman, or been resoundingly shitty in some way. The first person highlighted by Rowling was activist Beth Douglas (below), who might not be the best mouthpiece for a law that outlaws “threatening or abusive behaviour”:
