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.

  • sudneo@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    So I hope that’s okay with you.

    This is what I call guilt tripping.

    Should doing something about Israel’s genocide also be a low priority? If not, why do Palestinian lives matter more than trans lives?

    Because Palestinians have been killed in the tens of thousands in a few months, by a single entity (Israel) which is showing precise intent to wipe them from their land. Are you seriously comparing this with things like banning gender affirming care or drag shows (I am using one of your sources) in the States (which I disagree with, but I am not a US citizen)?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Fun how you used one source but not the others. Like the Wikipedia source that explicitly defines why it’s genocide.

      By the way, since you’re not in the states, you might want to know precisely what is happening:

      https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/human-rights-campaign-extremists-at-cpac-laid-bare-hatred-at-root-of-vile-legislation-targeting-trans-people

      Looks like a precise intent to wipe them out to me.

      I guess that’s okay since they’re “those” people.

      • sudneo@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Fun how you used one source but not the others. Like the Wikipedia source that explicitly defines why it’s genocide.

        I took one random source from a comment you posted, if you disagree with it, why posting it? There was no wikipedia source, the only wikipedia source you quoted is this, which talks about Nazi Germany, not the ongoing genocide.

        If I take https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_genocide as a source, I can clearly read different opinions, including plenty who critique the (ab)use of this term in this particular context. So yes, while all lives matter the same, the current Palestinian genocide is, according to my own personal sensitivity, order of magnitudes more relevant and more worthy of my attention compared to the trans discrimination in US. This means that I decide to devote my finite amount of energy to the former, together with the Ukrainian war and the environmental cause.

        By the way, since you’re not in the states, you might want to know precisely what is happening:

        So you are actually comparing bigot statements with tens of thousands of people actually blown to bits and starved to death? This to me is almost offensive.

        I guess that’s okay since they’re “those” people.

        This is a useless straw-man. I explained specifically why I think this problem is hierarchically less important (to me) than other problems. You are again resorting to bad faith/guilt/pity.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          You’re right. There’s no leap from saying “we should eradicate transgender people” at the official conservative conference and a genocide of transgender people. It’s not like people announce who they’re going to murder and then murder them or anything.

          It was a huge surprise when Israel started killing off Palestinians, wasn’t it? No one expected it to happen!

          We’ll just have to wait until a lot of trans people get murdered, then we can try to do something about it. Who ever heard of preventing something before it gets to mass murder?

          • sudneo@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            We’ll just have to wait until a lot of trans people get murdered, then we can try to do something about it. Who ever heard of preventing something before it gets to mass murder?

            Again, the amount of caring and fighting I can afford is limited. There are probably tens of active conflicts, persecutions, etc. going on in the world, in places I have barely heard, and I can’t afford to simply “care” about everything. Exactly like you, I simply decide what matters more to me and fight/care/inform myself about that.

            So yes, I believe that if today I have to choose between Palestinians actually being killed and conservative people making hateful statements in US, that might tomorrow result in violence against trans people, I choose the former because I think it has bigger scale, it has bigger impact on the geopolitical balance and it is more urgent. I hope this makes my motivations clear as to why I care about something and not something else.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Why do you have to choose what things you think are wrong with the world and need to be stopped? Why can’t you just be in favor of stopping all genocides?

              • sudneo@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                I don’t need to choose what I think is wrong. I have to choose what I can care about and actively fight against.

                Hence, I don’t care about J.K. Rowling transphobic statements (which is where all of this started), in the sense that I don’t actively inform myself on the matter, spend mental energy in deliberating and considering views on the matter and so on.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  So you are actively fighting against Israel’s genocide? How are you doing it?

                  And this goes far beyond Rowling’s statements, as I have shown you.

                  • sudneo@lemm.ee
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                    8 months ago

                    How are you doing it?

                    in the sense that I don’t actively inform myself on the matter, spend mental energy in deliberating and considering views on the matter and so on

                    The “and so on” can include active political activism (such as joining protests), in addition to obviously vote accordingly (Euro-parliament elections are close). It can also include personal boycotts and spreading awareness.

                    Already informing yourself and forming an opinion requires a lot of energy and effort, so I would say that’s the primary way I “actively fight” for causes I care about.