JK Rowling will not face an investigation over her comments about a controversial new law in Scotland aimed at cutting hate speech, including against trans people, Police Scotland said Tuesday.

The “Harry Potter” author, an opponent of the gender identity movement, criticised the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which came into force Monday, calling it an attack on free speech.

The law, she said in a lengthy online criticism, is “wide open to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces”.

“I’m currently out of the country, but if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,” she wrote.

Police Scotland said they had received complaints about Edinburgh-based JK Rowling’s post but a spokesperson added: “The comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken.”

The devolved Scottish parliament, which has lawmaking powers in some areas, passed the act to consolidate existing hate crime legislation and ban stirring up hatred against several groups.

Protected characteristics include age, disability, race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as gender identity.

But JK Rowling, and others who support her views, say the new law does nothing more to protect women and girls.

She has faced a torrent of online abuse, death threats and accusations of transphobia for supporting a woman who lost her job after stating that transgender people cannot change their biological sex.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

London:

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday came out in support of ‘Harry Potter’ author JK Rowling over her stance against a new hate crime law enforced by the devolved government of Scotland, which she says restricts free speech.

The British Indian leader made a statement about the new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which came in force on Monday and led JK Rowling to issue a sharp rebuke on social media warning against the “dangers of eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces”.

The law creates a new crime of “stirring up hatred” relating to protected characteristics.

“People should not be criminalised for stating simple facts on biology. We believe in free speech in this country, and Conservatives will always protect it,” Rishi Sunak said in a statement.

In a series of social media posts on Monday, JK Rowling – a vocal defender of women’s only spaces when being balanced with the rights of transexuals – referenced several transgender women as men, including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures. The award-winning Scottish author, who lives in Edinburgh, then invited police to arrest her if they believed she had committed an offence under the new law.

“I’m currently out of the country, but if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,” writes JK Rowling on X, formerly Twitter.

JK Rowling, 58, said the members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) who voted for the new hate crime laws had “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”.

Humza Yousaf, the Pakistani-origin First Minister of Scotland who was justice minister in the Scottish National Party (SNP) led government when the bill was passed in the Scottish Parliament Holyrood in 2021, was targeted with Islamophobic graffiti near his home in Dundee in the wake of the new law being enforced. However, he insisted it was a reminder of why such a law is needed to ensure a “zero-tolerance approach to hatred”.

Police Scotland is investigating the graffiti and said “inquiries are ongoing”.

Meanwhile, hundreds gathered outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh to protest against the new hate crime law for its restrictions on freedom of speech. They waved placards reading: “Truth is not hate speech” and “Protect free speech”.

The new laws were developed following an Independent Review of Hate Crime Legislation, which concluded that new specific offences relating to stirring up hatred were needed.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)