It was no April Fool’s joke.

Harry Potter author-turned culture warrior J.K. Rowling kicked off the month with an 11-tweet social media thread in which she argued 10 transgender women were men — and dared Scottish police to arrest her.

Rowling’s intervention came as a controversial new Scottish government law, aimed at protecting minority groups from hate crimes, took effect. And it landed amid a fierce debate over both the legal status of transgender people in Scotland and over what actually constitutes a hate crime.

Already the law has generated far more international buzz than is normal for legislation passed by a small nation’s devolved parliament.

  • Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Hate speech can also incite violence against targeted groups. I’m fine with freedom of speech but there’s got to be a line somewhere. I’m not sure whether this legislation is over the line or not, we’ll see how it’s enforced.