No doubt there is wiggle room for interpretation, but the accusation that the Scottish Police just slandered JK Rowling and suggested she wants to gas people who identify as transgender has quite a bit of merit.
This is an obscenity.
— Gareth Roberts (@OldRoberts953) March 20, 2024
In a sane world, everyone involved in this would be fired tonight. https://t.co/N5WcBkYSoG
As Beege wrote yesterday, free speech is about to evaporate in Scotland, with new hate speech laws threatening to arbitrarily target people with the "wrong" views, including those who still hold on to the outdated belief that biological sex is a real thing.
People like JK Rowling, who is headed for a confrontation with the Scottish police once the new law goes into effect.
It is in this context that a diversity training session sponsored by the Scottish police appeared to target Rowling in a thinly-veiled scenario that clearly mirrors the case that may soon be put against Rowling.
Scottish police have been accused of targeting JK Rowling by inventing a fictional character called “Jo” who thinks that sex is binary and bizarrely calls for transgender people to be sent to gas chambers.
At an official Police Scotland hate crime event, attendees were presented with a “scenario” in which Jo is described as a passionate gender-critical campaigner who, like Rowling, believes people cannot change sex and has a large social media following.
Women’s groups claimed the character was a thinly veiled parody of the Harry Potter author, whose Christian name is Joanne and is called Jo by her friends, and fuelled unfounded conspiracies that there was a link between gender-critical beliefs and Nazism.
Gender critical. Famous. Large social media following. Named "Jo." 14 million followers. All describe JK Rowling.
Some other details don't fit, but there is a good reason that Rowling popped up in everybody's mind. The trans community has vowed to push for her arrest in Scotland for sharing her gender-critical views. She is, quite literally, target #1 for the trans community in Scotland.
The hate crime “youth engagement” event, held in February, was part of a programme of events organised by Police Scotland for LGBT history month.
Ahead of the enforcement of controversial new hate crime laws coming into force on April 1, other sessions were given to police officers in which concerns about male-bodied people having access to women’s facilities were mocked and described as “completely ludicrous”.
Meanwhile, the SNP’s controversial proposals for a ban on conversion therapy were presented as being part of continuing work to “achieve equal rights for all” and likened to the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
The hate crime event, which was supported by Police Scotland and jointly organised by the Scottish LGBTI Police Association and the Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaign group, invited attendees to consider the case of “Jo”.
She is described as an “online influencer” who is “very active” on social media platforms TikTok and Instagram, with a “large following”. Rowling is active on X, formerly Twitter, and has 14 million followers.
So the difference between 'Jo" and Rowling is that she posts on a different platform.
The scenario concludes by stating “Jo posted her most recent video with the caption ‘they all belong in the gas chambers’”.
Oh, yeah--and she has never called for the genocide of trans people, as the Scotland Police's "Jo" does. Which amounts to a repetition of a slander being pushed by her opponents, who do accuser her of pushing for a genocide of trans people.
In other words, the Scottish police put up a charicature of Rowling, repeat slanders of activists, and hide behind the fact that they said "TikTok" and "Instagram" instead of Twitter.
Trans activists urge Scottish police to arrest JK Rowling over ‘misgendering hate crime’ https://t.co/nUCQWHyIbp pic.twitter.com/zynwjhLgBW
— Raymond E. Foster (@policeofficer) March 11, 2024
As you would expect, Police Scotland outsourced the presentation to activists both within and outside the institution, because no sane person wants to come within a thousand miles of this issue. The number of potential career-ending landmines is far too high to risk it. This means, of course, that only the most extreme activists will be involved in training people or implementing the policy.
Rowling takes most of these attacks in stride, although she is currently trying to save a young woman from harassment after a trans activist mistakenly accused her of being Rowling's estranged daughter.
This is not a joke. The baby and its mother have no connection with me, @wizardingnews. That isn’t my daughter. Your vendetta against me is causing collateral damage to innocent people. If legal action is the only way to protect them, I will take it. pic.twitter.com/D8sLhCJcDM
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 20, 2024
She is not Rowling's daughter, who also is not estranged from her. Some poor girl is getting harassed for NOT being related to Rowling.
.@wizardingnews I've done everything I can to keep my children out of the public eye. My eldest daughter doesn't owe you or anyone else details of her private life. However, for the avoidance of doubt:
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 20, 2024
1. Contrary to your claims, we are very close and last talked an hour ago. We…
Rowling is a billionaire, and eager for this fight. She is a progressive feminist passionate on this issue, and has the resources to protect herself. She would happily subject herself to arrest in Scotland. With a billion dollars the fight would be interesting to watch.
Alas, most people don't have Rowling's resources, although I have a suggestion for her: offer to pay the legal fees of all people prosecuted under this law. Doing so would cost the author the equivalent of a few royalty checks, and it would be a great way to spit in the eye of the crazy activists making life hell for ordinary people.
Elon Musk has taken this approach of late, kicking in money to help people who have been punished for liking or posting anything on Twitter.
Elon Musk says X will pay the legal fees of users who are 'unfairly treated' by their boss for liking or posting content on the platform https://t.co/dYzVsSPKtH
— Insider Tech (@TechInsider) August 6, 2023
Rowling should consider doing the same for people prosecuted under hate speech laws in Britain.
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