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.
This is such a complicated issue. Free speech is a human right but hate speech can incite fear in targeted groups effectively silencing their voices. The Scottish hate crime law is consistent with international human rights laws which protect freedom of expression but do not protect hate speech. But they may been better served keeping hate speech within civil law. It’s a balance between the freedom of expression of individuals and the freedom from harassment, discrimination and abuse of some of the most vulnerable individuals.
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.