Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s posts about Scotland’s new hate crime law are “not criminal”, Police Scotland have said.
The force said they received complaints regarding Rowling’s posts on X, formerly Twitter, in which she said that transgender women are men – and challenged police to arrest her for her views.
Rowling, who said she was out the country, said if her posts were an offence under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act – which came into force on Monday – she would “look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment”.
The author, who has become a fierce critic of the Scottish Government’s stance on trans rights, said that “freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal”.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We have received complaints in relation to the social media post.
“The comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken.”
In response to the police statement, Rowling said: “I hope every woman in Scotland who wishes to speak up for the reality and importance of biological sex will be reassured by this announcement, and I trust that all women – irrespective of profile or financial means – will be treated equally under the law.”
Rowling, who also writes crime novels under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, first began to comment publicly on trans issues in 2019, when she backed think-tank tax expert Maya Forstater after she was sacked over tweets saying that transgender people cannot change their biological sex.
Following a backlash over further comments on the issue, Rowling revealed that she was partly motivated to speak out on trans issues because of her experience of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
Rowling has said her views have attracted “so many death threats I could paper the house with them”, and in 2021 had her address posted online by campaigners who posed outside her home with “Trans liberation now” signs.
Her stance has also put her at odds with many fans of her bestselling Harry Potter franchise, with the governing body for Quidditch UK renaming in 2021 to “distance” itself from the author.
The eponymous star of the Harry Potter film series, Daniel Radcliffe, is among several of his fellow actors to state opposing views, putting out a statement in 2020 to say that “transgender women are women” and anything to the contrary “erases the identity and dignity” of trans people.
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