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.
The issue I have is unintended listening to deliberately inflammatory jokes between friends. And that any reported incident, crime or not goes on a permanent public record.
Yeah, I did notice the lack of exception for a private dwelling as exists for the Public Order Act. On one hand, I don’t think there’s a place for some jokes. But on the other hand, if they’re happening between people in a private setting, then I don’t think it should be the law’s business.
In terms of reported incidents. I think recording for anonymous statistics is fine. I’m very wary of naming people that haven’t even been charged, for example. It’s a slippery slope. But, keeping the number of reported incidents is good for statistics. I am aware of the risk that also entails, though.
A lot of this is in the “it might be fine” territory, but weaponisable laws concern me. It’s not like public trust in the police is particularly high right now either for good reason.