‘#ArrestMe’: JK Rowling's ‘transphobic’ tirade won't quiet down even in the face of Scotland's new hate crime law

“…I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,” wrote JK Rowling as Scotland's new hate crime law news broke.

JK Rowling's X (formerly Twitter) is an official logbook of her controversial ‘transphobic’ rants. In her latest tweets thread, the Harry Potter writer continued to misgender a bunch of trans people. Slamming the recently introduced new anti-hate crime law in Scotland, she “looked forward to being arrested” if all claims in her verbose address were classified as an offence.

FILE PHOTO: Writer J.K. Rowling attends the British premiere of 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald' movie in London, Britain, November 13, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo (REUTERS)

The British author has been under fire for her peculiar remarks several times. Much like her scornful diatribe on April Fools' Day, she previously spent the UK's Mother's Day retaining her transphobic online streak. As her sentiments have only vocally stiffened, forget her redemption arc, right-wing ideologists have actually banded in her support.

What is the new Scotland hate crime law?

Effectively coming into force on Monday, April 1, the Hate Crime and Public Order Act criminalised “stirred up hate” on the basis of age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, being intersex or one's transgender identity. Intended to provide better protection for victims and communities, the new law criminalises “threatening or abusive behaviour which is intended to stir up hatred.”

Existing legislation and new offences for abusive behaviour have been consolidated under this act. Scotland's First Minster Humza Yousaf has ensured that it has a “very high threshold" and a "triple lock" of protection of speech.

While controversial claims about it not extending to women have been raised, the Scottish government is already working on a separate misogyny law. The offence would be classified as such if “a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive”.

The maximum penalty term for the same could extend up to seven years of imprisonment. Moreover, the threshold for the offence also includes “insulting” behaviour, for which the prosecution only needs to prove that inciting hatred was “likely” (not even “intended”). The ultimate interpretation of the ‘crime’ would be up for assessment by the police and the court.

JK Rowling's transphobic tirade continues online

The Harry Potter author opened online fire in her latest series of tweets dated April 1. Countering all that Scotland's new anti-hate crime law stands for, she openly misgendered several people and challenged Scottish authorities to arrest her.

Rowling's transphobic claims are abundantly registered online. Her latest tweet denounces the law for having “placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness.” She also wrote, “Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.”

Claiming that she was currently out of the country, she raised the case to the authorities, daring them to arrest her if all she mentioned in her tweet “qualified as an offence under the terms of the new act.” In a similarly vocal tweet from October, she claimed that she would “happily do two years" in prison for misgendering a trans person. Her comment responded to a report suggesting a hypothetical law change implementing misgendering people as an “aggravated offence.”