Elon Musk has signaled support for JK Rowling after she challenged Scotland’s new hate crime law which could see citizens arrested for addressing a transgender person with the wrong pronouns.
The Harry Potter author and prominent gender critic, who often refuses to use a person’s chosen pronouns in her frequent posts on X, formerly Twitter, challenged police to arrest her for her own apparent violations.
But on Tuesday Police Scotland confirmed that no action would be taken against Rowling, 58, despite thousands of complaints against her.
She took to X shortly after, pledging to repeat any comment made by a woman in violation of the law so that cops would have to charge her for it too.
Musk, who has a troubled relationship with his own transgender daughter, replied with a flame emoji in a show of support for the sentiment.
‘If they go after any woman for simply calling a man a man, I’ll repeat that woman’s words and they can charge us both at once,’ Rowling wrote on X.
The Harry Potter author and prominent gender critic, who often refuses to use a person’s chosen pronouns in her frequent posts on X, formerly Twitter, challenged police to arrest her for the apparent violations of the new hate crime law
Elon Musk has signaled support for JK Rowling after she challenged Scotland’s new hate crime law which could see citizens arrested for addressing a transgender person with the wrong pronouns
Rowling took to X on Tuesday pledging to repeat any comment made by a woman in violation of the law so that cops would have to charge her for it too. Musk replied with a flame emoji in a show of support for the sentiment
Her comment came in response to a woman airing concerns that police had only dropped charges against the multi-millionaire author because ‘they won’t go after someone that has the means to defend themselves’.
‘They will target people that can’t, until it becomes common enough to target you,’ they mused.
Meanwhile, Musk’s relationship with his transgender daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson, 19, has grown tense in recent years as they appear to have grown apart over political and ideological differences.
In September, he branded the teenager a ‘communist’ who thinks ‘anyone rich is evil’, in a sign their relationship had reached a new low.
Musk’s daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson filed a petition to change her gender to female
Vivian legally changed her gender to female and her name from ‘Xavier’ last year, while revealing in court filings she ‘no longer wishes to be related’ to Musk ‘in any way’.
Rowling had been reported to police after referring to a number of transgender women including campaigners, convicted prisoners and celebrities as ‘men’ in a range of X posts reported to Police Scotland.
As the author’s comments whipped up a social media storm, she won support from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who said: ‘People should not be criminalized for stating simple facts on biology.’
A Police Scotland spokesperson said of the tweets: ‘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.’
Rowling said of the police response: ‘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.’
In her social media post, the author listed ten high-profile trans people and denied their claims to be women.
They included double rapist Isla Bryson, 31, who was initially jailed for eight years at a women’s prison before later being moved to a male prison following a widespread backlash.
JK Rowling has unleashed her furor at Scotland’s new hate crime law which could see people arrested for using a transgender person’s wrong pronouns
Rowling said the assessment by Police Scotland, which concluded that her tweets referring to trans women as ‘men’ did not meet the criminal threshold, should ‘reassure’ women
Bryson, who was known as Adam Graham at the time of the offences, began transitioning only in 2020 after being charged.
Initially referring to them as ‘women’, Rowling ended the thread by saying: ‘April Fools! Only kidding. Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren’t women at all, but men, every last one of them.’
Rowling added: ‘In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls.
‘The new legislation is wide open to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces, the nonsense made of crime data if violent and sexual assaults committed by men are recorded as female crimes, the grotesque unfairness of allowing males to compete in female sports, the injustice of women’s jobs, honors and opportunities being taken by trans-identified men, and the reality and immutability of biological sex.
‘For several years now, Scottish women have been pressured by their government and members of the police force to deny the evidence of their eyes and ears, repudiate biological facts and embrace a neo-religious concept of gender that is unprovable and untestable.
‘The re-definition of ‘woman’ to include every man who declares himself one has already had serious consequences for women’s and girls’ rights and safety in Scotland, with the strongest impact felt, as ever, by the most vulnerable, including female prisoners and rape survivors.
‘It is impossible to accurately describe or tackle the reality of violence and sexual violence committed against women and girls, or address the current assault on women’s and girls’ rights, unless we are allowed to call a man a man.’
Rowling has also recently taken up the case against a cup-winning Australian women’s football team which has five trans players – including one who scored six times in a 10-0 victory.
Protesters demonstrate outside the Scottish Parliament ahead of Scotland’s Hate Crime Law
People hold up signs as they protest outside the Scottish Parliament today
The author, who lives in Edinburgh, challenged those who opposed her views to report her under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which came into effect on Monday.
It aims to protect a number of characteristics from abuse under the law, including age, disability, sexual orientation, transgender identity and those with variations in sex characteristics, such as intersex people.
Rowling continued: ‘Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.
‘I’m currently out of the country, but if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.’
She signed it off with the hashtag #arrestme.
