JK Rowling has said Nicola Sturgeon “can’t pretend” she was not warned about the consequences of her legislation allowing Scots to “self-identify” their legal gender if it results in attacks on women.
The Harry Potter author said that “multiple women’s groups” had warned the First Minister and her government about the “likely negative consequences of this legislation for women and girls, especially the most vulnerable”.
But she said “all has been ignored” and concluded: “If the legislation is passed and those consequences ensue as a result, the SNP govt can’t pretend it wasn’t warned.”
Multiple women’s groups have presented well-sourced evidence to @NicolaSturgeon’s government about the likely negative consequences of this legislation for women and girls, especially the most vulnerable. All has been ignored. If the legislation is passed 1/2
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 7, 2022
Feminist groups have repeatedly predicted that predatory men could exploit the new law to access female-only “safe spaces” like changing rooms, toilets and refuges. Ms Rowling hit back at the denials issued by Ms Sturgeon and her senior ministers.
Raising a case that she sarcastically said must be a “parody”, the author said a trans woman was convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in a supermarket bathroom, a “short car ride away from the Scottish parliament”.
Her intervention on Twitter came only hours after Ms Sturgeon said she “fundamentally disagreed” with the Harry Potter author over claims the draft legislation would harm the most vulnerable women in society.
Mhairi Hunter, a close ally of Ms Sturgeon and her former election agent, then took to social media to argue that she did not know how to resolve the furious row between the legislation’s supporters and opponents “except to pass the legislation”.
But Ms Rowling hit back, saying Ms Hunter had told “concerned women that the way to address their concern is to pass the legislation they have concerns about”.
A few short days after @ShonaRobison claimed there’s no evidence predators have ‘ever had to pretend to be anything else,’ @MhairiHunter tells concerned women that the way to address their concerns is to pass the legislation they have concerns about. pic.twitter.com/EoV40eej6R
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 7, 2022
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill would remove the legal requirement for applicants to prove a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a mismatch between the biological sex they were born with and the way they see and describe their gender.
The legislation, which was unveiled last week, would also cut the time in which someone must live in their “acquired gender” from two years to only six months and open up the process to 16- and 17-year-olds.
Shona Robison, the SNP Social Justice Secretary in charge of the Bill, provoked a furious backlash after claiming there was no evidence that “predatory and abusive men have had to pretend to be anything else to carry out abusive and predatory behaviour”.
‘The most vulnerable’ at risk
Ms Rowling took to Twitter at the weekend to warn that the legislation “Nicola Sturgeon’s trying to pass in Scotland will harm the most vulnerable women in society: those seeking help after male violence / rape and incarcerated women.”
But the First Minister told BBC Scotland “I fundamentally disagree with that” and claimed the Bill would not “change anything about safe spaces”.
She added: “It doesn’t give trans people any more rights, doesn’t give trans people one single additional right that they don’t have right now. Nor does it take away from women any of the current existing rights that women have under the Equality Act.”
Ms Sturgeon hinted that the SNP MSPs could be whipped to vote for the Bill rather than allowing those who oppose it a free vote. However, she said this was a decision for the party’s Holyrood group.
Ms Hunter tweeted that the legislation being a “kind of open sesame to single sex spaces” was a “piece of misinformation” that was “the foundation of much of the opposition.”
Arguing the two sides in the debate “talk past each other” rather than address each other’s arguments, she concluded: “I don’t have an answer to this except to pass the legislation. Show rather than tell.”
But Ms Rowling responded: “A few short days after Shona Robison claimed there’s no evidence predators have ‘ever had to pretend to be anything else’, Mhairi Hunter tells concerned women that the way to address their concerns is to pass the legislation they have concerns about.”
