JK Rowling hits out at Humza Yousaf as she claims hate crime law shows 'absolute contempt' for women's rights | H461HYB | 2024-04-24 06:08:01
AUTHOR JK Rowling has accused Humza Yousaf of favouring trans people as the row over new hate laws rumbles on.
The Harry Potter creator, 58, said the First Minister has "absolute contempt for women and their rights".
The blast came days after another scathing attack on the SNP leader over the controversial Hate Crime Act.
And Ms Rowling added the approach to a new misogyny law would see "trans-identified men" get "double protection" — based on their "so-called gender identity" and for being "in the eyes of the Scottish Government, a woman".
Mr Yousaf has said "anyone affected" by misogyny would be covered by the planned new law, including trans women.
In an interview with The Scottish Sun, he confirmed the Bill would be in place before the end of the parliament in May 2026, but rejected suggestions progress had been slow.
Nats chiefs have faced fierce criticism from women's groups over the decision not to include sex in the new Hate Crime Act, which extends to cover protected characteristics such as age, disability, religion, and transgender identity.
But Mr Yousaf insisted the decision to exclude sex and instead bring forward a standalone Bill to criminalise misogyny was only made after speaking to women's groups.
He added: "Women and girls will be protected, and trans women will be protected as well, as they will often be the ones who suffer threats of rape or threats of disfigurement, for example.
"When a trans woman is walking down the street and a threat of rape is made against them, the man making the threat doesn't know if they are a trans woman or a cis woman.
"They will make that threat because the perception of that person [is] as a woman."
SNP ministers had asked human rights lawyer Baronness Helena Kennedy KC to carry out a review, which has formed the basis of the new law.
Mr Yousaf promised an "urgency and pace" behind passing a misogyny Bill, but has told the Scottish Sun it would by the end of 2026 — five years after the Hate Crime Act.
Baronness Kennedy said: "It's the perception of the perpetrator that matters here." However, Ms Rowling has hit back, saying the inclusion of trans women in a misogyny Bill "also protects men".
She posted on X: "Once again, Humza Yousaf makes his absolute contempt for women and their rights clear.
"Women were excluded from his nonsensical hate crime law, now he introduces a 'misogyny law' designed to also protect men."
The author previously attacked Mr Yousaf's "bumbling incompetence" and "illiberal authoritarianism" after he said her posts on the Hate Crime Act were "offensive, upsetting and insulting to trans people".
She also wore a T-shirt in 2022 calling then-FM Nicola Sturgeon a "destroyer of women's rights".
But Mr Yousaf has defied demands to ditch the new laws.
And he rejected claims nearly 10,000 complaints in the first two weeks meant it should be repealed.
He said: "What we've seen . . . in the first few days in particular, was a series of bad faith actors who decided to put in vexatious complaints in order to try to waste the police's time, which is a pretty serious matter."
But his official spokesperson was unable to point to statistics proving a high number of complaints had been "vexatious".
He said: "That is the case because that is exactly what happened. The numbers are being fuelled by the far right orchestrating people to just make up ludicrous [complaints]."
Police Scotland also initially refused to provide the figure, but later said they believed 300 received were "vexatious".
That is around three per cent of the total number of hate crime complaints since the new act came into force on April 1.
However, that figure is fewer than the number of hate crimes recorded by cops in the last two weeks, according to fresh Police Scotland statistics.
In total, 9,817 online, telephone, or email complaints and police incidents with a "hate crime" tag added have been recorded by officers in the last two weeks.
Of those, 445 have been recorded as hate crimes — up from 211 for the same period in 2023/24 and 262 in 2022/23. And more than 15 per cent of all police officers are still yet to be trained on the law, official figures confirmed on Tuesday.
Scots Tory justice spokesperson Russell Findlay called the implementation of the Act "shambolic".
He added: "The Cabinet secretary talks of misinformation but this is being peddled by SNP politicians who are causing confusion and fuelling police reports by misquoting their own legislation.
"We warned that the law was unworkable and would be weaponised but the SNP, Labour and Lib Dems did not listen."
SNP justice secretary Angela Constance admitted communication could have been better from the Government.
But she added: "I also have to accept that even with better communication none the less there would have been bad faith actors and we should be united on that fact to calling that out."
More >> https://ift.tt/CT0sfek Source: MAG NEWS