Women who are critical of gender ideology are slamming Scotland’s new hate speech law, saying it restricts them from voicing their views on biological sex.
The new law, the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, went into effect on Monday. The measure criminalizes “stirring up hatred” relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or being intersex.
The maximum penalty for violations is seven years in jail.
Critics quickly spoke out against the law, saying it risks jailing people for voicing their sincerely held opinions, particularly those critical of gender ideology.
Under the law, a person may not communicate material or behave in a way that “a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive” with the intention of stirring up hatred based on the newly protected characteristics.
Racially-based hatred was already outlawed in Scotland, but the new law adds more protected categories.
Many voiced their opposition to the law on social media, posting under the hashtags #FactIsNotHate and #WomenWontWheesht — “wheesht” meaning “hush” in Scotland.
Women have been out and about in Scotland with our Hate Crime posters. Women's Rights Are Not A Hate Crime. Here's some fabulous women @ff_scotland Alloa Festival. We will not be silenced!#FactIsNotHate pic.twitter.com/pIsWO2pesD
— WRN Scotland (@WRNScotland) April 1, 2024
I will not lie.
I will not betray women.
Our rights matter.
We are defiant.
We will not be silent. #FactIsNotHate #TruthIsNotACrime#FactIsNotACrime pic.twitter.com/KsjUCDDrEZ— Cathy Larkman 💚🤍 💜🦢🏃♀️ (@JackMerched) March 31, 2024
We’ll be continuing to go about our lives speaking the truth. We won’t be silenced by the Hate Crime Bill ✊✊✊#TruthIsNotACrime #FactIsNotHate #FactIsNotACrime pic.twitter.com/kRNMHwHDKE
— GTF Glasgow Tactical Feminists (@GTFGla) April 1, 2024
“I will not lie. I will not betray women. Our rights matter. We are defiant. We will not be silent,” wrote one social media user on X.
“A Woman is an Adult Human Female,” another posted. “The law can not protect what it can not define. My son claims he’s a woman, he is not. It is my protected belief humans can not change sex.”
“Men are not women. Will this statement now result in arrest in Scotland? Indefinite seizure of devices? Hate crime incidents secretly recorded? A dystopian nightmare, brought about in the name of ‘inclusion’. Shame on you #Scotland,” another user posted.
Some X users tagged the Scottish police in their posts.
Author J.K. Rowling challenged police to arrest her over her posts criticizing gender ideology.
“Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal,” Rowling posted Monday on X, adding that, “if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested.”
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Rowling added that 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.”
She said the new legislation is “wide open to abuse by activists who wish to silence” women who criticize gender ideology.
🎉🌼🌸April Fools! 🌸🌼🎉
Only kidding. Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren't women at all, but men, every last one of them.
In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their…
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 1, 2024
Elon Musk criticized the law as well.
“An example of why it is so important to preserve freedom of speech,” Musk posted earlier this month on X in response to another post discussing the law.