JK Rowling’s tweets have been ruled as not illegal, as police confirm no action will be taken against the Harry Potter author.
Ms Rowling – who lives in Edinburgh – saw an influx of criticism after referring to a number of transgender women as “men” in a range of posts shared on social media platform X.
Reports were made against the author but police have assessed her tweets against Scotland’s new hate crime laws and found they did not breach legislation.
The 58-year-old won support from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who said: “People should not be criminalised 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.”
Ms 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 several social media posts, 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.
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.”
The posts left people outraged, with Ms Rowling adding: “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, honours 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.”