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JK Rowling, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk are fuming over Scotland’s hate crime law

www.politico.eu JK Rowling, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk are fuming over Scotland’s hate crime law. Here’s why.

A legal shake-up aimed at protecting minorities angers high-profile opponents on freedom of speech grounds.

JK Rowling, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk are fuming over Scotland’s hate crime law. Here’s why.

It was no April Fool’s joke.

Harry Potter author-turned culture warrior J.K. Rowling kicked off the month with an 11-tweet social media thread in which she argued 10 transgender women were men — and dared Scottish police to arrest her.

Rowling’s intervention came as a controversial new Scottish government law, aimed at protecting minority groups from hate crimes, took effect. And it landed amid a fierce debate over both the legal status of transgender people in Scotland and over what actually constitutes a hate crime.

Already the law has generated far more international buzz than is normal for legislation passed by a small nation’s devolved parliament.

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