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‘Arrest Me’: J.K. Rowling Provokes Scottish Authorities by Misgendering Trans Criminals

‘[They] aren’t women at all, but men, every last one of them,’ the author wrote on the day Scotland’s Hate Crime Act takes effect

Published: April 1, 2024
  |   By Chris Karr
‘Arrest Me’: J.K. Rowling Provokes Scottish Authorities by Misgendering Trans Criminals

Author J.K. Rowling deliberately misgendered several criminal transgender-identifying individuals in a series of X posts early Monday as a provocation to Scottish authorities.


Rowling shared her posts on the same day that Scotland’s new Hate Crimes and Public Order Act takes effect.

The act, which supplements existing laws aimed as hate crimes, established a new offense that covers “threatening of abusive behavior which is intended to stir up hate.” In addition to the protected characteristics of religion, sexual orientation, disability, and age, the bill also includes “a female-to-male transgender person, a male-to-female transgender person, a non-binary person, [and] a person who cross-dresses.”

While a summary conviction against someone who violates the law can result in up to 12 months in prison, a conviction on indictment can result in “imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or a fine (or both).”

Rowling noted that in the new law, “women gain no additional protection.”

“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 author wrote.

She continued:

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.

In her post, the Harry Potter author sarcastically praises several Scottish men who identify as women and have committed a variety of crimes against women and children.

She mentioned Isla Bryson, a biological male who changed his gender identity while waiting to stand trial after raping two women.

“Lovely Scottish lass and convicted double rapist Isla Bryson found her true authentic female self shortly before she was due to be sentenced,” Rowling wrote. “Misgendering is hate, so respect Isla’s pronouns, please. Love the leggings!”

Bryson was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Rowling also mentioned “Fragile flower Katie Dolatowski, 6'5", [who] was rightly sent to a women's prison in Scotland after conviction. This ensured she was protected from violent, predatory men (unlike the 10-year-old girl Katie sexually assaulted in a women's public bathroom.)”


The author also referenced Samantha Norris, who was cleared of “exposing her penis to two 11-year-old girls” and subsequently “convicted for possession of 16,000 images of children being raped and sexually assaulted.”

The author also mentioned 53-year-old Amy George, who abducted an 11-year-old girl while dressed in female clothing.

“No idea why this was mentioned in court – of course she was wearing women’s clothing, she's a woman!” Rowling wrote. “Amy took the girl home and sexually abused her over a 27-hour period.”


Rowling also took aim at Katie Neeves, who was appointed to be the UK delegate for UN Women.

“She switched from straight man to lesbian at the age of 48 and, in a leaked 2022 webinar, described how she used to enjoy stealing and wearing her sister’s underwear. A truly relatable representative!” she wrote.

Rowling said transgender-identifying TV host India Willoughby – who reported the Harry Potter author to English police after accusing her of “indisputable transphobic bullying" last month – “proves we women can call a black broadcaster a ‘nasty bitch’ who ‘wouldn’t be anywhere without woke’, dub lesbians men, insult the looks of a female Olympic swimmer, ‘joke’ about kidnapping feminists, and STILL get airtime! What a gal!”


“April Fools!” the author said in a concluding post. “Only kidding. Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren't women at all, but men, every last one of them.”

Rowling said Scottish women have been put under pressure from police officers and government officials to “repudiate biological facts” and uphold “a neo-religious concept of gender that is unprovable and untestable.”

“I'm currently out of the country, but if what I've written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,” she concluded, with the hashtages ArrestMe, AprilFools, and HateCrimesActScotland.

Willoughby responded to Rowling’s posts on X by saying, “A list of sex offenders – and me. Wow. #HateCrime.”

“Wow,” Rowling replied. “India Willoughby calling everyone on the list a sex offender, excluding only himself, was the twist I didn't see coming.”


While Siobhian Brown, the Scottish National Party’s community safety minister, had previously said misgendering would “not at all” violate the new hate crime legislation, Brown told The Telegraph on Monday that comments from Rowling “could be reported and it could be investigated. Whether or not the police would think it was criminal is up to Police Scotland for that.”

Rowling’s persistent pushback against transgender ideology in recent years has sparked strong criticism and outrage. LGBTQ+ publication Out refers to Rowling as a “notorious sexist, anti-semite, and TERF” – short for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist.

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