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.
Art and a rally are both forms of speech. Speech doesn’t mean just the literal act of saying a word.
And in essence what really is the difference between beating someone to a pulp vs wanting to verbally (or by typing) assault someones existence?
You can walk away from one and not the other.
You think it’s not okay to repeatedly stab someone with an small knife over and over until they bleed to death, but you do think it’s okay to repeatedly tell someone to kill themselves until they kill themselves?
Legality doesn’t determine morality. Me thinking it should be legal doesn’t mean I think it’s okay.
Art and a rally are both forms of speech.
Speech is when words are coming out of your mouth. Art, rallying and speech are all forms of expression. Art can contain speech but doesn’t have to, rallying can contain speech but doesn’t have to.
You can walk away from one and not the other.
Because walking is a physical activity and when you take physical damage your physical capabilities can be hindered. Just because you can walk away from something doesn’t mean it didn’t do any damage.
Legality doesn’t determine morality. Me thinking it should be legal doesn’t mean I think it’s okay.
But morality generally determines legality. The vast majority of our laws originate from what we as a society deem morally acceptable. It’s not morally acceptable to kill someone hence it’s illegal to kill someone. If you think it’s not morally acceptable to tell someone to kill themselves until they do why should it be legally acceptable?
