Scotland’s new hate crime laws will affect ordinary families like mine – but not in the way JK Rowling thinks

I’ve seen how brutal the discourse can get – including (and especially) online, writes Philippa East. I regularly hear the person I love referred to in the most horrific ways. This new bill has the power to change all that

JK Rowling could be investigated by police for misgendering trans people, the SNP minister has said (Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

Today, Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Bill finally comes into force.

Introduced following an independent review of existing hate crime laws, and originally passed in 2021 by a majority of 82 to 32, the bill updates and pulls together existing hate crime legislation protecting disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and intersex conditions, but also adds “age” and introduces a new crime of “stirring up hatred” against any of its protected groups – to me, that means my other half.

I’m a Scottish author and psychologist who happens to have a transgender spouse. And this new bill is just one of many pieces of civil rights legislation I’ve watched closely over the last few years. It is bold and it has attracted significant controversy – people like JK Rowling have been fiercely critical of it.