When will the Scottish government get on with the day job? Hot on the heels of his controversial Hate Crime Act, Humza Yousaf has now promised a misogyny law that will apparently protect members of both sexes. The First Minister insisted that ‘anyone affected’ by misogyny would be covered, whatever their biological sex. This includes, of course, transgender women.
One wonders if the SNP is so detached from reality that it does not know the difference between men and women, or they are so deeply in the pockets of an activist lobby that they pretend not to know. Either way, it is bad for women and bad for Scotland.
Once again, J.K. Rowling spoke for the women that Scottish ministers have ignored. Reacting to Yousaf’s remarks, the author wrote:
‘Humza Yousaf makes his absolute contempt for women and their rights clear. Women were excluded from his nonsensical hate crime law, now he introduces a ‘misogyny law’ designed to also protect men.’
J.K. Rowling (Twitter)
The author went on to cite the example of a transgender activist in the Scottish Greens who was suspended from the role of Rainbow Greens co-convenor after a series of tweets, including one labelling feminists ‘fascists’. Rowling added:
‘Trans-identified men have sent violent threats to women but the likes of Beth Douglas now receive double protection from Yousaf: for his so-called gender identity, and for also being, in the eyes of the Scottish government, a woman.’
JK Rowling (Twitter)
Many other women in Scotland are likely to be rather less measured in their response. The female sex has been expected to give way every time to members of the male sex who have claimed a transgender identity. Women have had enough, quite understandably.
Yousaf’s problem, I think, is that he simply does not know what he is talking about when he opens his mouth on transgender issues. His ignorance was plain to see in an interview with the BBC, in which he said:
‘When a trans woman is walking down the street and a threat of rape is made against them, the man making the threat doesn’t know if they are a trans woman or a cis woman. They will make that threat because the perception of that person [is] as a woman.’
Humza Yousaf speaking to the BBC
Let’s try and ignore that c-word for the moment: Yousaf is pointing out that the law is concerned with the intent of the perpetrator. That is correct; the same principle also runs through the Equality Act. If someone is perceived to have a protected characteristic then they are protected if they face discrimination as a result. For example, if someone thinks that I am a woman and treats me less favourably as a result then I am covered under the protected characteristic of sex.
I don’t think many people would have a problem with that. Kemi Badenoch – who appears to understand what Yousaf does not – once told the House of Commons that ‘the Equality Act is a shield, not a sword.’
But people take issue when laws passed to defend the vulnerable are instead turned into weapons of attack by the powerful. That is what the LGBTQ+ lobby has done, and it is what too many politicians have failed to appreciate. It is easy for a man to identify as transgender; it is rather more difficult for him to identify out of his male privilege. He retains it so long as he can be clocked as being male.
Those people – including me – should not be protected by misogyny laws if we are not perceived to be women. It’s as simple as that. But if that’s too difficult for Yousaf then maybe he should focus his time and energy on issues that the people of Scotland expect him to understand – things like health, education, jobs and public services.
Good laws are either respected or feared – depending on your perspective. Perhaps someone should inform the Scottish government. Some of their recent legislation has instead provoked outrage and ridicule. This misogyny deserves a similar reaction.
Debbie Hayton is a teacher and journalist.
Her book, Transsexual Apostate – My Journey Back to Reality is published by Forum
* This article was first published by The Spectator on 17 April 2024: JK Rowling has exposed the weak spot in the SNP’s misogyny law.
Debbie Hayton 
7 replies on “JK Rowling has exposed the weak spot in the SNP’s misogyny law”
Interesting article. So, are you saying that if a trans woman isn’t trying to look like a woman (and I understand that there are such trans women in the UK, such as that activist who dresses like a woman but has a beard), misogyny should not be assumed? This brings up the issue of trans women who are indeed trying to “pass”, but aren’t doing it well.
In my view, the problem in this case is the focus on misogyny. Misogyny clearly means discrimination by men against women, yet a trans woman is not a biological woman — and we all agree that biology is what matters.
Instead of focussing on misogyny, discrimination laws should simply focus on any kind of discriminatory behavior which is irrelevant to the situation at hand. So if you are a trans woman who is trying to book a room in a hotel, and you are discriminated against — whether the clerk at the hotel knew you were a man trying to pass as a woman, or thought you were an actual woman, should be irrelevant.
Transgenderism is blurring all the lines.
Let me take this opportunity to plug Debbie’s book Transgender Apostate. It is a fascinating look into the inner life of a trans woman who, importantly, has the good sense not to subscribe to all the fanciful ideas coming from the trans community, and in that way the book is unique.
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That is the spirit of the Equality Act – it protects everyone according to protexted characteristics. You don’t need to claim a protected characteristic but merely be perceived that way. So if I am perceived to be gay – for example – and treated less favourably as a result then I would be protected by the characteristic of sexual orientation.
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I would think that it would be impossible to prove whether you have been discriminated against. This is a law that is probably meant to warn people more than to prosecute wrongdoers. I guess if there is a witness … but who wants to get the police involved over an insult or slur?
I’m gay, but given that I can hide it well enough, it has never been an issue.
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I guess your pieces in certain other outlets have a retention period before you can publish, Debbie, but nay matterrr, the new laddie is aboot as queerrr as the last one! Swinney says that a woman is “an adult female born as a woman” (which is odd enough) but also that “transgender women are women.” I wonder if he’s as much of a racist … oops, I mean “anti-racist”.
I know it’s tragic, all this, but it’s also monumentally hilarious. I imagine people will look back on this decade and wonder how it was that almost everyone in a position of authority became emotionally blackmailed into agreeing with the hallucinations of a bunch of cultists, to the point of enshrining their delusions in law and making intelligent people spout utter tripe.
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Misogyny is very specific to biological women and, in no circumstances, can the word even apply to any other category. Women have always, since the dawning of time, been subjected to male abuse and violence. To have the brass neck to include ‘trans’ women is beyond insulting. I don’t care a fig if that TW had had all the surgeries. He is still a man.
Perceptions cannot ever be applied to misogyny because it is absolutely specific to biological femaleness. It is hatred of the female sex – that is, SEX, not gender – and other laws would come into play if a man or men committed a supposedly ‘misogynistic’ crime against a TW – a man. It could be misandry. It could never be misogyny.
In the past, most women had a lack of dislike of those transsexuals who actually had surgery, but that ti me has passed and now, all TW are looked at in the same light, largely because autogynephilia and fetish is at the root of ALL TW, whether or not he has suffered from so-called ‘gender dysphoria’.
Most women and, increasingly, younger women and girls, too, are turning away from ‘just be kind’ and telling it like it is. Most women do not want men in our private spaces, sports, etc. Most girls do not boys in the school toilets (did you not draw up school provisions to impose this very thing, DH?). Most of us have very powerful antennae/instincts that tell us when we might be in danger, and they are now working overtime. The truth is that most of us of the female sex find these men repellent and repulsive – and, yes, frightening. This is a male problem. Males need to face up to it and fix it.
I don’t care a fig for what men say on this issue because they are not the ones who, historically, have been a vulnerable group in society based entirely on their sex. Women, historically, have not sought to eliminate men from all human discourse and society, education and the law. We do not hate men in any way that even resembles the ways in which so many men appear to hate us. However, we have reached the end of our tether. They can just stop pretending that they are women. They are not and never can be – ever.
Try telling a black person whose ancestors suffered from the slave trade that you, a white person, male or female, can become a transracial, and see how far that will take you. ‘Womanface’ is equally abhorrent and appropriating as ‘blackface’. Anyone who does not see that is either a total fool or captured to the point of imbecility – or sick. The harm to women and girls and to chill,dren from the eugenics programme is so beyond the pale as to be a scandal and an illegality, as well as an immorality, that is totally unforgivable.
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I agree that most women do have an antennae for sensing danger or something not quite right. Its just something we have to live with being physically weaker. I’m not sure that men get that. Also sadly there are a group of men, mainly older who seem to think that because feminism disrupted the status quo back in the 70s we deserve this current problem because we brought it upon ourselves. I suppose its confusing for them to see groups of women supporting Drag Queens and the whole trans issue. Well its confusing for me too!
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I pretty much agree with you on every point, Lorna, though being a male, I imagine my agreement doesn’t matter to you much. Women are at the bottom of the totem pole in every society in the world, and seemingly for no other reason than that they are weaker than men overall. There is even a class of men that purposely seeks them out to murder them (serial killers). Sometimes it seems that there isn’t a man on the planet who doesn’t feel that it is his birthright to murder or rape a woman before he dies. It’s a horrifying situation.
I’m responding to you, Pauline, because you mentioned drag queens. I have come to see all drag queens as being misogynists — men who are contemptuous of women and so portray them in ridiculous ways. Like Lorna, I see drag shows and minstrel shows in the same light. I see a trans element in drag queens — wannabe trans women who don’t go the full route because they are essentially performers and don’t want to “perform” 24 hours a day, as trans women do. Like you, I find it bizarre that so many women (white women mostly) find drag queens to be somehow acceptable. Perhaps it is because drag queens are, in their own way, so pitiful that women don’t feel threatened by them.
I have a Substack under the name Perry James. You and Lorna can read my article about drag queens here (if you care to): perryjames.substack.com
Perry is my middle name, and James is my mother’s maiden name.
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