J.K. Rowling says Sturgeon is a "destroyer of women's rights."

 

Author - J.K. Rowling

The author J. K. Rowling, has accused the Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, of being a "destroyer of women's rights."

Last Thursday, women protestors, gathered outside the Scottish Parliament to object to a move by a Holyrood committee to make it easier for transgender people to be legally recognized by their preferred gender. Although legal gender recognition has been available for the last 18 years, some have complained that the procedure is intrusive, medicalized, and bureaucratic.

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, seeks to speed up the time it would take to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), and lowers the age for obtaining one from 18 to 16. It also reduces the time that a person needs to have been living in their gender before they can apply, from two years to three months. Under the Bill, a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria would no longer be required and would remove the requirement for doctors' reports. It means that men can self-identity as women much earlier.

Some people fear that the reforms are open to abuse, particularly from predatory men. Others have expressed concern about the issue of single-sex safe spaces for women and girls such as female-only toilets, changing rooms, and women's prison's.

Critics have accused Rowling of being 'transphobic' - an allegation that she denies - because she believes that biological sex is immutable. In June 2020, Rowling tweeted: "my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it's hateful to say so." She caused outrage and received threats when she pointed out the only women menstruate. The Harry Potter, author, who's regarded as persona non grata by the 'woke', says she's been motivated to speak out because of her experience of domestic abuse and sexual assault.