Read on Twitter
1./ A thread about a sinister threat to free speech that should concern you if you're gay, female, a football supporter, a writer, a reader or anyone who doesn't like being told what to think. The SNP's motley army of bullying legislators is on the march. https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,justice-committee-calls-for-views-on-hate-crime-bill_15463.htm
2./ This is a powerful reminder from @kmckenna63 that the threat from the party's culture war extremists hasn't disappeared. You'd think COVID-19 would give @NicolaSturgeon enough to do but her ministers are gearing up for a big and pointless battle
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18454205.opinion-kevin-mckenna-push-independence-sidelined-hate-crime-gender-recognition-fanatics/
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18454205.opinion-kevin-mckenna-push-independence-sidelined-hate-crime-gender-recognition-fanatics/
3./ @HumzaYousaf 's Hate Crime Bill will make its way through committee stage very soon. Its justified on the basis that it will repeal the ancient Blasphemy Law, which is fine by me even tho there's been no prosecution under that law since 1842. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/24/blasphemy-to-be-decriminalised-in-scottish-hate-bill
4./ But the SNP's woke leaders never saw a problem for which they couldn't create a worse solution. One of the Bill's many flaws is it extends the concept of "stirring up hatred". The guide to the Bill defines this so vaguely alarm bills should be ringing https://www.gov.scot/news/hate-crime-bill/
https://www.gov.scot/news/hate-crime-bill/
5./ If this sounds familiar it's because the SNP tried a similar goody two shoes routine a few years back before it was forced to repeal its madcap and unenforceable '....'Offensive Behaviour at Football Act' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-43405134
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-43405134
6./ You may remember this aimed to outlaw sectarian football songs, but it turned out fans liked some of their rude and tribal songs and @FACKilltheBill led a spirited campaign against fans being treated like second class citizens who had somehow invented sectarianism.
7./ But here's the thing: the notion of "stirring up hatred" was at the very heart of that bill too. Here's the Scottish govt bemoaning the Bill's defeat in Holyrood pointing out how crucial it was to stop "the stirring up of religious hatred" https://news.gov.scot/news/offensive-behaviour-act
https://news.gov.scot/news/offensive-behaviour-act
8./ If 'stirring up hatred' was a threat to football fans then rest assured it will be again if this Bill is passed. But it's not just football fans who could end up in the dock. It may make it impossible to defend LGB and women's rights in the future too. Why?
9./ Yousaf's definition of stirring up hatred is that "it contributes to a social atmosphere in which discrimination is accepted as normal". Err....so what about that thoughtful and humane essay by @jk_rowling that recently grabbed the headlines? https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
10./ Here's @glaad the LGBTQ+ campaign group's response: "JK Rowling continues to align herself with an ideology which willfully distorts facts about gender identity and people who are trans. In 2020, there is no excuse for targeting trans people." https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/glaad-responds-tweets-jk-rowling-is-no-excuse-targeting-trans-people-1297412
11./ Mmm, if Rowling's essay is "targetting trans people" is THAT the same as "contributes to a social atmosphere in which discrimination is accepted as normal"? Here's @MunroeBergdorf linking Rowling's essay to white supremacy, colonialism and genocide. https://twitter.com/MunroeBergdorf/status/1269563177131487234?s=20
https://twitter.com/MunroeBergdorf/status/1269563177131487234?s=20
12./ Is THAT the same as "contributes to a social atmosphere in which discrimination is accepted as normal"? Here's @VICEUK claiming that not only was Rowling's essay transphobic but so is some of her fiction. https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/pkeynz/jk-rowlings-transphobia-wasnt-hard-to-find-she-wrote-a-book-about-it?utm_source=stylizedembed_vice.com&utm_campaign=889qe5&site=vice
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/pkeynz/jk-rowlings-transphobia-wasnt-hard-to-find-she-wrote-a-book-about-it?utm_source=stylizedembed_vice.com&utm_campaign=889qe5&site=vice
13./ Is THAT the same as "contributes to a social atmosphere in which discrimination is accepted as normal"? Your guesses are as good as mine. Here's Katy Montgomerie's rambling essay in Medium denouncing Rowling. https://medium.com/@completelykaty/addressing-the-claims-in-jk-rowlings-justification-for-transphobia-7b6f761e8f8f
https://medium.com/@completelykaty/addressing-the-claims-in-jk-rowlings-justification-for-transphobia-7b6f761e8f8f
14./ At the end she says if campaigns to protect women's single sex spaces succeed this "will ruin tens of thousands of people’s lives including my own, and put trans people ...in danger". Does THAT contribute to a social atmosphere in which discrimination is accepted as normal?
15./ While no fool would try to take @jkrowling to court what about feminist organisations like @ForwomenScot or @GlasgowMake who are regularly denounced as "transphobic" for the "crime" of defending women and their single sex spaces in just the way J K Rowling does?
16./ And what about @ALLIANCELGB who launched in Scotland in January to protest the proposed Reform of the Gender Recognition Act and its embrace of the dangerous nonsense of 'gender identity'? We have a clue from the behaviour of SNP politician @MrJohnNicolson
17./ Recently he issued a series of late night tweets claiming @ALLIANCELGB was "sinister" and "transphobic" and urged Police Scotland to investigate. He didn't say we "contribute to a social atmosphere in which discrimination is accepted as normal" But he didn't need to.
18./ That was surely his implication, and he's hardly the only one. When a young woman was thrown out of a club in Glasgow because she was wearing a T shirt with the LGB Alliance logo, multiple LGBTQ+ organisations rushed to defend not her but the club. https://twitter.com/GlasgowAlphas/status/1220016024948559873?s=20
19./ Here's a trans activist claiming that throwing her out was a good thing because wearing that logo was like wearing a Westboro Church T-shirt that says "God hates fags" Yep really. https://medium.com/@notCursedE/lgb-alliances-transphobia-and-polo-glasgow-ejecting-transphobes-1a0b453599d7
https://medium.com/@notCursedE/lgb-alliances-transphobia-and-polo-glasgow-ejecting-transphobes-1a0b453599d7
20./ @ALLIANCELGB has faced petitions, hacking, coordinated attacks, defamatory articles, boycotts, threats and harassment. At the heart of all of these is the claim we're "transphobic". But what is that? Saying a lesbian can't have a penis is claimed by some to be transphobic.
21./ And here's an opinion piece in a science journal claiming that defending the fact the overwhelming majority of people are either biologically male or female is transphobic. It's apparently used "as the basis for the dehumanization of trans people." https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/stop-using-phony-science-to-justify-transphobia/
22./ If anyone who insists reality is real can now be accused of "stirring up hatred" the courts may soon be rather busy. The only way to stop that is to convince our politicians the Bill could be the biggest own goal in Scottish politics (since the last one).
23./ If you want to help raise awareness about the Bill or lobby against it @ALLIANCELGB would be grateful for any financial help you can spare to campaign against it. Let's stir up some resistance. https://donate.lgballiance.org.uk/
https://donate.lgballiance.org.uk/
24./ @mbmpolicy is also a brilliant organisation that's researching the implications of the bill. This is a great piece by them in @HolyroodDaily arguing the Bill will need effective scrutiny. https://www.holyrood.com/comment/view,comment-the-hate-crime-bill-must-be-properly-scrutinised_15519.htm
https://www.holyrood.com/comment/view,comment-the-hate-crime-bill-must-be-properly-scrutinised_15519.htm
