Are you listening, First Minister? Public backs JK on gender, reveals poll
MORE of the Scottish public agree with Harry Potter author JK Rowling over gender issues than disagree, a poll has found.
A survey shows 41 per cent of Scottish respondents tend to agree with the author and women’s rights campaigner, who asserts that sex is determined by biology.
Last month Ms Rowling spearheaded opposition to Humza Yousaf’s hate crime laws amid fears the legislation could criminalise women speaking out about dangerous male-born offenders.
In a thread on social media platform X, she listed several transgender offenders and insisted ‘every last one’ was a man. She said: ‘Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.’
Ms Rowling has also tirelessly supported the campaign to uphold women’s rights in the face of the SNP’s shambolic gender swap reforms, which were later blocked by the UK Government using section 35 of the Scotland Act.
Now, according to the polling by Savanta, 41 per cent of Scottish respondents tend to agree with the author and only 23 per cent said the opposite.
Thirty six per cent did not have a view either way. Meanwhile half of men agree with Ms Rowling’s stance, as do a third of women.
Commenting on the results, Nationalist MP Joanna Cherry said: ‘This reflects my experience talking to voters. Most people support equal rights for all including trans people but they are not happy with the implications of self-ID for the rights of women and girls to dignity, safety and privacy.’
The survey asked respondents to pick a statement that was closest to their own views on gender, based on what they had seen or heard of Ms Rowling’s statements, said The Scotsman.
Older people were more likely to share her approach to gender issues, with the over-55s more than twice as likely to say they tended to agree with the Edinburgh-based author than those aged between 16 and 34.
Fifty-five per cent of the former category tended to agree, against 23 per cent of respondents in the younger age group.
Ms Rowling has also been a vocal supporter of the Cass review which raised serious concerns about transgender treatments south of the Border.
Turning her fire on trans ideologues, she wrote: ‘The consequences of this scandal will play out for decades. You cheered it on. You did all you could to impede and misrepresent research. You tried to bully people out of their jobs. Young people have been experimented on, left infertile and in pain.’
In April, she accused Mr Yousaf of ‘bumbling incompetence and illiberal authoritarianism’ over his hate crime laws.
Savanta spoke to 1,080 Scottish adults between May 3-8.
‘People not happy with implications of self-ID’