Poll shows Rowling’s views on gender backed by more Scots
More Scots say they broadly agree with JK Rowling over transgender issues than disagree, a new poll for The Scotsman has found.
The poll by Savanta found 41 per cent of respondents said they tended to agree with the author's views more than they disagreed, while 23 per cent said the opposite.
More men said they broadly agreed (50 per cent) than women (33 per cent), while older people were also substantially more likely to agree.
Ms Rowling has received both support and criticism over her views on transgender issues and their impact on women’s sex-based rights and female-only spaces.
Last month, she hit the headlines after criticising controversial new hate crime laws in Scotland. In a series of posts on social media, she listed a number of transgender women, including violent criminals and activists, and insisted “every last one” is 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."
Police Scotland later confirmed her posts were
“not assessed to be criminal” and no further action would be taken.
The new poll asked respondents to pick a statement that was closest to their view based on what they had seen or heard of Ms Rowling’s views.
A total of 41 per cent said they tended to agree with Ms Rowling’s views more than they disagreed, while 17 per cent said they did not know whether they agreed or disagreed.
Meanwhile, 23 per cent said they tended to disagree with Ms Rowling’s views more than they agreed, and 19 per cent said they did not know what the author’s views were.
Women were more likely to say they did not know whether they agreed or disagreed (20 per cent, compared to 15 per cent of men), or that they did not know what Ms Rowling’s views were (23 per cent, compared to 15 per cent of men).
A total of 24 per cent of women said they disagreed more than agreed with Ms Rowling, compared with 21 per cent of men.
Elsewhere, those aged 55 or over were more than twice as likely to say they tended to agree with Ms Rowling than those aged between 16 and 34 (55 per cent compared to 23 per cent).
The Harry Potter author previously said she was not concerned about any backlash over her views affecting her legacy.
She told a podcast: “I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy. What a pompous way to live your life, walking around thinking, what will my legacy be? Whatever, I’ll be dead. I care about now. I care about the living.”
Last month, she criticised former first minister Humza Yousaf amid the row over the Hate Crime Act, accusing him of “bumbling incompetence and illiberal authoritarianism”.
Savanta interviewed 1,080 Scottish adults aged 16+ online between 3-8 May. Data was weighted to be demographically representative of Scottish adults by age, gender, region and past voting behaviour.