JK Rowling Warns Scotland Gender Identity Bill Will ‘Harm The Most Vulnerable Women’

The "Harry Potter" author denounced a proposed Scottish bill that would make amendments to a gender reform measure.

J.K. Rowling voiced her opposition to Scotland's proposed Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which is set to amend the process in which citizens can change their gender. The best selling author believed that the bill would "harm the most vulnerable women in society."

According to the Christian Post, the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which was introduced by Scotland's legislators on Wednesday, outlines the "the process to get a gender recognition certificate," a document that "legally recognises that a person's gender is not the gender they were assigned at birth, but is their 'acquired gender.'"

The proposed Scotland gender identity bill would mandate the Registrar General for Scotland to provide any resident of the country who is at least 16 years old and "has lived in the acquired gender throughout the period of three months ending with the day on which the application is made." The certificate references no hormone or surgical treatments and/or the biological differences between men and women.

Moreover, the proposed Scotland gender identity bill amends "who can apply for a GRC," "how to make an application," and "the grounds on which an application is to be granted." The proposed bill also defines "different types" of gender recognition certificates that would "be used in different circumstances," including "full" certificates and "interim" certificates. It also outlines a policy that regulates "appeals and reviews of decisions to grant (or not grant) GRCs" and a process for the "revocation of a GRC and offenses in connection with false information being provided in an application."

In an overview of the proposed measure on the Scottish Parliament's website, lawmakers described the current system for getting a gender recognition certificate as "intrusive" and said that the issuance of such documents "can take a long time." Such factors have made a "negative impact on applicants," the Scottish government said.

The Scottish government added that currently, people are required a medical diagnosis of "gender dysphoria" as well as "supporting evidence" to go along with one's application for the certificate. They also lamented that people aged 16 and 17 are not allowed to apply for the certificate, resulting in a "further negative impact on trans young people."

Australian "radical feminist" Angie Harris took to Twitter to underscore the implications of the Scotland gender identity bill, arguing that "Men are self identifying in to female sexual assault recovery services. Say no, and they take you to the Human Rights Tribunal. Women self exclude. Groups implode. No more services for our most vulnerable women."

Rowling retweeted Harris, adding that "the law [First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon is] trying to pass in Scotland will harm the most vulnerable women in society: those seeking help after male violence/rape and incarcerated women." The "Harry Potter" author also highlighted how women who are imprisoned are far more likely to have suffered from abuse.

Rowling, who critics label as described as a "Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF)," has long been vocal about her opposition to the LGBT agenda. In 2020, she wrote an essay about a similar legislation in the U.S. that would allow men to get a certificate to be recognized as "a woman in the sight of the law."