Scotland has a new blasphemy law that challenges the transgender faith in the West. JK Rowling, however, used her fame to oppose the law by violating it and, for now, has won. In America, we think this can’t happen here because of the First Amendment, but I think we’re being unduly optimistic because it’s already happening here.

Scotland’s newest blasphemy law was folded into the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill 2021. Under the old English common law, it’s always been illegal to make threats of imminent action. However, the current law says that, if you become in special categories, it’s also illegal if you do things (speech or other forms of communication “that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening, abusive, or insulting” and that are intended “to stir up hatred against a group of persons.” Thus, “abuse” and “insults” are now illegal if directed at a protected class.

The familiar protected categories are “age, disability, religion or, in the case of a social or cultural group, perceived religious affiliation.” “Sexual orientation” has, I believe, been on the verboten list for a while, too. What’s new is “transgender identity.” If you say something to a self-identified “transgender” person in Scotland, a group notoriously known for hair-trigger sensibilities and paranoia, you face seven years in prison and a fine.

Not coincidentally, the same act states, “The common law offence of blasphemy [against Christianity] is abolished.” Now, there’s a new form of blasphemy against the modern state religion. (I’m indebted to Logan Lancing’s and James Lindsay’s The Queering of the American Child for clearly explaining how this religion works.)

AI rendering of JK Rowling speaking into a megaphone.

The Bible says that God is the creator of all things, including men and women. Marx, however, said that creation isn’t from God but from man, for we created the past and the present and will create the future. However, the burdens of the past and the norms of the present interfere with people’s divine creative abilities.

Marx believed capitalism—the boss stealing the workers’ creativity spark—prevented each man from his apotheosis. If people were freed from capitalism and allowed to live in a glorious collective, the economic chains would break, and their god-like natures would soar.

In America, though, the evil growing pains of the factory system soon led to an exceptionally prosperous and comfortable nation with a high degree of social mobility. Marxist theorists realized that, to create unchain humankind’s divinity, they would have to focus on social issues in the form of norms created in the past and still burdening the present.

Under this theory, humans tap into their divinity by abandoning the norms surrounding their bodies, whether biological reality or societal expectations flowing from reality. That is the most profound break with the history and norms that keep people from being free.

I saw where this was going in 2010, before transgenderism took center stage, explaining that the leftist obsession with child sexuality was to break children’s ties with their bodies so they were vulnerable to state control. That was certainly phase one, but it’s transgenderism that goes the next step, from state control, to “man the divine.”

Back in those days, when I was still writing as Bookworm, I realized something else: JK Rowling, even though she was (and is) a leftist, believed in capital “T” Truth. In 2006, even before Rowling completed the Harry Potter books, which ended with Harry Potter following in Aslan’s literary footsteps to sacrifice himself and be resurrected, I noticed that Rowling understood good versus evil, including recognizing the concept of a “just war.” She couldn’t have written so well if these were just standard literary tropes.

That’s why I wasn’t surprised when Rowling took a firm stand against transgender madness. Denying biological reality is not a capital “T” Truth for someone who wrote a modern religious parable. Instead, it’s a capital “L” Lie. Over the years, she’s repeatedly used Twitter to challenge transgender shibboleths. She tried at one time to separate sex from “gender,” but I believe she realized that bird wouldn’t fly.

In any event, with Scotland’s anti-speech and anti-reality law in place, Rowling came out swinging, daring Scotland to prosecute her for identifying men who pretend to be women and who often commit vile and violent crimes:

Fake women instantly made it plain that they were “abused” and “insulted,” which should have triggered the Act:

Technically, Rowling should have been hauled off in chains. Instead, Scotland backed down:

If JK Rowling’s posts calling out biological men—and “abusing” and “insulting” them— aren’t actionable, then nothing can be actionable in that regard. Nor does it help the transgender cause that the only person with more demands for arrest under the law than JK Rowling is Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s First Minister (although his are anti-white, race-based complaints).

It’s great to see Rowling win this battle, but it’s only one battle in a nation that has no First Amendment enshrining free speech. And here’s the kicker: If you think it can’t happen here, it can. After all, the entire Democrat establishment is prosecuting Trump for complaining about an election outcome and urging people to go to Congress to make their voices “peacefully” heard, two essential elements of core free speech because they’re both political.

Trump’s not the only one being persecuted. Jurisdictions all over America pass laws and regulations exposing conservatives to prosecution or civil actions for wrong think and wrong speech. And do I even need to get started on Big Tech’s censorious activities, even though they have effectively become the public square in America?

Looking at America’s creeping censorship, do you see any American billionaires other than Trump having Rowling’s courage when it comes to Truth?

I’ll leave you with Matt Walsh's opening monologue about Rowling’s stance and the condition of speech in America.