Free speech is dead in Scotland, thanks in part to transgender activists. The same must not be tolerated here in the United States.
Scotland has passed a new law creating a crime of “stirring up hatred,” which makes it illegal to say something that “a reasonable person would consider to be threatening, abusive or insulting.” Yes, if you say something that is “insulting” about someone’s age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and, of course, gender identity, you could face up to seven years in prison.
You can easily predict where this law goes. Transgender activists cry “hatred” or “transphobia” any time you acknowledge basic biological facts, such as that men can’t become women (or vice versa) or that men have biological advantages over female athletes. If it is “bigoted” to not let men who claim they are women change in women’s locker rooms, it is bigoted to say that is what you think the policy should be.
As such, Scotland has made it illegal to oppose any element of the transgender activist movement, a movement of crybullies who want to impose their anti-science (and anti-woman) agenda on every aspect of society but wail hysterically when anyone dares oppose them. Author J.K. Rowling, already the target of transgender crybullies and the legal system that enables them, has already acknowledged that she could be criminally punished for her basic belief that men can’t become women and “transgender women” are just men acting out stereotypes of women.
Free speech does not exist in other countries, including those of our European allies. In the U.S., we have the First Amendment, but that will not stop activists and their Democratic politicians from attempting to replicate exactly what Scotland is doing. Case in point: Michigan Democrats last year pushed a hate speech bill through the state House that would give anyone up to five years behind bars for making someone “feel threatened.” As we know, transgender activists “feel threatened” when they can’t invade women’s spaces or someone doesn’t call them by their made-up pronouns.
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In 2015, 51% of Democrats said they supported criminalizing hate speech in a question with the exact “stir up hatred” language as Scotland’s law. That is manifesting in actual attempts to criminalize “hate speech,” including by Michigan Democrats and by Democrats in the House of Representatives. Even with the legal protection of the First Amendment, we see activist mobs trying to erase America’s culture of free speech, as with students trying to shut down speakers they do not like.
This can’t be tolerated in the U.S. The idea that “hateful speech” that politicians and bureaucrats (and activists) don’t like should be criminal is best left to authoritarians in Europe. Transgender activists (and other activists who derive their worth from their immutable characteristics) should not be indulged, no matter how often they cry about “insulting” language.