LOIS MCLATCHIE: The world’s bestselling author has turned from hero to villain faster than the tap of a wand, or the posting of a tweet. In defending the existence of biological womanhood JK Rowling ignited condemnation, with many claiming to be throwing her books, along with her career and reputation, on a proverbial bonfire.

On Sunday, in response to remarks made by Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour’s shadow environment minister at Westminster, she defended her recent online remarks, which actors and agencies had claimed were “hateful” and “cruel” towards transgender people. She explained: “My primary worry is the risks to vulnerable women. As everyone knows, I’m no longer reliant on communal facilities, nor am I likely to be imprisoned or need a women’s refuge any time soon. I’m not arguing for the privileged, but the powerless.”

Under a proposed change to Scottish law, Rowling might be wrong. The SNP’s Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, which is before Holyrood, criminalises spoken and written words likely to “stir up hatred”, even unintentionally, towards people based on certain characteristics, including transgender identity, with a maximum penalty of seven years in jail. Discrimination based on “sex” is not included.

Rowling claims that “it isn’t hate to speak the truth”, but GLAAD (the US media-monitoring organisation founded by LGBT people), and many others, have indicated that they consider her words “abusive”, thus arguably meeting the threshold for the “inflammatory material” that could be prosecuted under the bill. With the term “abusive” being subjective, there is no telling where the boundaries of this law begin and end, nor where a judge would side.

The bill purports to abolish Scotland’s defunct “blasphemy law”, which once censored anyone bold enough to criticise the Church. By inverting the law and silencing legitimate discussions on gender, feminism and biology, the bill would, in effect, condemn all who challenge the popular “faith” of our day, as dictated by the Church of Woke.

Other countries, such as Pakistan, have chilling laws that have led to women spending years on death row for divergent opinions and beliefs. Elsewhere in Europe, simple tweets about Christian doctrine have sparked police investigations into the lives of grandmothers. As the match is struck on Rowling’s lifetime accomplishments, MSPs may want to consider carefully whether they could ever unintentionally offend by tweet before passing such sweeping measures.