Socialist Scotland: Scottish Hate Crime Bill to Criminalise "Misgendering"

And here we thought it was only England that had going full blown "woke."

Scots who pronounce that transgender women are not actually women will face criminal prosecution under the impending hate crime legislation if a court finds that their speech “stirred up hatred”, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said.

On Monday, Mr Yousaf tried to defend the draconian speech restrictions, telling the Scottish Parliament’s justice committee that expressing the idea that “a trans woman is not a woman” is not “in itself is not going to lead to a prosecution under this legislation”.

The proposed Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, which “seeks to modernise and extend existing hate crime legislation”, would, however, criminalise the statement if it is found to have been accompanied by anything falling under the vague “stirring up hatred” classification.

“It may well be offensive to some, it may be controversial to others, it may be absolutely the mainstream view for many others, but simply expressing the opinion is not in itself criminal,” Yousaf said in comments reported by The Times.

“If the behaviour that accompanies that expression is proven beyond reasonable doubt that it was intended to stir up hatred and was also threatening or abusive, then, of course, you may well face some criminal sanction,” he said.

The director of For Women Scotland, Susan Smith warned that the legislation would serve to reduce freedom of speech in the country, saying: “When people start throwing around accusations of hate, especially when those people are perceived to have an authority, we think there will be a chilling effect.”

“The stirring up part of this bill has the potential to make life very much harder for a number of people by using this law as a weapon,” Smith warned.

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