A hate crime law was meant to protect against prejudice. It ended up sowing further division

A ferocious debate that has raged across social media, legal chambers, police stations and Scottish politics also played out on the streets of Edinburgh this weekend.

A ferocious debate that has raged across social media, legal chambers, police stations and Scottish politics also played out on the streets of Edinburgh this weekend. Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act came into force last week, a contentious law that expands existing legislation to include transgender identity as a protected characteristic from hate crimes. “We must remember why this Bill is so necessary, every day in Scotland around 18 hate crimes are committed,” Scottish First Minister – then Justice Secretary – Humza Yousaf said when the act was passed back in 2021, citing the government’s estimated figures at the time. “Through the passing of this landmark Bill, Parliament has sent a strong and clear message to victims, perpetrators, communities and to wider society that offences motivated by prejudice will be treated seriously and will not be tolerated,” he said. Supporters of the law believe it will provide much-needed protection for the marginalized and regularly vilified transgender community, while critics say it will stifle free speech and even threaten hard-won women’s rights. The two sides are at loggerheads, online and offline. In the first week of the law’s enactment, a feminist group, “Let Women Speak,” organized a rally against the legislation in Scotland’s capital on Saturday. It was met by a counterprotest from a small band of transgender rights campaigners, Reuters video showed. The two sides were kept apart by metal barriers as they traded noisy insults, amid a heavy police presence.