Nicola Sturgeon has indicated she could debate trans rights issues with JK Rowling, though the former first minister said she doubted whether the Harry Potter author would agree to such a discussion.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Sturgeon was asked if she would debate the Harry Potter author.
“I will debate with many people, but I don’t think JK Rowling would be willing to do that," she said, adding: “But who knows, maybe she would.”
Rowling has been a vocal critic of Sturgeon and the gender reforms she sought to introduce when in office, famously wearing a T-shirt labelling the former first minister a “destroyer of women’s rights”.
Sturgeon was first minister when the Scottish Government introduced legislation – which was later blocked by Westminster – that would have given transgender people the right to self-identify into their preferred gender.
Despite the row that ensued over the policy, Sturgeon said she would “always stand up for rights, for equality, for minority rights”.
Sturgeon told BBC Breakfast that she accepted there were “many, many people” who disagreed with her on gender reforms and that “probably the majority” of her opponents “come from a genuine place”.
But she added: “There are also people – and I don’t know how anybody can deny this – forces on the far right who have weaponised this issue, who want to use the trans issue to push back on rights more generally, whether those are gay rights, minority rights, women’s rights actually.”
In a post on X on Tuesday, Rowling said she would be reviewing Sturgeon's new memoir, titled Frankly, describing the book as “the memoir of Scotland’s (checks notes) most persecuted, misunderstood, self-critical, open-to-debate, feminist-to-her-fingertips ex-first minister”.
Sources used: "PA Media", "GBNews" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
