Nicola Sturgeon hints she could debate JK Rowling over trans rights controversy

By Katrine Bussey, PA Scotland political editor

Nicola Sturgeon has indicated she could debate trans rights issues with JK Rowling, but said she did not think the Harry Potter author – who has been a vocal critic of hers – would take part in such a clash.

Rowling has been a high-profile opponent of the gender reforms Ms Sturgeon sought to introduce, famously wearing a T-shirt branding the former first minister a “destroyer of women’s rights”.

She was first minister when the Scottish Government introduced legislation – which was eventually blocked by Westminster – which would have given transgender people the right to self-identify into their preferred gender.

Despite the furious row that erupted over the controversial policy – which critics claimed would allow biological men to access women-only spaces – Ms Sturgeon declared she would “always stand up for rights, for equality, for minority rights”.

She said she believes “forces on the far right” have sought to “weaponise” the issue to seek to “push back on rights more generally, whether those are gay rights, minority rights, women’s rights actually”.

Ms Sturgeon spoke out on the issue as she appeared on BBC Breakfast as her memoir, titled Frankly, was published.

She accepted there are “many, many people” who disagreed with her on the issue of gender reforms, adding “probably the majority” of her opponents “come from a genuine place”.

But Ms Sturgeon said: “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.”

She told how she had come in for “probably the most horrific abuse on this issue” than on any other topic, with the former first minister adding some of the abuse had been “deeply misogynistic”.

She added: “There’s some people in this debate who definitely seem to spend a lot more time thinking about me than I spend thinking about them.

“But I will always stand up for rights, for equality, for minority rights.

“There have been many times in my political career when I would have made my own life easier by staying silent on some things.

“I don’t want to be that person, I want to stand up for things I believe in.”

Asked if she would debate Rowling, Ms Sturgeon said: “I will debate with many people, but I don’t think JK Rowling would be willing to do that.

“But who knows, maybe she would.”

She added: “One of the things my critics cannot say about me is I don’t debate with people – I have probably done more debates than any other leader in the UK, I will debate with anybody.”

Rowling, meanwhile, said on X – formerly known as Twitter – that she would review Frankly on her website, describing the book as being “the memoir of Scotland’s (checks notes) most persecuted, misunderstood, self-critical, open-to-debate, feminist-to-her-fingertips ex-first minister”.