‘I have no animosity towards JK Rowling – I don’t think it’s the same in reverse’

Read time: 6 mins

In brief…

• Nicola Sturgeon tells Emily Maitlis about the response to Scotland’s Gender Reform Bill in 2023, and how she was unaware how “polarised” the debate on trans rights had become.
• Sturgeon denies this was a personal “obsession”, and says high-profile individuals such as JK Rowling had every right to disagree with her, due to her political role at the time.
• She says she has always been, and will continue to be, a supporter of women's rights and trans rights – insisting protecting both groups is not an incompatible goal.

What’s the story?

“Nicola Sturgeon: Destroyer of women’s rights.”

That’s what JK Rowling wore on a t-shirt, which the author posted on social media in 2022, after Scotland attempted to pass a Gender Recognition Reform bill in an attempt to make legally transitioning an easier process.

The bill, which was approved in the Scottish parliament, was ultimately blocked by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government.

“When we embarked on this proposed change, it was back in 2016, and it wasn't controversial,” Sturgeon tells Emily Maitlis.

“At the time, there was total cross party consensus.”

Sturgeon says what Scotland attempted was not a “groundbreaking experiment” – with identical legislation already in place in the Republic of Ireland and many other countries.

But, Sturgeon admits, she was slow to recognise the intensity of the concerns about the legislation, because following other countries didn’t feel “controversial”. These “concerns”, from people such as Rowling, she adds were “unfounded” and could be easily answered.

“I didn't properly engage,” she says.

“When I realised it had become as divisive and polarised as it had, I should have paused and seen if we could find a different way of achieving the same outcome.”

Rowling’s hatred for Sturgeon continues to this day, with the Harry Potter author posting a damning critique of the former First Minister’s book, Frankly, on her personal blog after its release this year.

Despite this, Sturgeon says she harbours no ill will towards Rowling, and believes Rowling has "every right" to disagree with her views, especially due to her political position at the time.

“I don't think that's the same in reverse, but I am not accusing her of anything,” she says.

“If I have an issue with how JK Rowling goes about this debate, it's that there does seem – at times – to be an attempt to be gratuitously cruel to trans people and I don't think that's warranted.”

People who have campaigned against trans-inclusion and increased protection for trans people have claimed this endangers women’s rights – which Sturgeon says has made life “awful” for trans people who have been targeted amid the ongoing debate.

“Most people want women's rights to be protected and want trans rights to be protected,” Sturgeon says.

“It's really difficult for trans people to live in any kind of sense of peace, or dignity, right now. I don't believe the majority of people want that to be the case.

“The one thing I believe really strongly, and I'm not going to just kind of change my mind on this, is that women's rights and trans rights are not irreconcilable.

But JK Rowling isn't the only author to have taken aim at Sturgeon. Irvine Welsh accused her of trying to force trans issues "down people's throats".

Sturgeon says she denies that characterisation entirely.

“It wasn't something that I unilaterally decided to do and to push down people's throats,” she says.

“All parties in the 2016 election used different formulations and different wording, but everyone had a commitment on this in their manifestos.

“It wasn't some obsession I had and it got too big.”

‘I don’t care about Isla Bryson’s feelings’

Throughout the later years of Sturgeon's time as First Minister, there is one name used to repeatedly condemn her support for trans rights: Isla Bryson.

Convicted of raping two women in 2016 and 2019, Bryson transitioned in 2020, before being sentenced to eight years in prison in 2023.

Due to her trans identity, she was processed by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) under its own case-by-case system for trans prisoners, and spent one day in HM Prison Cornton Vale in Stirling, which is Scotland's only women-only prison.

There, Bryson was kept separated from other prisoners before being moved to HM Prison Barlinnie in Glasgow, which holds only male prisoners.

“I don't care about Isla Bryson's feelings one iota,” Sturgeon says.

“Isla Bryson is a rapist, but I know that anything I say about Isla Bryson immediately gets transferred onto the whole trans community.

“It might make my life easier to get through an interview, but I'm not going to be part of a pile on, from some quarters, on a stigmatised and vulnerable community.”

Read more:

Nicola Sturgeon: ‘Keir Starmer is legitimising Nigel Farage'

‘With so many unsolved rapes and crimes, why are police arresting Graham Linehan?’

Will the US Supreme Court ban same-sex marriage?

‘Supreme Court ruling does not mean trans people shouldn’t have dignity and respect’

In April 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of a legal case which sought to determine the meanings of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in the 2010 Equality Act, in an ongoing campaign by a ‘gender-critical’ group to ensure trans people were still classified by the sex they were assigned at birth.

There was no ruling on whether this change would impact the rights of those with a Gender Recognition Certificate, or protections from discrimination also offered in the Equality Act.

Sturgeon believes this ruling means trans people should still be able to live their lives with “basic dignity and respect”.

“If it does, it is the job of politicians and parliaments to decide how to deal with that and how to make sure the law allows trans people to live with dignity and respect, while also protecting the rights of women,” she adds.

‘I will always stand up for trans rights and women's rights’

Looking back on her time as First Minister, especially during the debate on Scotland’s attempted gender reforms, Sturgeon says will “analyse and process” on the things she could have done differently, and better – but remains a firm supporter of both trans, and women’s rights.

“I didn't come into politics to make my own life a little bit easier, and dump all over a stigmatised minority,” she says.

“I will always stand up for trans rights. I will always stand up for women's rights. And while I've got breath in my body, I'll argue that these two things are not in the tension that some people think.

“I’ve fought for women's rights all my life and will continue to do so, a world in which women's rights are not just protected but enhanced, that we fend off some of the real threats to women's rights that are all around us right now, and that trans people get to live with respect and dignity in a way that they often haven’t.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.