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JK Rowling’s pro-trans nemesis Nicola Sturgeon just came out as queer
Photo #6526 August 15 2025, 08:15

Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says she wouldn’t rule out falling in love with a woman.

The first woman ever to lead the Scottish National Party (SNP) and to be elected first minister made headlines this week for the revelation in her newly published memoir, Frankly, that she has “never considered sexuality, my own included, to be binary.”

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J.K. Rowling continues her crusade against transgender women with attack on Scottish minister

Sturgeon, who announced her separation from former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell earlier this year, further clarified the statement during a recent interview with Times Radio. Asked whether she meant she could fall for a man or a woman, Sturgeon replied, “I believe that, yes.”

“I’m not making any great revelation. I’m not sticking any labels on it. I guess what I’m saying is that’s how I see the world,” she added, according to the Daily Mail. “And it would have been dishonest to say it’s how I see the world in relation to other people, but not in relation to myself. I don’t think sexuality is binary.”

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As first minister, Sturgeon pushed for reforms to the U.K.’s 2004 Gender Recognition Act that would have made it easier for transgender people — including those as young as 16 — to change their gender legally. Introduced in March 2022, Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill would have done away with the original law’s requirement that trans people present a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria to change their gender legally.

Opponents of the bill argued, without evidence, that it would endanger cisgender women and girls by allowing sexual predators to self-identify as women in order to access women’s bathrooms, changing rooms, and shelters. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling was perhaps the most prominent critic of the reforms, attacking both the bill and Sturgeon on X. In October 2022, Rowling posted a photo of herself wearing a t-shirt that accused Sturgeon, who campaigned as a feminist, of being a “destroyer of women’s rights.”

I stand in solidarity with @ForWomenScot and all women protesting and speaking outside the Scottish parliament. #NoToSelfID pic.twitter.com/5vZNaZu13H

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 6, 2022

Sturgeon directly responded to Rowling, saying that she “fundamentally disagree[d]” that the bill would harm women.

“This is about an existing process by which people can legally change their gender, and it’s about making that process less traumatic and inhumane for trans people – one of the most stigmatized minorities in our society,” she said. “It doesn’t give trans people any more rights, nor does it take away from women any of the current existing rights under the Equality Act.”

The Scottish Parliament passed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill in December 2022. But the following January, U.K. lawmakers blocked the bill, claiming it would have a “significant impact” on protections contained in the U.K.-wide 2010 Equality Act. It marked the first time U.K. ministers have ever blocked a Scottish law.

Sturgeon addressed Rowling’s 2022 t-shirt “stunt” in her memoir. According to U.K. LGBTQ+ outlet PinkNews, she writes in Frankly that Rowling’s involvement marked a turning point after which “rational debate” over the reform bill became impossible.

“Any hope of finding common ground disappeared,” Sturgeon writes. “It seems blindingly obvious that a stunt like that was never going to elevate the debate or illuminate the issues at the heart of it.”

True to form, Rowling posted a snide response to reports of the quotes from Sturgeon’s memoir on Monday, offering to “review” the book free of charge for British newspapers as long as they agreed not to “edit out the swear words.” The following day, she posted that followers should watch for her review of Frankly on her website.

As both The Times and the Daily Mail report, in her memoir, Sturgeon also addressed persistent rumors that she had an affair with French diplomat Catherine Colonna, calling the rumors “a blatant lie” and noting the “blatant homophobia at the heart of the ‘story.’”

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