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🏳️‍🌈 beth.lgbt

J. K. Rowling

Most well known for writing the Harry Potter children’s fantasy series. Dec 19, 2019 was the first, and largest, wave that Rowling made in the anti-transgender activism space, publicly tweeting support for Maya Forstater who lost her employment due to gender-critical views.

Since then, she has gradually become more active as a gender-critical platformer1.

Transphobia

Transphobia is the “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against transgender people.”

For the more complete definition of transphobia, see Transphobia.

Vox published a long op-ed detailing many of the opinions that Rowling holds that are transphobic2. Here is a small selection:

  1. June 2020: Rowling mocked the trans-inclusive phrase “people who menstruate” and followed up with a thread that implied that trans activists are “erasing the concept of [biological] sex” and along with it “the lived reality of women.”

    Why this is transphobic: She is saying “people who menstruate” (which includes cisgender women, transgender men, non-binary people, and excludes anyone who doesn’t currently or has never mensutrated) should instead be replaced with the word “woman”, which excludes those other gender identities. She is against language that is more inclusive to transgender people.

  2. She writes a 3,600-word manifesto regarding “the new trans activism” filled with myths and false transphobic stereotypes, including, for example, that trans women are dangerous, and that the movement “offers cover to predators”. She also repeatedly amplifies the myth that teens are transitioning as part of a social trend, based on debunked studies.

    Why this is transphobic: She is spreading the kind of misinformation and fear that is used to justify hatred and oppression of transgender people.

  3. December 2021: Rowling shares an article that mocks the Scottish police for recognizing transgender identity. In a tweet parodying 1984, she writes “The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is A Woman.”

    Why this is transphobic: She is again railing against transgender inclusion, and mocking the idea of a woman with a penis (transgender women are women, and may have penises.)

  4. Rowling says that allowing trans women equal access to women’s spaces will erode current legal rights for cisgender women and girls.

    Why this is transphobic: She is spreading misinformation about transgender women. Cisgender women and girls do not have a right to exclude other women (including transgender women) from women’s spaces. An alternative reading is that male people or men should not be in women’s spaces, and it is also transphobic to treat trans women as men or male.

  5. She explicitly criticized the Gender Recognition Reform Bill in Scotland, which would make it easier for transgender people to self-identify on legal documents. It passed by a majority of 86 to 39.

    Why this is transphobic: She railed against a bill that makes transgender peoples’ lives easier.

  6. December 2022: Rowling personally funds a new domestic violence support center in Scotland which explicitly excludes trans women.

    Why this is transphobic: She has intentionally created a space with the intent of excluding trans women.

Twitter Follows

The following scan from WhatIsAWomanBot shows that approximately 1 in 3 users that Rowling follows on Twitter are transphobic.

Here is a selection of tweets from these accounts, that would be showing up on Rowling’s timeline:

References

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_J._K._Rowling#Transgender_rights ↩

  2. https://www.vox.com/culture/23622610/jk-rowling-transphobic-statements-timeline-history-controversy ↩