JK Rowling responds to criticism of transgender comments

J.K. Rowling wrote an essay in response criticism She recently received a number of transactional tweets. The Harry Potter author published the 3,600-word essay on her website on Wednesday.

Rowling explained why she was “concerned about the new transactivism” and discussed her personal story as a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault.

“I am not mentioning these things now to gain sympathy,” she wrote, “but out of solidarity with the large number of women who have a story like mine who have been blurred as bigots because of concerns about single people. ” Sex rooms. “

Rowling went into the change process through which a man can legally become a woman as part of their concerns.

“A man who doesn’t want to have surgery or take hormones can now get a gender recognition certificate and be a woman before the law,” she wrote.

Rowling also discussed a bill that was submitted to the Scottish government to help transsexuals obtain a gender recognition certificate.

While I wanted “trans women to be safe,” Rowling wrote, “at the same time, I don’t want born girls and women to be less safe if you open bathroom and dressing room doors to any man who believes or believes.” feels like a woman – and as I said before, gender confirmation certificates can now be issued without the need for surgery or hormones – then open the door to all men who want to get in. That is the simple truth. “”

She wrote that she spent much of Saturday “in a very dark place in my head when memories of a severe sexual assault I suffered in my twenties were repeated in a loop. This attack occurred at a time and in a place where I was vulnerable and a man took this opportunity. I couldn’t rule out these memories and it was hard for me to contain my anger and disappointment at how I think my government would be quick and easy with the security of Women and girls plays. “

Rowling, an ex-teacher, said that her interest in education, protection, and the huge increase in the number of girls switching in the UK, citing a 4400% increase in the UK, was also a reason for her comments.

She also described how she felt “mentally asexual” in her own youth and that she “wondered if I would have tried to make a transition if I was born 30 years later. The charm, the femininity escaping would have been huge. As a teenager, I had severe OCD, and if I had found community and sympathy online that I couldn’t find in my immediate environment, I could have been persuaded to transform myself into a son whom my father had frankly said he would have preferred to do. “

In response, many transactivists have continued to criticize Rowling for using their platform to complicate the lives of trans men and women.

“JK Rowling’s comments not only undermine the core values ​​of the Harry Potter series – they are absolutely dangerous,” wrote Elliott Kozuch of the Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization. “In 2019, at least 26 transgender and gender-neutral people were killed in the United States. The majority of these deaths were black transgender women.”

Others were upset about citing a controversial 2018 study by Lisa Littman, a study that many researchers and transactivists have criticized.

Andrew James Carter, CEO of Podium – a social network that aims to eradicate misinformation – has put together a thread that tries to add Rowling’s claims to a context that Carter calls “half-truths and transphobic whistles”.

“Abuse is unfortunate,” said Carter, “but he doesn’t license transphobia. Trans people get this abuse (and far worse) every day – even more so according to Rowling’s recent tweets.”

GLAAD, the media guard, formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, asked brands and companies related to Rowling to review the comments.

“JK Rowling has been proactively spreading misinformation and declining to speak to LGBTQ executives who are only engaging in dialogue and want to inform them of the negative effects of these tweets,” said Anthony Ramos, GLAAD’s chief executive for celebrities, in a statement sent to Variety. “A generation that grew up in JK’s own books on embracing differences now makes their voices loud and clear. If they refuse to engage in dialogue, companies that work with them should let the community know where they are. Studios, networks and brands associated with JK Rowling owes it to its transgender employees and consumers to speak out against their inaccurate and hurtful comments. ”

Rowling’s tweets began on Saturday with a comment on an article entitled “Creating an Equal Post-COVID-19 World for Menstrual Men”.

“‘Menstruating.’ I’m sure there was a word for these people earlier. Somebody’s helping me. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud? “She wrote. This was termed transphobic and the answers accused Rowling of being a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF).

Last December, Rowling also received a backlash for support from Maya Forstater, a researcher who lost her job after tweeting that a person couldn’t change their biological gender.

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Eddie Redmayne are cast members of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, film franchises based on Rowling’s books and publicly concerned with Rowling’s comments.

“Transgender women are women,” Radcliffe wrote in a blog post Monday. “Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and contradicts all advice from professional health care organizations who have far more expertise on the subject than Jo or I.”

In a statement to Variety on Tuesday, Redmayne said: “Respect for transgender people remains a cultural imperative, and over the years I have tried to keep learning.”

Watson tweeted on Wednesday: “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being interviewed or saying that they are not who they say they are are.”