Scroll To Top
News

Even J.K. Rowling's family didn't want to hear her transphobia: 'Begging me not to speak'

grumpy transphobe JK Rowling UK premiere Fantastic Beasts Crimes of Grindelwald
TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images

Tired of hearing Rowling's bigotry? The author recently admitted that her loved ones were too.

Support The Advocate
LGBTQ+ stories are more important than ever. Join us in fighting for our future. Support our journalism.

Even those closest to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling seemingly take issue with her transphobic views.

After years of directing hatred at the transgender community, the writer recently revealed that she almost never spoke about the topics of sex and gender at all. She said in a new book of essays,The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, previewed through The Times (UK), that she initially stayed quiet “because people around me, including some I love, were begging me not to speak.”

Rowling said that she "watched from the sidelines" as groups across the United Kingdom rallied against LGBTQ+ rights, feeling "guilt like a chronic pain" for not joining.

"Ultimately, I spoke up because I’d have felt ashamed for the rest of my days if I hadn’t," she wrote. "If I feel any regret at all, it’s that I didn’t speak far sooner."

Rowling's "speaking out" most recently involved both mocking hate-crime laws covering LGBTQ+ people and engaging in Holocaust denial. She threw a tantrum online in April after Scotland passed a new hate-crime law encompassing transgender people, going out of her way to list 10 uninvolved trans women and claiming that they "aren't women at all, but men, every last one of them." She then dared Scottish law enforcement to arrest her.

Earlier in March, Rowling called the historically verified fact that the Nazis persecuted transgender people and burned literature about sex and gender a "fever dream." She later doubled down on her misinformation, despite being presented with contrary evidence.

Rowling also went after Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson last month for their support of transgender rights, saying she will "not forgive" them and accusing them of betraying her. That prompted Radcliffe to respond, issuing a statement in which he said he "will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ+ people."

30 Years of Out100Out / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff & Wayne Brady

From our Sponsors

Most Popular

Latest Stories

Ryan Adamczeski

Ryan is a reporter at The Advocate, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She first became a published author at the age of 15 with her YA novel "Someone Else's Stars," and is now a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics, and the IRE, the society of Investigative Reporters and Editors. In her free time, Ryan likes watching New York Rangers hockey, listening to the Beach Boys, and practicing witchcraft.
Ryan is a reporter at The Advocate, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She first became a published author at the age of 15 with her YA novel "Someone Else's Stars," and is now a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics, and the IRE, the society of Investigative Reporters and Editors. In her free time, Ryan likes watching New York Rangers hockey, listening to the Beach Boys, and practicing witchcraft.