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Transgender

J.K. Rowling Casts Transphobic Tweets Again

Photo by Lev Radin/Shutterstock

The Harry Potter author is objecting to a new police policy in Scotland.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

December 13 2021 5:41 PM EST

May 26 2023 3:25 PM EST

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J.K. Rowling is receiving a new barrage of criticism after sharing an article that objected to Police Scotland's announced policy of classifying rapists as women if they identify as such.

The policy was reported Sunday, and the Scottish government is considering various pieces of transgender-inclusive legislation, such as ending medical testing for those who want to change their gender marker on legal documents. Rowling, best known as the author of the Harry Potter books, tweeted an article with a headline that called the rape policy an "absurdity," and she used language invoking George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.

\u201cWar is Peace.\nFreedom is Slavery.\nIgnorance is Strength.\nThe Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman.\nhttps://t.co/SyxFnnboM1\u201d
— J.K. Rowling (@J.K. Rowling) 1639332414

Rowling has made many anti-trans comments previously, claiming to love trans people but also essentially questioning their existence. She has made statements that were supportive of trans-exclusionary radical feminists, a.k.a. TERFs, and defended a woman who lost her job because of anti-trans rhetoric. She has painted trans rights as somehow in conflict with women's rights, and some conservative politicians have used Rowling's comments to support their transphobic positions.

Many social media users are speaking out against Rowling's latest statements.

\u201cjust a quick reminder @jk_rowling\n\ntrans people are PEOPLE\n\nI know it may be hard for you to believe, but underneath all of the labels you fight so hard to control,\n\nthose are actual human beings with lives and feelings and experiences just as important and profound as your own.\u201d
— MiltonTPike1 (@MiltonTPike1) 1639431326

\u201cTW: transphobia\n\nEven if a trans woman is a perfectly law-abiding citizen, I doubt JK Rowling would accept that she is a woman, so all she is really doing here is using her Twitter account to call trans women "penised individuals."\n\nNo wonder she loved Magdalen Berns.\u201d
— @aidancomerford@mas.to (@@aidancomerford@mas.to) 1639356109

\u201c@DailyMailUK authors do like to communicate. it\u2019s sad tho that @jk_rowling uses twitter to communicate hatred, esp about people and things that don\u2019t even affect her (except in her narrow mind)\u201d
— Daily Mail U.K. (@Daily Mail U.K.) 1639404703

\u201cRowling pouring her garbage transphobia all over Twitter right before the trailer for her new movie, and I'm sure all her fans will be absolutely fine with celebrating and defending her work like nothing happened and trans people can just go fuck themselves and die in silence.\u201d
— Charlotte: Agent of Asgard (@Charlotte: Agent of Asgard) 1639409865

\u201cAnother day, on twitter, yet more proof JK Rowling was Petunia Dursley all along...\u201d
— Summer Whitesell (@Summer Whitesell) 1639426021

Rowling's tweet comes as the trailer has dropped for the film Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, with a screenplay co-written by Rowling. The film takes place in the early life of the future Hogwarts headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, whom Rowling has described as gay. The movie will be out in April.