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J. K. Rowling

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Double, double toil and trouble.
It's a social construct
Gender
Icon gender.svg
Spectra and binaries
every time rowling tweets the first part of her obituary gets shorter and the second part gets longer
shaun_vids on how Rowling's transphobia has not only tarnished her current legacy but will likely define how the future remembers her.[1]
I would say that some of you have not understood the books. The Death Eaters claimed, 'We have been made to live in secret, and now is our time, and any who stand in our way must be destroyed. If you disagree with us, you must die.' They demonised and dehumanised those who were not like them. I am fighting what I see as a powerful, insidious, misogynistic movement, that has gained huge purchase in very influential areas of society. I do not see this particular movement as either benign or powerless.
—Rowling telling readers who thought Harry Potter was a story about finding community and fighting bigotry that it's actually about how trans people are just like Nazis[2]

Joanne Rowling, (1965–) pen name J(ust) K(idding) Rowling[note 1] and sometimes known as[3] the male writer Robert Galbraith,[note 2] is a British author, former billionaire,[4] prominent TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), and Nazi crimes denier.[5][6] Since becoming a vocal TERF, she has been known among some Harry Potter fans as "she who must not be named"- a reference to a similar moniker for Lord Voldemort,Wikipedia the main antagonist of her magnum opus.[7] She went from hailed author of the beloved Harry Potter series to a fallen hero who now spends her time concern trolling and defending transphobia as sacred and untouchable.

Harry Potter series[edit]

The logo
Harry's world says that drinking dead animal blood gives power, a satanic human sacrifice and Harry's powerful blood brings new life, demon possession is not spiritually dangerous, and that passing through fire, contacting the dead, and conversing with ghosts, others in the spirit world, and more, is normal and acceptable.
Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged, a DVD incapable of making a distinction between fantasy novels and the occult or even getting what is in said novels right.

Harry Potter, a series of seven (or so) fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling, relates the adventures of a teenage boy and his two best friends who attend a school of "witchcraft and wizardry", learning a whole range of magical skills and fighting Dark Magic and evil, and demonstrates how Alan Rickman got snubbed of another Oscar.[8]

The series portrays Good triumphing over Evil. It became a literary and critical success; nevertheless, fundamentalist religious groups condemn it as a harmful work that will seduce children into the occult and witchcraft. In the United States (the so-called "great land of liberty"), the books have become the most challenged of the 21st century.[9] Fortunately for Harry Potter fans, magic and witchcraft are only a concern if you're stuck in the 17th century or living in Africa, Indonesia, or Papua New Guinea in the present century.

The response to the books represents an excellent example of modern-day fundamentalism and would-be authoritarianism, with numerous attempts to ban the books.

Commercialisation[edit]

Avada Kedavra!

The commercialisation of the Harry Potter series by capitalist industries, especially by Hollywood and the media, has been criticised. Scholar Jack Zipes critiqued the mass commercialisation and corporate hegemony behind the Harry Potter franchise, likening such hegemony to a form of cultural imperialism. In his Adornean analysis of Harry Potter's global brand, Zipes wrote, "It must conform to the standards of exception set by the mass media and promoted by the culture industry in general. To be a phenomenon means that a person or commodity must conform to the hegemonic groups that determine what makes up a phenomenon".[10]

Themes[edit]

Scholars have subjected the Harry Potter novels to serious social scrutiny, with studies of the series' political intricacies performed by columnists, professors, and doctoral students alike. As of 2007, the catalog of the Library of Congress has recorded 21 volumes of criticism and interpretation, and at least seven master's dissertations and 17 doctoral theses have been devoted to the Harry Potter books. Seriously.[11] From the concepts of hierarchy and purity found in the relations between pure-blooded and muggle-born wizards to the struggle for House-Elf freedom, equality is a central theme of the books. It portrays dishonest and incompetent government and media and paints war as a great evil in which innocent people die. The school which Harry attends, Hogwarts, is multicultural, multiracial, and (seemingly) secular. Some critics have, however, called the books patronising and conservative,[12] or sexist and neoconservative.[13] This is odd since Rowling herself was a Labour supporter at time of writing (though she has since drifted away from the party).

Unrelated controversies include comparisons to some older book series such as the Howl's Moving Castle and Wizard's Hall (The Worst Witch is the most commented-on), which have resulted in accusations of plagiarism, or (far worse) being derivative. The works feature frumpy and disaster-prone protagonists, a couple of loyal best-friends (one book-smart and rational, one street-smart and slightly problematic), a blond and rich but cowardly and rather inefficient rival, a scary and seemingly unfair potions-teacher with hidden depths, a childish headmaster with a penchant for candy, and a big bad-guy who desires the destruction of the protagonist after their fateful first encounter. Whether this is more than just a re-hashing of tropes is a matter of debate.[14] Some fans, especially older ones, also believe that Rowling's later additions to the franchise are inferior to the original seven novels, with some outright comparing her work to that of George Lucas on the later Star Wars films,[15] though one could hardly throw a rock within geek culture without running into similar complaints regarding one particular franchise or another.

Rowling is a Christian herself. The final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, contains an epigraph from the Gospels (Matthew 6:21), Harry's parents' gravestones display another Bible quote (1 Corinthians 15:26), and Rowling also has a scene where Harry sacrifices his own life and is resurrected and then proceeds to save everybody.[note 3]

Fundamentalist hysteria[edit]

Ghosts? Potions? Divination?! The horror!

There have been dozens of legal cases concerning copyright infringement, libel, and breach of contract involving the Potterworld. Flocks of religious leaders (plus Jack Chick) have fulminated against the series.

Note, however, that many moderate and some evangelical Christians have spoken out in favour of the books. While the Catholic Church has no official position, many Cardinals oppose the books. It seems that once people make the distinction between fiction and real belief in magic, they can see past any objections to demons and witchcraft to realise what the series supports.

Islamic fundamentalists have denounced the series. The Islamic preacher Sheik Feiz Muhammad regarded the books and films as "Satanic" and claimed they were introducing young children to pagan rituals (such as the drinking of goat's blood) which Islam forbids. The esteemed Sheik also criticised Muslim parents who allow their children to watch the films or read the books, claiming they were being irresponsible.[16]

Furthermore, the drinking of dead animal blood, Satanic human sacrifice, demonic possession, etc. described in the quote at the top of the page, are actions practised by the book's Wilhelm-screaming[17][note 4] antagonist, Lord Voldemort, the murderer of Harry's parents; the books do not exactly present Voldemort as a morally praiseworthy figure.[citation NOT needed]

As to the claims that the books promote witchcraft by teaching impressionable children to cast spells, well… we hate to break it to you, but the spells described in the books don't work in real life, even if you wave a piece of carved wood in the air.

Satirical news source The Onion, in its inimitable style, once ran a spoof of the fundamentalists' claims, saying that children were converting to Satanism because of the books.[18] As if to prove their idiocy to anyone yet unconvinced, the fundies took the article as proof that they were right.[19]

Secular criticism of Harry Potter[edit]

Goblin banker model from the films.

Goblins as an antisemitic trope[edit]

In the Harry Potter novels, goblins are presented as a short humanoid race with "swarthy" skin and "dark, slanting eyes." They run Gringotts, the sole banking institution in the wizarding world, and are characterized as shrewd, secretive, and untrustworthy. The films give them hooked noses and pointed ears.

Critics have linked these depictions to anti-semitic caricatures of the Evil Jew and conspiracy theories about Jews secretly controlling the world's financial system.[20][21][22][23] In 2001, a reader letter to The New York Times called out the paper's review of the first film, charging that it failed to identify the "goblin bankers" as a "thinly veiled representation of jewish stereotypes."[24] Writing in the literary journal The Lion and the Unicorn in 2010, Jackie C. Horne held that the goblins' features "mark them as physically other," while their role as bankers distinguishes them as "morally suspect" and a "modern-day embodiment of the stereotype of the Jewish moneylender or perhaps even an Italian Mafiaso."[21] Daniel Levy and Avichai Snir, in the journal Oxford Open Economics, note that the movie goblins, in particular, have been condemned for their "acquiline noses and greedy-looking faces, similar to the cartoons that were used to depict stereotypical bankers and financiers in Europe in the late 19th century."[23]

This criticism gained new traction in 2022 after it came up during a discussion on Jon Stewart's podcast:[25][26][27]

Jay Jurden: The Jews have arrived. What chapter of Harry Potter is that in? That's when they get to Gringotts, right?
Stewart: Can I tell you something about Harry Potter? [...] Here's how you know, like, Jews are still where they are. Talking to people, what I say is, "Have you ever seen a Harry Potter movie?" And people are all like, "I love the Harry Potter movies!" I'm like, "You ever see the scenes in Gringotts bank?" They're like, "I love the scenes in Gringotts bank!" Like, "Do you know what those folks that run the bank are?" And they're like, "What?" And then, like, "Jews."
Jurden: And then that person says, "No, goblins." And then you go, "Do you hear yourself?"
Stewart: Let me show you this from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. I just want to show you a caricature, and they're like, "Oh, look at that! That's from Harry Potter." You're like, "No, that's a caricature of a Jew from an anti-semitic piece of literature." J.K. Rowling was like, "Can we get these guys to run our bank?" And you're like, "It's a wizarding world." [...] The train station has a half a thing and no one can see it. And we can ride dragons and you've got a pet owl. [...] Who should run the bank? Jews."

Stewart later clarified that these remarks were intended as a "lighthearted conversation" and that he was "not accusing J. K. Rowling of being antisemitic."[28]

House-elves and portrayal of slavery[edit]

One of the most understated parts of the book series is the portrayal of slavery and abolitionism. One of the main characters, Hermione Granger, seeks to abolish slavery and gets mocked for it. The enslaved group, the house elves, are portrayed as comical relief and themselves show hostility to the only slave who sought freedom.[29] Thankfully, this portrayal of slavery is almost completely removed from the films, with only Dobby (who only appears in the adaptation of Chamber of Secrets (where he is freed from the Malfoys) and Deathly Hallows (where he dies)) and Kreacher (where any mentions of Harry owning him are scrapped) making any appearances, likely as a result of the screenwriters noticing "Hey, this part's kinda weird."

"Dumbledore is gay" and queer-baiting[edit]

Wingardium Levi-loafers! Dumbledore as depicted by a fan.

In 2007, at a fan event a few months after the release of the last Harry Potter book, Rowling revealed that she had "always thought of Dumbledore as gay."[30][31] The revelation drew praise from fans and the LGBT community at the time, but predictably angered the religious right.[32] Since then, many fans have taken a critical view of Rowling's outing of Dumbledore, calling out her refusal to make his sexuality explicit in the text.[33][34] The Fantastic Beasts prequels in particular have drawn fire for portraying Dumbledore's relationship with Grindelwald as ambiguous.[35][36][37] Rowling stated in a 2008 interview that, after being made an "utter fool" and "[losing] his moral compass completely" through his love for wizard supremacist Grindelwald, Dumbledore "became quite asexual" and "led a celibate and a bookish life."[38] Critics have linked this to the "hate the sin, love the sinner" framework of anti-gay conservatives, which accepts gay people so long as they renounce their "sinful" desires and never act on them.[39] Academic Catherine Tosenberger, writing in the journal Children's Literature in 2008, observed that Dumbledore "arguably fits into the category of the 'safely contained' homosexual, as he is both elderly (and therefore presumably celibate) and dead."[40] In another journal article published the same year, Tosenberger wrote that, though this might "smack of ageism," it spared "squeamish readers" from having to "confront the threatening specter of a sexually active gay male body."[41] Victoria Vestić wrote in 2018 that, because Dumbledore's teenage sister died in the crossfire of his parting duel with Grindelwald, he "does not pursue other homosexual relationships until his death."[42] Thus, in Vestić's view, he is "punished by the narrative for not sacrificing his homosexuality" in service to the heternormative family ideal, but is offered redemption by "dedicat[ing] his life to the protection of other's children" as Hogwarts' headmaster.[42] In a 2018 article in the Journal of LGBT Youth, Thomas Crisp maintained that gay readings of Dumbledore mean that the "sole depiction of a gay male in this series is of a sensitive man with a flamboyant sense of style and a penchant for fashion, a man whose love for another man is the great tragedy of his life."[43]

Dumbledore/Grindelwald isn't the only time that Rowling has been accused of "queer-baiting" a gay relationship. Early on in the fandom's history, some readers saw evidence of a subtextual gay romance in the relationship of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, citing canonical details such as their jointly gifting Harry a Christmas present in the fifth book.[40][44][45] In 2004, when asked if Harry had a godmother at a book festival, Rowling replied that his godfather Sirius had been "too busy being a big rebel to get married."[46] However, with the release of the sixth book the following year, Lupin was shoehorned into a heterosexual romance with Nymphadora Tonks.[40][44][47][48] Some fans perceived this as Rowling deliberately shutting down the possibility of canonical queer romance, particularly since Tonks, a pink-haired shapeshifter, has also been interpreted as genderqueer or a lesbian.[47][48] In Deathly Hallows (2007), Harry visits Sirius Black's teenage bedroom and notes "posters of bikini-clad Muggle girls" on the walls, something viewed by fans as another example of Rowling enforcing heteronormativity in her world. As recently as 2016, Rowling peevishly denied that Sirius Black was gay in response to a Twitter inquiry, prompting upset fans to launch the hashtag "#JKRowlingIsOverParty" (this was before the first rumblings of her descent into transphobia).[49][50][51] Tosenberger wrote in Children's Literature that Sirius's character arc in Order of the Phoenix (2003) follows the "trope in early gay-themed YA literature that homosexual characters must be lonely, tormented, and then die."Wikipedia[40]

The release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in 2016 sparked renewed accusations of queer-baiting and LGBT erasure.Wikipedia[52][53][54] The play, written by Jack Thorne based on a story outline by Rowling, centers on the friendship of Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy (sons of Harry and Draco, respectively).[52][53] Writing for Vox, Aja Romano found that "sexual subtext hovers at the edges of Albus and Scorpius' interactions," with the "poorly written" female characters serving as "shameless props for the giant, flashing 'NO HOMO!'Wikipedia sign that the play hangs over the two boys' heads."[52] Romano held that the boys' interest in girls seemed to have been "added as an afterthought" in "underdeveloped, unconvincing moments."[52] Billy McEntee, reviewing the play for Logo in 2018, thought that Scorpius and Albus were portrayed as "secret lovers with all of the subtext and none of the follow through."[54] The play's script was eventually reworked in 2021 to remove the references to female love interests and add new dialogue suggesting romantic feelings on Albus's part.[55][56][57]

Model of Lupin's werewolf form used in the films.

Rowling explicitly shut down the fan theory that dragon-keeper and confirmed bachelor Charlie Weasley is gay. In the 2007 documentary J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life, she was directly asked if Charlie was gay after dropping the Word of God that he never married, and replied, "Um, no, I don't think Charlie's gay. Just more interested in dragons than women."[58]

Werewolves as an AIDS metaphor[edit]

In the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), Remus Lupin is introduced as a new professor at Hogwarts, proving to be a competent instructor and a supportive mentor to Harry. It is eventually revealed that Lupin's mysterious monthly absences are due to lycanthropy. For a time, Lupin keeps his condition secret with the aid of sympathetic headmaster Dumbledore by sequestering himself away from students every full moon. Eventually, he forgets to take a special potion and nearly attacks Harry, revealing his condition to the wizarding world. He is forced to resign from his teaching post amid angry protests from parents. In Half-Blood Prince (2005), Lupin reveals that he was bitten as a child by Fenrir Greyback, who he describes as the "most savage werewolf alive today." Greyback, unlike most werewolves who attack in a state of uncontrolled frenzy, knowingly plans and stalks his victims in advance. He "specialises in children," following a philosophy of "bite them young [...] and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards." Greyback hopes to "bite and to contaminate as many people as possible" in order to create a werewolf army to "overcome the wizards." In Deathly Hallows (2007), Lupin volunteers to join Harry on his quest, having hastily-married the expectant Tonks. Harry accuses Lupin of abandoning his wife and child-to-be. Lupin calls the marriage a "grave mistake" and worries that he has made Tonks an "outcast." He castigates himself for having "knowingly risked passing on [his] own condition to an innocent child." He says that, even if the child isn't born a werewolf, it will be better off "without a father of whom it must always be ashamed." Tonks and Lupin later reconcile. Their son Teddy is born without lycanthropy, but is orphaned when they die fighting Voldemort.

Rowling first revealed that she'd used lycanthropy as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS in 2008 while testifying in her lawsuit against Harry Potter Lexicon creator Steven Vander Ark:[59]

I know that I've said publicly[note 5] that Remus Lupin was supposed to be on the H.I.V. metaphor. It was someone who had been infected young, who suffered stigma, who had a fear of infecting others, who was terrified he would pass on his condition to his son. And it was a way of examining prejudice, unwarranted prejudice towards a group of people. And also, examining why people might become embittered when they're treated that unfairly.

This explanation was also given in a supplementary biography of Lupin written by Rowling and published on the site Pottermore in 2015:[60]

Lupin's condition of lycanthropy (being a werewolf) was a metaphor for those illnesses that carry a stigma, like HIV and AIDS. All kinds of superstitions seem to surround blood-borne conditions, probably due to taboos surrounding blood itself. The wizarding community is as prone to hysteria and prejudice as the Muggle one, and the character of Lupin gave me a chance to examine those attitudes.

The AIDS metaphor drew criticism even before its confirmation by Rowling due to the parallels to real homophobic fearmongering.[42][61][62][63] In 2006, Tison Pugh and David L. Wallace wrote in the journal Children's Literature Association Quarterly that if werewolves "serve as a queer figure within the world of the Harry Potter books, it becomes distressingly apparent that they must then also serve as figures of pederasty and child sexual abuse."[61] They described Fenrir Greyback as "delight[ing] in the pederastic pleasures of preying on children," citing a passage in which he tells Dumbledore "you know how much I like kids."[61] Gay people – particularly gay men – have been accused of "recruiting" young people into homosexuality through seduction or abuse since the post-War era.[64] Homophobes propagated urban legends and moral panic that HIV was being deliberately spread during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.[65][66][67] LGBT teachers have long faced public outing and calls for their sacking under the notion they are a threat to children.[68]

Yer a transphobe, Joanne[edit]

"Show me one 'transphobic' thing she's said!"[edit]

2017–2019: The mask starts to slip[edit]

The first indication of Rowling's developing transphobia was her liking of a tweet promoting a Medium piece positioning single-sex spaces as a #MeToo issue in October 2017.[69] She would later confirm that she began "reading books, blogs and scientific papers" related to gender around this time.[70] Some have pointed to a scene in her 2014 novel The Silkworm as providing an earlier warning.[71] This scene involves the hero Cormoran Strike warning a trans woman that going to prison "won't be fun for you, Pippa [...] not pre-op."[71] This would read as just another terrible joke about prison rape if it weren't for the weird implication that vaginoplasty would make the experience "fun" for Pippa. Which is exactly the kind of thought someone might have if their brain was already half-cooked by believing in autogynephilia.[note 6]

In March 2018, Rowling liked a tweet by @racybearhold that declared, "Men in dresses get brocialist solidarity I never had. That's misogyny!"[72] Rowling's representative issued an apologetic statement claiming that she had suffered a "clumsy and middle-aged moment" and accidentally liked the tweet by "holding her phone incorrectly."[72] However, a few months later in September 2018, Rowling liked a tweet by Janice Turner promoting her Times op-ed on trans prisoners.[73] This tweet carried the tagline "No fox has a right to live in a henhouse, even if he identifies as a hen."[73] Trans author Owl Fisher sarcastically replied, "Did you have another 'middle-aged' moment and accidentally like a clearly transphobic article, @jk_rowling?"[73] Rowling ignored Fisher but liked a subsequent tweet by Turner rebuking "the thought police [who] patrol a woman author's every 'like' for wrongthink."[73]

In June 2019 — Pride month, no less — Rowling was revealed to be following nearly a dozen transphobic Twitter accounts.[74][75] Twitter user @Persenche looked through the nearly 670 people Rowling was following at the time and concluded that 11 of them were anti-trans activists (including Julie Bindel and the notoriously vicious Magdalen BernsWikipedia).[75] Rowling's representative told PinkNews that "J.K. Rowling won't be commenting" and that she "follows a wide range of people she finds interesting or thought-provoking."[74]

On December 19, 2019, Rowling officially came out as a TERF with a tweet supporting Maya Forstater, an anti-trans activist who had recently launched a wrongful dismissal suit against her former employer.[76][77] Rowling characterised Forstater's case as an example of a woman being forced out of her job simply for "stating that sex is real."[76] The reality is that Forstater was working on a contract that her employer did not renew when it expired.[78][79] Forstater's co-workers also went to management because they found that her frequent espousal of anti-trans views (at one point she blasted out 150 transphobic tweets in a single week) was creating a hostile work environment.[78][79]

Rowling's full-throated support of Forstater drew stronger backlash than any of her previous slip-ups. It is commonly thought of as the moment that she officially came out as a TERF. Nonetheless, some held out hope at the time that Rowling was simply misinformed, and sought to educate her rather than condemn her. GLAAD offered to "facilitate an off-the-record discussion" between Rowling and "members of the trans community", but she refused.[80]

2020–2021: TERF manifesto and Twitter punditry[edit]

In May 2020, Rowling released a "stand-alone fairytale" called The Ickabog for free online, hoping to give kids a distraction during "the strange and difficult time we're passing through."[81] Observers noted that she began liking "hideously transphobic" tweets around the same time.[82][83][84] On May 29, she threatened legal action against Canadian trans politician Nicola Spurling, due to a tweet suggesting the author's bigotry means she "can no longer be trusted around children."[85] That same day, Rowling accidentally copied a vulgar quote from a Feminist Current article into a reply to 9-year-old fan, later apologizing for the "un-Ickaboggish message" but not for the transphobia.[86][87][88][89] This was followed by Rowling mocking the phrase "people who menstruate" on June 6.[90] The next day saw her endorse biological determinism in yet another Twitter tirade: "If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction. If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn't hate to speak the truth."[91][92]

In response to the backlash over this flurry of transphobia, Rowling published a lengthy TERF manifesto on her official site on June 10, 2020.[93] Toward the end of the month, Stephen KingWikipedia liked a tweet by Rowling quoting Andrea Dworkin quote, prompting Rowling to thank him and praise his work.[94][95][96][note 7] However, after King publicly agreed that trans women are women, Rowling deleted her positive tweet and blocked him.[94][95][96] King later stated that Rowling had "canceled" and "kinda blocked" him for supporting trans women.[97][98] On July 7, 2020, Harper's Magazine published an open letterWikipedia signed by Rowling and 100 other public figures.[99] The letter decried a "vogue for public shaming and ostracism" supposedly threatening the "free exchange of information and ideas."[99] It was a response to New York Times editor James Bennet resigning after printing a controversial Tom Cotton op-ed calling for the military to suppress Black Lives Matter protests.[100][101] Around this time, Rowling lambasted trans writer Jennifer Finney BoylanWikipedia for withdrawing her initial support for the Harper's letter,[102][note 8] and threatened to sue UK teen-oriented news site The Day for reporting on the controversy surrounding her anti-trans remarks.[103]

In August 2020, Kerry KennedyWikipedia called out Rowling's "deeply troubling transphobic tweets and statements," leading Rowling to return an award given by the RFK Center for her charity work in 2019.[104][105][106] Now fully content with being a terrible person, Rowling shilled for a TERF store called Wild Womyn Workshop in September, posting a selfie of herself in a shirt proclaiming "this witch doesn't burn."[107][108] The shop sells a variety of products featuring such lovely slogans as "sorry about your dick bro," "f*ck your pronouns," "transwomen are men," and "transmen are my sisters."[107][108][109]

Her Lady of the Two Foreheads. AI-generated fanart of Rowling by a TERF, depicting her in the style of a religious icon.

Rowling claimed to have been "doxxed" after three protestors shared a photo of themselves holding signs with trans-rights slogans outside the gate of her Edinburgh mansion in November 2021.[110] However, this property was already known to the public as a listed building featured on tourist sites,[111][112] and has been featured on Harry Potter-themed fan tours of Edinburgh without comment from Rowling.[113] The mansion also ends up in the news whenever Rowling pisses off her neighbours. In 2012, she earned their ire by building two 40-foot-high, "Hogwarts-style" treehouses in her garden.[114][115] She created "traffic chaos" by closing down the road multiple times between 2015 to 2024 to allow her 30-foot-tall hedges to be trimmed.[116][117][118][119] The Edinburgh Council warned her that the overgrown hedges were blocking streetlights in 2019.[120] Rowling also owns a country estate called Killiechassie,Wikipedia a centuries-old castle with its own Wikipedia article. She seems to expect total privacy and anonymity despite buying and living in famous landmarks.

2022–2023: Throwing a literal transphobia party[edit]

On March 12, 2022, Rowling tweeted[121] "Big love to you xxx" to Caroline Farrow, an anti-gay and anti-trans CitizenGo activist who once harassed a trans woman so intensely that a High Court judge granted an injunction against her, ordering her to stop the harassment.[122] Farrow once expressed outrage over "deviant" gay penguins,[123] and accused Disneyland of engaging in "LGBT indoctrination" of children.[124] It is not known whether Rowling was aware of this history of homophobia by Farrow, but she has never retracted her support or apologized after Farrow's views were widely reported. Farrow is also a Kiwi Farms user; police had received a complaint of her alleged activity on the site in 2022.[125]

On March 18, 2022, South Wales Police’s LGBT+ Network established a kiosk with information about their efforts to combat anti-LGBT crimes and attitudes. The kiosk was set up near Bute Park where Doctor Gary Jenkins, who was bisexual, was beaten, robbed, subjected to homophobic abuse, and then murdered. Prosecutor Dafydd Enoch said that the crime was motivated by "greed, homophobia, and a straightforward liking for violence", and that it was "torture, pure and simple". When anti-LGBT Twitter users began to mock the kiosk as "virtue signalling", the South Wales Police Twitter account responded by saying "Good evening, supporting our communities is not virtual signalling and we make no apologies for doing so." On March 21, 2022, Rowling added to the pile-on by tweeting[126] "Virtual signalling. Like virtue signalling, but for people who aren’t really arsed. #VirtualSignalling".

She has opposed reform of gender recognition legislation in Scotland that aimed to make the process "less traumatic and inhumane for trans people" (according to Scotland's First Minister), because it would remove some of the obstacles to trans women being recognised as women.[127] She also tweeted that politically correct zealots would rename International Women's Day: "Apparently, under a Labour government, today will become We Who Must Not Be Named Day".[127] In April 2022, she attended a lunch with a number of other prominent TERFs at the River Cafe in Hammersmith, London. Other guests included Rosie Duffield, Helen Joyce, Julie Bindel, Kathleen Stock, Maya Forstater, and LGB Alliance co-founders.[128] Joyce, author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, has referred to trans people as "damaged", saying "every one of those people is someone who needs special accommodation in a sane world where we re-acknowledge the truth of sex"; she has also called for immediate action "reducing or keeping down the number of people who transition".[129] Duffield has repeatedly called trans women "male-bodied people".[130] Duffield also called for trans people to be banned from "refuges, women’s prisons, single-sex wards and school toilets".[131]

On April 22, 2022, Rowling marked the beginning of Lesbian Visibility Week by "saluting the resilience and courage" of her friend Allison Bailey.[132] This lead LVW founder Linda Riley to tweet that she hadn't intended the observance to serve as a "vehicle to stir up more hate within our community."[132] Rowling replied with a mocking tweet featuring a photo of what she deemed a "white, bearded, Stonewall-approved lesbian."[132] The photo was of Alex Drummond, a Welsh psychotherapist and author.[133] Drummond released two LGBT-interest books in 2011-2012.[134][135] She gave a series of interviews in 2015 explaining why she kept her beard.[136][137][138] From all appearances, she's done little to earn anyone's umbrage, except exist as a bearded trans woman. Rowling lambasted so-called "beardsplainers" in an unrelated tweet in the first week of April 2022.[139] Michael Deacon penned a Telegraph piece bemoaning how "woke men" are "ruining beards" in response to this tweet.[140]

On May 29, 2022, she expressed support[141] for Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (also known as Posie Parker) and implied that she would financially support her. Posie Parker gained notoriety for organizing an anti-transgender event that attracted the support of neo-Nazis.[142][143] Parker is also known to have openly wished death upon innocent transgender people,[144] called for the sterilization (another form of genocide) of trans men,[145] and has admitted to lying about being a lesbian[146] to dishonestly bolster her political argument against a gay man. Rowling has also taken it upon herself to speak for lesbians and gay people in general despite not being a lesbian.

In July 2022, singer Macy GrayWikipedia walked back transphobic comments made in a Piers Morgan interview, leading conservative pundit Matt Walsh to tweet that women who "publicly renounce the definition of 'woman' for fear of mean comments from trans activists deserve all the scorn they get."[147][148] Rowling replied to Walsh claiming that TERFs have received serious threats, telling him "If you don't yet understand what happens to women who stand up on this issue, back off."[147][148] In the following exchange, Rowling criticised Walsh for "shouting 'coward' at individual women" like Gray, but praised his propaganda film What Is a Woman?Wikipedia for "exposing the incoherence of gender identity theory."[147][148] In September 2023, Rowling liked a shockingly insensitive tweet from radio presenter Julia Hartley-BrewerWikipedia stating "At least the Taliban know what a woman is," which was made in response to someone explaining he had been compared to the Taliban for "supporting trans people's existence in society."[149][150]

On July 11, 2022, Canadian author Will Johnson (@LiteraryGoon) tweeted a picture of his children at Rowling, stating that he planned to teach his "minions" to "stick to their principles even when it's unpopular."[151][152] Rowling replied telling Johnson that he had "beautiful minions!"[151][152] Johnson published a tweet in 2021 threatening to murder trans-rights supporters in graphic detail.[151][152] He was feted in The Post Millennial in 2019 after he was allegedly fired from a literary journal for defending Meghan Murphy.[153]

In October 2022, television host Graham NortonWikipedia gave an interview at a literary festival, during which he was asked about cancel culture.[154][155][156] He stated that cancel culture would be more accurately called "accountability."[154][155][156] When asked specifically if this applied to the backlash against Rowling's anti-trans punditry, he gave a measured comment that the media should "talk to trans people, talk to the parents of trans kids, talk to doctors, talk to psychiatrists" rather than amplifying celebrity opinions.[155][156] Musician Billy BraggWikipedia approvingly tweeted a clip of Norton's interview.[154] Rowling quoted-tweeted Bragg with a rant excoriating an alleged "spate of bearded men stepping confidently onto their soapboxes to define what a woman is and throw their support behind rape and death threats to those who dare disagree."[154][156] Norton deleted his Twitter account a few days later after a barrage of hate from anti-trans activists.[154][155][156] By now, people had noticed Rowling's bizarre fixation on beards, leading her to tweet that she "like[s] beards" except "when they're attached to misogynists."[157] In Rowling's view, a reasonable plea to listen to trans people and experts represents misogyny, while the bar seems to have been set at simply existing for the aforementioned Welsh woman. On November 21, 2022, the day after five people were murdered in a mass shooting at a gay bar in Colorado, Rowling liked a tweet by far-right personality Libs of TikTok, which mocked another Twitter user for criticizing Kanye West amidst his anti-semitism and white supremacy controversy.[158][159][160] Libs of TikTok's well-known, relentless anti-LGBT fearmongering has been credited with setting off a wave of violent threats against children's hospitals and drag events.[161][162]

On June 16, 2023, Rowling liked a direct tweet from Three Percenters movement leader Erik Rohde proclaiming "we stand with you and III% is[sic] proudly members of House Gryffindor".[163][164] Rodhe's tweet was made in reply to an earlier tweet by himself declaring "Fu<k ANTIFA" in reference to a counter-rally planned for June 17 against an anti-trans protest in Washington State.[163][164][165] The Three Percenters are a far-right militia recognised as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.[166] The movement was officially deemed a terrorist group by the Canadian government in 2021.[167]

Symptomatic of her radicalization, Rowling has tweeted in support of a supposed "Black Women’s Caucus Statement Against Gender Ideology" that Women's Declaration International – an anti-trans hate group whose leaders are all white – has concocted.[168]

On October 15, 2023, Rowling turned up as a surprise guest on a panel at a FiLiA conference in Glasgow, stating she could "take the hit" as someone who will "always be able to feed [her] family."[169][170][171] The appearance is believed to be Rowling's first time speaking publicly on trans issues and was reportedly not publicised beforehand.[170][171] Two days later, she tweeted a photo (which was at that point more than five years old[172]) of the text "Repeat after us: trans women are women" projected on a government building, adding the blatantly transphobic response "No."[173] This prompted a series of batshit tweets in which she fantasised about being sent to prison for misgendering trans people, declaring that she'd "happily do two years" over "compelled speech and forced denial of the reality and importance of sex."[173][174][175]

On November 3, 2023, The Australian ran a story about how the state of South Australia had implemented a policy of using preferred pronouns in court.[176] Rowling fired off a tweet declaring it "state-sanctioned abuse" to ask a woman to refer to "her male rapist or violent assaulter as 'she' in court."[177][note 9] A Twitter user pointed out the fallacy of "treating trans women like predators" when they are "statistically far more likely to be [sexual assault] victims."[177] A 2015 U.S. study found that nearly half of surveyed trans people reported having experienced sexual violence.[178] Surveys in Canada and Australia have also found trans people to be at increased risk compared to cis people.[179][180] Despite this evidence, Rowling smeared the Twitter user as a "rapists' rights activist," accusing them, unironically, of ignoring facts that "contradict [their] fallacious argument."[177] Courts SA released a statement calling Rowling's claims "completely unfounded."[181]

2024: Going full Graham Linehan[edit]

On February 2, 2024, Rowling broke a period of Twitter inactivity to join the anti-LGBT book-banning crusade, decrying the Glasgow Women's Library for displaying an indie comic about trans lesbians.[182][183] Initially, she characterised the zine as a "delightful penis-centred work" intended to "shame and coerce lesbians out of same-sex orientation,"[182] but shortly after described it as "cent[ring] the desires of straight men."[183] On Valentine's Day, Rowling tarred Jonathan Liew, lead Guardian sports writer, as a "'progressive' misogynist" for a piece defending Parkrun,Wikipedia a non-competitive fun run, against gender-critical fury over its lack of sex segregation.[184] It was also noted around this time that Rowling had liked a series of November 2023 tweets mocking and misgendering metal guitarist Katy Montgomerie for discussing her experiences with domestic violence.[185]

On February 16, 2024, Rowling donated £70,000 to a crowdfund launched by For Women Scotland,Wikipedia an anti-trans group founded by Magdalen Berns.[186][187] FWS plan to launch a Supreme Court challenge to legally enshrine a definition of "'sex' [...] referring to biology."[186][187] The case will ostensibly be an appeal of a 2022 Scottish ruling concerning a law requiring that public boards in Scotland be made up of 50% women.[186][187][188] This decision, much to the consternation of UK transphobes, held that trans women legally count as women.[186][187][188] TERFs have made no secret of the fact that they're following the anti-abortion playbook of mounting successive regional legal challenges in the hope of eventually winning a landmark national ruling like Dobbs. Daniel Sanderson of The Telegraph crowed that FWS are seeking an "'historic' Supreme Court ruling stating that men cannot become women."[188] Commentators have noted that the challenge could lead to a rollback of existing legal recognition and protections for trans people in the UK if successful.[189][190]

As TERFs squabbled over pronouns, and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak faced widespread backlash for his transphobia, Rowling zeroed in on trans women in the prison system. This began with a February 20 broadside accusing trans-rights supporters of using incarcerated cis women as "validation tools or emotional support props for trans-identified male sex offenders."[191] In this four-pagagraph tweet, Rowling claimed that "activists" are "knowingly forcing [cis women prisoners] to live in fear of, and, in some proven cases, to suffer abuse."[191] Rowling held that housing cis women with trans women constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" due to the potential risk of sexual violence. Meanwhile, research has consistently found that trans women are at greater risk in prison.[192] A 2007 study found that 59% of trans inmates in California reported experiencing sexual assault while incarcerated in contrast to 4.4% of the general prison population.[193] In 2016, an Australian trans woman revealed that, while serving time for auto theft in a men's prison, she was raped over 2000 times.[194]

Rowling quickly betrayed that her outrage was born more of a desire to cherry pick crime statistics to prove that AMAB people are inherently violent while AFAB people are not. On February 26, Sky News published a story about the conviction of Scarlet Blake, a trans woman, for murdering a random man in Oxford in 2021.[195] In response, Rowling tweeted, "I'm so sick of this shit. This is not a woman. These are #NotOurCrimes."[196] She re-tweeted an open letter from journalist Louise Tickle condemning the Guardian for not initially reporting Blake's trans status.[197] Tickle insisted this editorial choice "falsif[ied] the public record" and caused the "wrong perception that women are suddenly more aggressive."[197]

On March 3, Rowling argued that bans on "men" in "women's spaces" allow alleged interlopers to be "challenged" for "breaking a rule decent men respect."[198] Twitter @OwenJonesStan replied with a .gif of trans newsreader India Willoughby,Wikipedia asking, "So you are saying this lady should use the men's locker room then?!"[199][200][201] Rowling responded the next day with a blatantly transphobic attack on Willoughby, calling her a "man revelling in his misogynistic performance of what he thinks 'woman' means: narcissistic, shallow and exhibitionist."[200][201][202] This was followed shortly after with a second tweet accusing Willoughby of "cosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy of what a woman is."[200][201][203] These comments were almost certainly the first time Rowling openly and unambiguously misgendered a trans public figure. Byline TV (a branch of Byline Times) released an exclusive interview with Willoughby on March 6.[204][205][206] The interviewer, Caolan Robertson, formerly worked for white nationalist Tommy Robinson, but has since disavowed his association with the extreme right.[207] In the interview, Willoughby stated she received "putrid" abuse on social media in the wake Rowling's outburst, revealing that she reported the author to the police on March 5.[204][205][206] Byline TV's Twitter account suggested this report "could lead to Rowling's arrest."[204] Transphobes launched a fresh wave of attacks. Robertson put out a video clarifying that he'd extended an interview invitation to Rowling.[208][209] Rowling responded by accusing Robertson of "call[ing] India 'him' twice" in the video.[210][note 10] This lead to a tit-for-tat culminating in Robertson calling Rowling a "cunt."[209] Robertson offered a grovelling apology to Rowling for his "unforgivable and inexcusable" language on March 8.[209] Rowling accepted this "spontaneously made" apology and asked "any supporters of mine giving Caolan grief to please stop now."[209] (She predictably hasn't told her flying monkeys to lay off Willoughby and every other trans person she's targeted.) Northumbria Police stated they would not be pursuing Willoughby's complaint since it "did not meet the criminal threshold."[211] According to Willoughby, UK hate crime law only covers speech targeting people on the basis of race or religion, but Rowling's tweets were recorded as a "non-crime hate incident."[212]

On 13 March 2024, Rowling denied that the Nazis persecuted trans people, saying the idea is "a fever dream".[5][213][214] She then cited a thread by Malcolm Clark, an LGB Alliance co-founder and incidentally, non-historian.[215][216][217] Clark's thread said that transgender people weren't a "key target" of the Nazis',[218] then conflated gender reassignment surgery with Nazi eugenics[219] and concentration camp experiments.[220] Contrary to Clark's claims, however, the Nazis did specifically persecute transgender people.[6][221][222][223][224][225][note 11] According to the Museum of Jewish Heritage,Wikipedia the Nazis "brutally targeted the trans community, deporting many trans people to concentration camps and wiping out vibrant community structures."[226] Laurie Marhoefer, a historian specializing in the subject, states that the: "author of a 1938 book on 'the problem of transvestitism' wrote that before Hitler was in power, there was not much that could be done about transgender people, but that now, in Nazi Germany, they could be put in concentration camps or subjected to forced castration. That was good, he believed, because the 'asocial mindset' of trans people and their supposedly frequent 'criminal activity … justifies draconian measures by the state.'"[225] After the Jewish journalist Rivkah Brown pointed out Rowling was "now a Holocaust denier" in a March 13 tweet, Rowling threatened Brown with legal action, saying "I'd be delighted to meet you in court, Rivkah, to discuss holocaust denial."[227] This forced Brown to issue an apology on April 15.[228] Rowling has previously threatened legal action over commentary on her transphobia, including against Canadian politician Nicola Spurling (2020),[85] UK youth news site The Day (2020),[103] and Irish actor JJ Welles (2023).[229] UK libel law enables SLAPP lawsuits of this kind to a much greater extent than other countries.[230][231][232][233] News of the SLAPP threat against Brown lead "JK Rowling is a Holocaust [Denier]" to trend on Twitter on April 16.[228][234][235]

On 1 April 2024, Rowling posted a Twitter thread listing several trans women public figures (including Willoughby) alongside violent sexual offenders, in what MSNBC reporter Clarissa-Jan Lim deemed "an apparent attempt to draw a connection between trans people and sexual perversion".[236][237] Rowling sarcastically called the listed individuals women throughout the thread, but then declared they "aren't women at all, but men, every last one of them" in an April Fool's gotcha the very end.[238] Rowling intentionally posted the thread on the day a new hate crime law came into effect in Scotland.[239] Critics of this law fear it might chill free speech and criminalise the expression of TERFish views.[240] In true edgelord fashion, Rowling, who was holidaying "out of the country" at the time, said "I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment."[241] A police spokesperson clarified that her comments were not criminal and no action would be taken.[242]

Tarnishing legacy as a beloved author[edit]

Anti-trans personality cult[edit]

Guests at a #JKRLadiesLunch wearing cut-out masks of J. K.'s face.

A bizarre personality cult has emerged in TERFdom since Rowling joined its ranks. The phrase "I Love J. K. Rowling" has become one of the most recognisable transphobic dog whistles.[243][244] Far-right anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has famously plastered the slogan on billboards and merchandise.[243] Rowling has claimed that 90% of her fans agree with her transphobia but are "afraid to speak up" due to "fear for their jobs and even for their personal safety."[245]

One prominent example of this cult of personality is the mythical status that Rowling's #IStandWithMaya tweet has attained within so-called gender-critical circles. Disgraced screenwriter turned professional transphobe Graham Linehan proclaimed the tweet's anniversary of December 19 to be "Gender Critical Coming Out Day" in 2021.[246][247][248] By 2022, the hateful holiday had come to be known as "TERFmas," and Rowling personally wished a follower "Merry Terfmas."[249][250] In 2020, transphobes began circulating a conspiracy theory that Twitter was stealing likes from the hallowed tweet, supposedly as part of a sinister trans-activist plot to artificially lower the like count.[251] The conspiracy theory originated in Twitter failing to display a red heart on older tweets as a result of a glitch or deliberate process.[251][252] Allison Bailey warned Jack Dorsey in November 2020 that he would inevitably need to "defend twitter against accusations of rampant manipulation of data" due to the supposed missing likes.[251] Rosie DuffieldWikipedia declared in March 2021 that she was "putting [her] 'like' on record as it won't stick despite originally liking ages ago - sinister much...?"[251][253] At one point there was even a Twitter account (@RelikeReminder) that posted daily reminders to relike Rowling's tweet.[252]

TERFs in the UK began holding so-called #JKRLadiesLunchs in 2022. These events were inspired by Rowling inviting nearly every prominent TERF in the UK to a "boozy" lunch at a posh London restaurant that April.[254][255] The luncheon took place as thousands marched on Downing Street against a plan to exclude trans people from a proposed ban on conversion therapy.[254][255] TERFs predictably decided that critics were merely upset over women gathering and having fun rather than at a rich transphobe throwing a party celebrating transphobia while trans people were literally fighting for their rights. On April 16, 2022, a Welsh TERF group shared a photo of their lunch date, commenting, "Only fair we had drinks & lunch! Oops do women need permission for that @jk_rowling?"[256] Rowling replied, "It's ok, I'll get your permit postdated for you. I've got a contact in the Women's Lunch Permissions Office."[256]

This isn't the only time that Rowling has directly encouraged the obsessive fawning of transphobic fans. In April 2022, an anonymous Scottish TERF claimed she had quit a book club after its members "roundly attacked and smeared" Rowling, tweeting that she'd founded her own club called JKR's Barmy Book Army.[257][258] Rowling caught wind of this and vowed to personally attend a meeting of the club.[257][258] She made good on her promise in June.[259]

Reaction of Harry Potter cast[edit]

Many actors who appeared in the original Harry Potter films have spoken out in support of trans rights since Rowling's transphobic awakening.[260][261] This has included the series' three main stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint.[262][263][264] Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterston, stars of the spin-off franchise Fantastic Beasts, have denounced Rowling's remarks.[265][266] Potter alumni who have defended Rowling include nearly every major villain and tedious anti-"woke" crank John Cleese.[267][268][269][270]

Daniel Radcliffe is an adult now. He doesn't have to obey Momma Rowling.

Transphobes have taken aim at cast members for criticising Rowling and affirming their support of trans people. Helen Joyce tweeted in 2020 that it "must hurt being insulted and betrayed by two young people [Radcliffe and Watson] whose careers she made."[271] In late 2021, Piers Morgan lambasted the stars as "ungrateful little twerps" more interested in "pathetic virtue-signalling" than defending the right of the "woman who made them all rich and famous" to her views.[272] Judith Woods branded Radcliffe "the world's most ungrateful man" in the Telegraph after he reaffirmed his support of LGBT rights in a November 2022 interview.[273][274] Woods accused Radcliffe of being a "33-year-old man child" (but also a "petulant pup") seeking to "once again [...] cancel his creator."[273][274] Graham Linehan labelled Radcliffe an "ungrateful, traitorous, talentless misogynist" in an April 2023 tweet.[275] In early 2023, transvestigators spun the conspiracy theory that Radcliffe's slightly-taller cis girlfriend Erin Darke must be trans, despite the couple having just announced they were expecting their first child.[276][277] Watson set off a wave of abusive online comments by making a mildly trans-supportive quip at the BAFTAs in early 2022.[278] Trolls variously accused her of being an "ungrateful woke brat" and of "biting the hand that feeds [her]."[278] In April 2024, after the release of a heavily cherry-picked anti-trans government reportWikipedia in the UK, a self-described "FarRightHooligan" on Twitter suggested that "Dan and Emma" would soon issue a "very public apology" to Rowling.[279][280][281] Rowling replied stating the actors could "save their apologies."[279][280][281] Radcliffe and Watson haven't publicly commented on Rowling recently, nor have they sought her forgiveness for having their own opinions.

The framing of the actors' denunciation of Rowling's transphobia as "betrayal" and "ungratefulness" has drawn sharp criticism. Cartoonist Barry Deutsch wondered how playing Rowling's characters could possibly mean "ow[ing] her undying fealty to the extent of never disagreeing with her in public."[282] LibDem councillor Matt Severn similarly observed that a "contract signed by an 11 year old" does not impose a "legal duty of lifelong fealty and/or silence."[283] Twitter user @HimeOnion opined that transphobes were "literally pulling the 'I made you!' bullcrap abusive parents do."[284]

It's been speculated that Katherine Waterston had her role reduced from the female lead of the first two Fantastic Beasts films to a glorified cameo in the third in retaliation for calling out Rowling's transphobia.[285][286] Antonia Kinlay won a discrimination suit in 2021 after being dropped from the television adaptation of Rowling's Strike series due to her pregnancy.[287] One wonders if Rowling actually opposes forcing women out of their jobs or simply wants her TERF friends to be able to say whatever they please without consequence.

Forgetting that fans used to like her[edit]

In the third episode of The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, a "fair and balanced" podcast produced in early 2023 by ex-Westboro Baptist Church member Megan Phelps-RoperWikipedia for The Free Press,Wikipedia Rowling recounted an incident circa 2000 (she stated she was still writing Goblet of Fire at the time) when she visited a fan-run chatroom using a "random name."[288][289] As retold by Rowling in the podcast, she expressed a "very bland" Potter-related opinion in the chat and was "clearly an idiot who [didn't] know anything," but nonetheless "got rounded on by users who told me in no uncertain terms to get out."[288][289]

Rowling claimed this was an example of cyberbullying and "authoritarian behaviour":

And I was thinking, I’ve written three and a half books where bullying is such a theme from the very first page, where bullying – and authoritarian behaviour – is held to be one of the worst of human ills, and look what just happened, from these people who call themselves such fans of this franchise.

This account of her first bumbling encounter with the online fandom of her books differs starkly from ones given in the past. In March 2004, she posted an update to her official site announcing that "a few weeks ago I did something I've never done before and took a stroll into a Harry Potter chat room: specifically, MuggleNet's chat room."[290] She jokingly lamented that "nobody was remotely interested in my theories about what's going to happen in book seven," and that, after failing to "impart any gems of wisdom," she moved on to a discussion of SpongeBob SquarePants.Wikipedia[290] This spawned a rumour that she had used the handle Squidward in the MuggleNet chatroom, causing fans on the site to adopt this username in jest for some time afterward.[291]

Rowling similarly spoke of this incident as a funny story in a 2005 interview with Melissa Anelli and Emerson Spartz of the fansite The Leaky Cauldron:[292]

ES: How much time do you go on the fan sites?

JKR: It really varies. When my site is quiet, it is genuinely because I'm working really hard or I'm busy with the kids or something. When I update a few times in a row, I've obviously been on the net. So the FAQs and that kind of stuff is just compiled by hard copy post that I get here and fan sites. I go looking to see what people want answered. It's fantastic, it's sometimes frustrating, but I do want to make clear, I do not post in comments, because I know that's been cropping up. You've both been really responsible about that, but that slightly worries me. I did go in the MuggleNet chatroom, it was hysterical. That was the first time I ever Googled Harry Potter. I was just falling into these things and Leaky — actually Leaky I already knew about, but I discovered MuggleNet that first-ever afternoon and I went in the chatroom, and it was so funny. I was treated with outright contempt. [Laughter.] It was funny, I can't tell you.

ES: I’d like to apologize for, uh -

JKR: No, no no no, not in a horrible way, but, "Yeah, yeah, shut up, you're not a regular, you don't know a thing." You can imagine!

Promoting pseudoscience and ableism[edit]

Cross-sex blood transfusions[edit]

On March 27, 2023, Rowling tweeted the false claim that it was "recently discovered" that "transfusions of blood from the opposite sex had poorer outcomes, including fatalities."[293][294][295] Scientists pointed out that the single study cited by Rowling (Alshalani et al. 2022) had a small sample size and only found increased mortality in transfusions from AFAB patients to AMAB patients.[293] It has also been noted that the study's conclusions fail to account for the confounding factor of male-assigned people generally having poorer ICU outcomes than female-assigned ones.[293][296] The two largest studies have both found no link between donor sex and recipient survival.[296][297][298] However, another large study showed a small increase of mortality in transfusions to AMAB patients from AFAB donors with a history of pregnancy, but none in transfusions to AMAB patients from never-pregnant AFAB donors.[299] It has been posited that this may be due to antibodies created through adverse autoimmune responses sometimes triggered by pregnancy.[294] The NHS disallows whole-blood transfusions from those who have been pregnant to newborn babies.[294]

In short: most evidence suggests that AFAB blood recipients aren't put at greater risk by receiving blood from AMAB donors, but mother-of-three Rowling's blood could kill a trans woman recipient according to one study. As a resident of the "mad cow"-stricken UK between 1980 and 1996, she would be deferred as a blood donor in Canada and several European countries,[300][301] and would've been deferred in Australia, Israel, and the United States until recently.[302][303][304] This isn't to say that British mums-of-three shouldn't donate blood (it saves lives!). It's just that cognitive biases tend to heighten the perception of risk related to Others while diminishing the perception of risk concerning oneself.

Rowling's fearmongering over cross-sex transfusions is reminiscent of past moral panics. In 1960, the white supremacist publication The American Nationalist raged over the "thousands of critically ill [white] patients" supposedly "made sicker, or even killed" by "tainted Negro blood transfusions," an "evil practice" it said was tolerated in the "sweet name of racial 'equality' and 'democracy'."[305] At the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis and ensuing tainted blood scandalWikipedia in the 1980s, newspapers in the UK regularly carried lurid stories about the "Gay Plague", "Gay Menace", and "Gay Killer Bug".[306] Rowling's alarmist claims about "trans blood" are unsurprising in light of her widely-criticised use of lycanthropy as a AIDS metaphor in the Potter series.

Link between autism and gender variance[edit]

In her 2020 TERF manifesto, Rowing claimed that there has been a "huge explosion in young women wishing to transition", and that "autistic girls are hugely overrepresented in their numbers."[307][93] Research has shown an increase in transmasculine people seeking gender-affirming care since the early 2000s.[308][309][310] Studies have also found that trans and gender-variant people are more likely to be autistic.[311][312][note 12] The problem is that Rowling has taken evidence-supported claims and twisted them to fit the preconceived conclusion that vulnerable "girls" are being hoodwinked into thinking they're boys by social pressure or Big Gender.[316] Evan Urquhart of Salon has linked the upward trend in transmasculine transitions to increased public awareness, as the few media reports of "successfully transitioned trans people" in past decades were "almost universally trans women, not trans men."[317] He has also pointed to the early history of gender-related therapy primarily seeking to "cure homosexuality and effeminacy in boys" due to to the greater social stigma attached to gender non-conformity in male-assigned children.[317] Meanwhile, various explanations have been proposed for the increased prevalence of gender variance in autistics, including prenatal hormone exposure, fixation on special interests, and rejection of social norms.[318][319] Bryony White of The Atlantic has cautioned against conflating correlation with causation by presuming that the "need to transition is a result of [autistic trans youth's] autism."[319]

Autistic self-advocates have highlighted how objections to autistic youth transitioning are rooted in ableist attitudes and ideas.[320][321][316] A writer for disability-rights blog Cripple Media cited it as an example of autistics being "talked over, gaslit, and denied [their] right to self-determine," a product of the belief that they are "children who need to be looked after at all times, not adults and adolescences[sic] who get to make choices about [their] own lives."[316] Rowling implicitly endorsed such thinking by approvingly tweeting an anonymous TERF's fear that defining gender by "an internal sense of identity" would make it impossible to ascertain in people with "certain mental handicaps or learning disabilities" or those "unable to develop language skills or [...] communicate at all".[322] She did it more explicitly with a April 2022 praising David Bell for his "deep concern at high numbers of autistic children [...] presenting at gender clinics."[323] The supposed impressionability of autistic people figures in the plot of two Cormoran Strike books.[324][325][326] In The Ink Black Heart, a "profoundly autistic" teen girl is lured into joining a terrorist group after being "convinced she'd found real friends online," while in The Running Grave a man tries to free his adult autistic son from a Scientology-like cult that serves as a thinly-veiled anti-trans metaphor.[324][325][326] Ableism and transphobia don't just contribute to social stigma, but can adversely impact health, freedom, and equality. Autistic trans people have reported having their access to gender-affirming care blocked or delayed by clinicians.[319] Several U.S. states restricted or banned gender-affirming care for people with autism, ADHD, and other psychological conditions in 2023.[327] A man in the UK sued the NHS to try to prevent his 21-year-old autistic daughter from undergoing gender-confirmation surgery in June 2023.[328]

On June 22, 2023, Rowling shared a tweet by far-right activist Christopher F. Rufo making the pseudoscientific claim that puberty blockers "shut down a child's hypothalamus."[329] The tweet linked to Rufo's interview of an anonymous doctor in the Manhattan Institute quarterly City Journal, who claimed that this imaginary side effect means "shut[ting] down what makes us human" since the hypothalamus contains a "divine spark," and is the "system" that allows people to "stand in awe of the beauty of a sunset" and be moved by music.[330] Rowling uncritically tweeted this metaphysical horseshit despite railing against gender identity as an "unfalsifiable concept" involving "unprovable essences" on June 21.[331] The nonsense Rowling picked up from Rufo may have emerged from a conflation of the amygdala theory of autism with more recent research linking autism to structural variations in the hypothalamus.[332][333] The amygdala theory posits that there is "an abnormality in [the] autistic amygdala" that is correlated with a "diminished ability for social interaction, [and] intersubjective capacity and empathy."[333] This theory is tied to the Baron-Cohenian model (no, not Borat, but his uncle SimonWikipedia) of autism as an innate inability to recognize that other people have their own thoughts and feelings (a concept known as "theory of mind"Wikipedia).[333] As such, it is regarded by many autistic people as outdated, or rejected in favor of alternate models.[333] In short, Rowling has signed up for vaccine hysteria round two, except this time puberty blockers are the jab supposedly making kids autistic.

Stigmatisation of disability and mental health[edit]

In July 2020, Rowling liked a tweet by the transmedicalist @Manaxium characterising hormone replacement therapy as "the new antidepressants", something @Manaxium saw as emblematic of the "pure laziness" of people who "would rather medicate than put in the time and effort to heal people's mind.[sic]"[334][335][336] This prompted another Twitter user to wonder if anyone had foreseen Rowling one day "pivoting to supporting those who call people who take mental health medication 'lazy'."[334][335][336] Rowling quoted-tweeted this user with an 11-part response accusing them of "[lying] about what I believe about mental health medication" and "misrepresent[ing] the views of a trans woman for whom I feel nothing but admiration and solidarity."[335][336][337] Rowling underscored her own "mental health challenges, which include OCD, depression and anxiety," stating that she had "taken anti-depressants in the past" and found them helpful.[337] She claimed that, like the "many health professionals" she couldn't name, she was merely concerned that struggling youngsters were "being shunted towards hormones and surgery" by Big Trans.[335][336][337]

On March 6, 2022, genderqueer trans-inclusive feminist writer Laurie PennyWikipedia posted a Twitter thread revealing they had suffered a breakdown after "twelve years of relentless trolling."[338] In this thread, Penny mentioned that they had been diagnosed with CPTSD and highlighted nasty reviews of their recent book by The Times, The Observer, and The Critic.[338] The following day, Julie Bindel, author of the Critic piece, put out a tweet claiming that Penny was alleging the reviews "caused her complex PTSD."[338] Shortly thereafter, Bindel mockingly tweeted that she had "diagnosed [herself] with Complex PTSD" after a man "opened a packet of Cheesy Wotsits" on the train, prompting a reply of "thoughts and prayers, Julie" from Rowling.[338][339][340] In response, Penny reminded Bindel that she knew "full well that these reviews didn't *cause* the CPTSD [they] experience," as they had personally disclosed the sources of their trauma to Bindel "back when [the pair] were trying to build bridges."[338] Penny's reply to Rowling was gentler, pointing out that it was their "mental health history" Bindel was mocking in the tweet "along with everyone else who has experienced CPTSD," and hoping that the author didn't think it was acceptable to "shame" people in this manner.[338]

Rowling came under fire for her portrayal of chronic illness and the disabled community in her 2022 Cormoran Strike novel The Ink Black Heart.[341][342][343][324] The book features a description of the Tumblr bio of "disabled artist" character Kea Niven: "CF – fibromyalgia - POTs – allodynia – I need more spoons."Wikipedia[341] A Spiral Dance, a disability-focused blog, held that Rowling "couldn't even get the details of chronic illnesses correct," citing her incorrect rendering of "POTS"Wikipedia and use of the non-standard acronym "CF" to mean chronic fatigue syndrome.[341] Author Gretchen Felker-Martin wrote that Rowling is "deeply mean-spirited when it comes to anyone non-normative, especially the fat and the disabled," finding The Ink Black Heart to be "particularly savage" in its "bottomless contempt for 'spoonies' and other disabled communities."[342] She contrasted the sympathetic portrayal of "brusque, manly Strike, whose disability is the result of a war wound" with the portrayal of chronically-ill characters as "malingerers, abusers, and emotional manipulators."[342] Kristina Lucien of the blog The Once and Future Cripple echoed this view, commenting that it is "made clear to the readers that [Kea] is the wrong kind of disabled" as "she claims her identity openly," in comparison to amputee Strike trying to minimise his disability by declining to use a cane despite his pain.[343] Psychologist Alicia Hendley declared the book to be "threaded throughout" with "dismissal and lazy stereotyping" of people with invisible illnesses.[324] In Hendley's view, Rowling distinguishes "people who have valid, visible, 'real' illness/disabilities" and want to to "'get on with it', to live their lives 'despite' their difficulties, to even excel" from the spoonie who "not only wallows, but defines themselves by (and perhaps even revels in) being ill."[324]

Statements on sexual assault and abuse[edit]

Rowling's own experiences[edit]

Rowling experienced domestic violence during her "short and catastrophic" marriage to Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes in the early 1990s.[93][344][345] By Rowling's account, Arantes was "very violent and very controlling" as a partner, denying her a housekey so he could have "control of the front door."[345][346] At one point, Arantes allegedly took the manuscript of the first Harry Potter novel and hid it as "his hostage," forcing Rowling to sneak "a few pages" into work "every day" to photocopy.[345] Rowling gradually assembled a copy of the manuscript and kept it in a staffroom cupboard.[345] She feared Arantes would seize or destroy the original if she "wasn't able to get out [of the marriage] with everything."[345] Arantes has admitted that he slapped Rowling on the night she fled in 1993 but denies having committed "sustained abuse."[347] The Sun (who else?) interviewed Arantes in June 2020 and published his claims with the lurid headline "I slapped JK and I'm not sorry."[348][349] This article was widely condemned by the press and abuse survivor advocates.[348][349]

In her 2020 TERF manifesto, Rowling revealed that she was the victim of a "serious sexual assault" sometime in her twenties, describing it as occurring "at a time and in a space where I was vulnerable" and involving a "man [who] capitalised on an opportunity."[93] Rowling wrote that her memories of this event spurred her to oppose Gender Recognition Act reform in Scotland, declaring it would inevitably "throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms" to sexual predators.[93] She cited her personal history as a motivation for funding the establishment of a private "support centre for female victims of sexual violence" in Edinburgh in December 2022.[350][351] This service – named Beira's Place after the "Scottish goddess of winter" – is frequently lauded as a "women's shelter," "rape crisis centre," and "refuge" by Rowling's supporters, but reading the website makes it clear it doesn't offer shelter space or crisis support.[352][353] It provides one-on-one and group counselling by appointment only.[353] The centre is not wheelchair accessible and clients are advised not to bring children.[353] Board member Rhona Hotchkiss served as governor of the Cornton ValeWikipedia women's prison until 2019.[354] In 2016, it was reported that inmates faced "Victorian conditions" and long queues for access to a shared toilet, with some being instructed by staff to "pee in the sink" if they couldn't wait.[355][356] Hotchkiss asserted in 2022 that she would've resigned if she'd still been governor during the Isla Bryson case.Wikipedia[357][358]

Johnny Depp and other accused[edit]

In November 2016, only a few weeks before the release of the first film in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, it was revealed that Johnny DeppWikipedia had a cameo as Gellert Grindelwald and was slated to return in the sequels.[359][360] Rumour has it that Depp sought to play the character in the first Deathly Hallows movie back in 2008.[361] His casting sparked outcry from Potter fans due to allegations of abuse made earlier in 2016 by Depp's then-wife Amber Heard.[362] Rowling issued a statement in December telling fans that she understood why they were "confused and angry," but that she and the filmmakers were "not only comfortable sticking with our original casting, but genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies" based on their "understanding of the circumstances" of Depp and Heard's marriage.[363] Rowling added that "conscience isn't governable by committee."[363] Rowling is reportedly a long-time friend of Depp, buying his £22 million yacht in early 2016.[364][365] Depp was dropped from the Fantastic Beasts franchise in 2020 after losing a libel case against The Sun for a headline calling him a "wife beater."[366] Depp won a subsequent defamation suit against Heard in 2022 over an op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post in 2018.[367] In this piece, Heard described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse," but did not specifically name Depp.[368] Some have speculated that Depp's legal team pushed for the case to be heard in Virginia over the couple's home state of California due to Virginia's "far weaker" anti-SLAPP laws.[369][370]

Rowling sent a bouquet of roses to Depp's close friend Marilyn Manson in January 2020.[371] In 2021, actress Evan Rachel Wood identified Manson as the ex-partner who had sexually assaulted and tortured her, prompting several other women to come forward with similar allegations about Manson.[372][373] Depp stans paid to have the Depp v. Heard court records unsealed in the hope of unearthing dirt on Heard.[374] They instead revealed a trove of unsavoury and embarrassing things about Depp. This included the transcript of a "troubling" 2016 text conversation in which Manson tried to set Depp up with an 18-year-old girl.[375][376]

Rowling personally thanked voice actor Greg EllisWikipedia for his work on the 2023 video game Hogwarts Legacy.[377][378] Ellis is a hardline MRA with his own history of domestic abuse allegations.[378][379] In 2015, Ellis' then-wife successfully filed for a restraining order against him, stating that he had threatened their children.[378][379] Another former partner of Ellis obtained a three-year protection order in 2023 in a case involving an allegation of revenge porn.[380] Ellis is reportedly a long-time friend of Depp.[381][382] Ellis supposedly met Depp at his infamous Los Angeles bar The Viper RoomWikipedia in the 1980s and worked with him on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.[382] Ellis has been one of Depp's fiercest defenders on social media.[383]

Depp wasn't the only Fantastic Beasts cast member to generate worrying headlines. Video emerged in 2020 of Ezra MillerWikipedia physically assaulting a woman at a Reykjavík bar.[384][385] Since 2022, they have incurred multiple arrests, citations, and restraining orders for a slew of alleged crimes including assault, burglary, and grooming minors.[385][386][387] Scottish actor Kevin Guthrie was sentenced to three years in prison for sexual assault in 2021.[388] Rowling has not publicly commented on either case to date.

Cormoran Strike series[edit]

Since finishing the Harry Potter series, Rowling has focused on a new series, adult detective novels featuring ex-military policeman Cormoran Strike and his female assistant Robin Ellacott. These are published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Some have also been adapted for television by the BBC and HBO.[389]

In the beginning, it wasn't known that Galbraith was Rowling. But then the first book, The Cuckoo's Calling (2013), was rejected by some publishing firms and sold just 1,500 copies once it did find a publisher. Her lawyer then proceeded to leak the fact that the novel was authored by Rowling to his "wife's best friend". The sales for the book then skyrocketed after The Sunday Times reported it.[390][391] It is completely impossible that this "leak" was actually staged as a financial decision.

Initially, the books seemed unexceptional genre works, but that changed when Rowling started to inject her increasingly strange beliefs about trans people and other issues. At first it was subtle; book two, The Silkworm (2014), features two trans characters who are portrayed in a relatively sympathetic fashion, although Strike is rude to them and threatens one with prison rape.[392]

Book three, Career of Evil (2015), is about an online community of people who wish to be disabled and have limbs amputated to meet their desire. Body integrity dysphoriaWikipedia is a real condition, but to some people, it felt like Rowling was using these people who wished to be disabled as a way to attack or mock trans people, whom she viewed as similarly deluded.[392]

Lethal White (2018), book four in the series, features a pair of far-left villains who hate Israel so much that they became antisemitic.[393] (See: J. K. Rowling § Other political views.)

Controversy increased with book five: Troubled Blood (2020) features a killer who disguises himself as a woman. Naturally, this was read in the light of Rowling's hostility to trans people and belief that trans women are all men dressing as women to attack cis women. It also contains a lot of criticism of 21st century feminism for being sex-positive, pro-porn, holding SlutWalks to oppose slut shaming, etc.[392]

This was followed by book six, Ink Black Heart (2022), which is about a cartoonist who is doxxed and ultimately murdered after antagonising woke online trolls with remarks about a hermaphrodite worm that are considered transphobic. Rowling insists any resemblance to her life is coincidental; most people don't believe her (not even The Daily Telegraph).[394][395]

In the seventh book, The Running Grave (2023), the apparent connection between Rowling's real-world views and this fictional storyline is built upon further. Some drew parallels between the abusive cult present in the seventh installment and the way Rowling views her political opponents. The cult is described as (aside from the abusive behavior typical of any real-world cult) expressing positions in favor of various social justice causes. A typical profile of a cult recruit is described as someone with dyed-blue hair. They are also said to predate on autistic people and lesbians, and one of its fictional critics is a "patron of several charities" with a "reputation for intelligence and integrity". Nothing terribly subtle here.[326]

About that pen name...[edit]

There is also a curious coincidence that the pseudonym Robert Galbraith is very similar to the name of Robert Galbraith Heath,Wikipedia a controversial psychiatrist. He experimented on black people; Harry Bailey, a research partner of his, stated that the two experimented on black people because it was "cheaper to use niggers than cats because they were everywhere", though Heath later denied knowing Bailey.[396][397][398] He also experimented on the mentally ill and pioneered conversion therapy for gay men, including the use of electric shocks.

Rowling's spokesperson said she was unaware of the existence of Heath when she chose the pseudonym and that she had long been fond of the name "Galbraith". The spokesperson also pointed to Rowling's original explanation for the pseudonym's origin in 2013.[399] She had then stated: "When I was a child, I really wanted to be called 'Ella Galbraith', and I've no idea why. I don't even know how I knew that the surname existed, because I can't remember ever meeting anyone with it." She attributed her choice of "Robert" to her admiration for Robert F. Kennedy.[400][401]

Robert Colvile, the author of a 2016 article about Robert Galbraith Heath, claimed Rowling "could not have known about" Heath in 2013 when she chose the name, because it came before his article and "everyone had forgotten" about Heath.[402] In actual fact, Heath's Wikipedia page was created in 2007, and from the point of creation made reference in-text to his experiments on black people, and view of them as "animals"; a citation referenced one of Heath's conversion therapy experiments in its title.[403] A winter 2006 article in The New Atlantis (a conservative journal),[404] a September 2008 article in the neuroscience blog Mind Hacks,[405] an October 2010 article in Vice's Motherboard,[406] an April 2012 CRC Press book,[407] and a May 2012 article in Scientific American[408] all discussed Heath's brutal experiments, and half the time named him in full as "Robert Galbraith Heath". To state that she could not have known about this guy is completely inaccurate, although it is likely to have been an accidental coincidence in any case. Even if she did know, it's much more likely that she simply didn't care, rather than having had some kind of admiration for Heath.

Other political views[edit]

Because bigotry is probably the thing I detest most. All forms of intolerance, the whole idea of “that which is different from me is necessary evil.” I really like to explore the idea that difference is equal and good. But there's another idea that I like to explore, too. Oppressed groups are not, generally speaking, people who stand firmly together – no, sadly, they kind of subdivide among themselves and fight like hell. That's human nature, so that's what you see here. This world of wizards and witches, they're already ostracized, and then within themselves, they've formed a loathsome pecking order.
—JK Rowling explaining why she included themes of bigotry in her books[409]

In a 2000 interview, Rowling described herself as left-wing.[409] As early as 2002, Rowling claimed that one of her biggest writing influences had been Jessica Mitford,Wikipedia whom she described as a "self-taught socialist" (Mitford had also been a member of the Communist Party of the United States until 1958).[410] She also donated to Labour[411] and was openly supportive of the British welfare state[412] in the late 2000s. In April 2010, she wrote a Single Mother's Manifesto criticising Tory austerity and David Cameron.[413]

However, she was very critical of Jeremy Corbyn, a remnant of Labour's Old Left,[414] and mocked his (honestly mediocre and half-assed) stance on Brexit.[415] This was driven by fear that it would lead to a repeat of the longest suicide note in history,Wikipedia which resulted in the Tories, under Margaret Thatcher, winning re-election in 1983 and control over national politics until 1997.[415][416]

Rowling expressed her opposition to Scottish independence at the time of the 2014 independence referendum, donating £1m to the anti-independence group Better Together.[417][418] This didn't endear her to some Scottish Nationalists, and she received online abuse, which caused her to double down in her opposition to independence, accusing Scottish nationalists of bigotry; she also called out the "blood and soil" ethnonationalists Siol nan Gaidheal, who are certainly bigots but whose membership is so small they can hardly be considered representative of anything.[419] She called the independence movement "Death Eaterish".[418]

In 2015, she signed a letter stating that "cultural boycotts singling out Israel are divisive and discriminatory, and will not further peace."[420][421][422] In response to criticism of this, she wrote a bizarre essay which criticized Israel (though particularly Netanyahu), but also argued young Harry Potter would be upset with her decision not to boycott Israel. Dumbledore and an older Harry Potter would have agreed with her refusal to boycott Israel, she added.[423][420][424] In 2018, she released a Cormoran Strike novel featuring a pair of far-left "Israel-hating antisemites" as the villains.[393]

Rowling told off Vladimir Putin when he had the gall to compare Western sanctions against Russia to Rowling being "canceled" for her TERF views.[425] In apparent response to her stance, a group of Russian trolls pranked her, convincing her that she was in a video conference with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Roughly fifteen minutes of strange nonsense ensued, with Rowling agreeing to "look into" changing Harry Potter's scar due to its similarity to the Russian "Z" symbol.Wikipedia[426][427][note 13]

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. J. K. Rowling wasn't given a middle name. When choosing to write under initials, she added a "K." after her grandmother, Kathleen. Wikipedia confidently states that her surname is pronounced /ˈroʊlɪŋ/ ROH-ling, but most people ignore this.
  2. Robert Galbraith is the name under which Rowling writes the Cormoran Strike detective novels for adults.
  3. We're kind of over-exaggerating a bit, because it's implied in the final epilogue that he lived a fairly normal life after that.
  4. Though, technically, the scream isn't actually the Wilhelm.
  5. The closest Rowling had previously come to disclosing this was calling Lupin's lycanthropy "a metaphor for people's reactions to illness and disability" in the 2000 book Conversations with J. K. Rowling. Given that this book was aimed at children, it's possible Rowling's comment was edited without her knowledge, or it's possible that she simply misremembered her remarks after eight years.
  6. This pseudoscientific hypothesis from the 1980s divides trans women into two categories: "homosexual transsexuals," who supposedly transition to lure straight cis men into relationships, and "autogynephiles," i.e. lesbian and bi trans women who can't be branded self-hating gays and are instead deemed to have a fetishistic interest in imagining themselves as female. Under this batshit framework, some transphobes have sincerely claimed that trans women derive gratification from being sexually assaulted, either as sex with a man (for "homosexual transsexuals") or as a validation of their womanhood (for "autogynephiles"). Basically, in the warped perspective that seemingly informed Rowling's tasteless joke, Strike assumes Pippa would prefer vaginal rape over anal rape as a fulfillment of her "autogynephilic" fantasy of experiencing sexual violence as a woman. Rowling confirmed she has indeed swallowed Blanchard's crap with a 2024 tweet attacking a famous trans woman for "cosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy."
  7. Dworkin was an early trans-inclusive radical feminist, advocating a right to state-funded "sex-change operation[s]" in her 1974 book Woman Hating, albeit as an "emergency measure" on the path to her weird prescription for the societal abolition of gender. The quote Rowling tweeted is from her 1987 book Intercourse: "Men often react to women's words – speaking and writing – as if they were acts of violence; sometimes men react to women's words with violence." The full passage makes it clear that Dworkin was discussing how patriarchy harms and oppresses women. Rowling dropped the quote toward the end of a nine-part Twitter screed gloating over her extraction of an apology from Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle.Wikipedia Russell-Moyle upset Rowling by accusing her of "using" her sexual assault survivor status "as justification for discriminating against [trans people]" in a June 2020 Tribune piece criticising Tory plans to scrap GRA reform. It's possible that Stephen King only saw the tweet with the Dworkin quote or was unaware of the rampant transphobia in the UK. Mark HamillWikipedia has walked back liking Rowling tweets he seemingly understood as general feminist statements. In 2019, he apologised for not catching the "transphobic connotation" in the #IStandWithMaya tweet, and in 2023 he apologised for liking a tweet in which Rowling replied to trans newsreader India Willoughby'sWikipedia declaration of being "more of a woman" than her with "citation needed."
  8. Boylan explained that, at the time she endorsed the Harper's letter, she believed it to be a "well meaning, if vague, message against internet shaming," and was only aware that it had been signed by Margaret Atwood, Noam Chomsky, and Gloria Steinem. Rowling's bonkers response to the retraction pointed out that Boylan was "still following" her and demanded that she "publicly repent of [her] association with Goody Rowling before unfollowing and volunteer to operate the ducking stool next time." Rowling notably did not attack cisgender historian Kerri GreenidgeWikipedia for withdrawing her signature (which was allegedly added by a colleague without her consent).
  9. Such policies apply to all court proceedings rather than solely to cases involving sexual assault. They aren't designed to protect the feelings of rapists, but to ensure that due process isn't jeopardized by systemic bias or unfair treatment, and thus reduce the chances of guilty parties being freed on legal technicalities. British TERFs seem unwilling to accept that not all jurisdictions legally define "rape"Wikipedia as non-consensual penile penetration (thus precluding AFAB offenders) like the UK.
  10. Robertson used "them" twice after using "her." This is clear in both the subtitles and the audio.
  11. Quite similar statements to Clark's were also made by social conservative pundit Matt Walsh in June 2023 shortly after Clark's May 2023 thread that Rowling boosted about a year after — and they remain just as malformed whoever said it (see: Matt Walsh § "Inventing" transgender people).
  12. Although for the record, autism is also associated with more non-heterosexuality.[313][314][315] Considering J.K. Rowling claims to advocate for gay people, this line of logic is perhaps reckless in that regard. Imagine how it could be argued by homophobes in much the same way that gay autistic people were supposedly confused or tricked by gay activists.
  13. Obviously, she learned this was a prank afterwards. But now you know that Harry Potter with a Ukrainian trident for a scar was almost canon. At least if Word of God equals canon to you.

References[edit]

  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20221217213122/https://twitter.com/shaun_vids/status/1604219451204845569
  2. Ellie Harrison, "JK Rowling says she 'absolutely' knew Harry Potter fans would be 'deeply unhappy' over trans views", The Independent, 14 March 2023
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20220815043302/https://twitter.com/jk_rowling
  4. From billionaire to millionaire, New Zealand Herald, 12 Mar, 2012
  5. 5.0 5.1 Mira Fox (March 13, 2024). "It wasn't just the goblins — is J.K. Rowling doing Holocaust denial now?". The Forward.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Vivian McCall (March 20, 2024). "Yes, JK Rowling, the Nazis Did Persecute Trans People". The Stranger.
  7. JK Rowling now 'she who must not be named' for Harry Potter fans (04/07/2020) Newshub.
  8. Spoilers!
  9. Harry Potter tops list of most challenged books of 21st century, American Library Association
  10. Zipes, J. (2002). Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter. Page 175.
  11. Pottering Around, Inside Higher Ed
  12. "Why Harry Potter doesn't cast a spell over me", The Guardian
  13. "Hogwarts is a winner because boys will be sexist neocon boys", The Sunday Times
  14. See the Wikipedia article on Harry Potter influences and analogues.
  15. Farrow, Max. "J.K. Rowling Is Turning Into George Lucas." ScreenRant, 25 November 2018 (recovered 30 April 2019).
  16. Harry Potter — Sheik Feiz Muhammad
  17. Voldemort NYAH NYEAH
  18. Avada Kedavra, bitches!
  19. Harry Potter and Satanism, Snopes.
  20. Peter Dendle, "Monsters, Creatures, and Pets at Hogwarts: Animal Stewardship in the World of Harry Potter, in Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter (2008), page 165
  21. 21.0 21.1 Jackie C. Horne, "Harry and the Other: Answering the Race Question in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, The Lion and the Unicorn (2010), 34(1)
  22. Madelyn Travis, Jews and Jewishness in British Children's Literature (2013), page 5
  23. 23.0 23.1 Daniel Levy & Avichai Snir, "Potterian economics", Oxford Open Economics, Volume 1 (2022)
  24. T. Gossett, "Readers Comment on 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'," The New York Times, 26 November 2001
  25. The Problem With Jon Stewart: The Problem With Goblins: J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter, & Jews
  26. IndieWire: Jon Stewart Slams J.K. Rowling for Anti-Semitic Goblins in 'Harry Potter' Series"
  27. Variety: Jon Stewart Calls Out J.K. Rowling’s Anti-Semitic Goblins in 'Harry Potter' Franchise
  28. NBC News: Jon Stewart clarifies comments he made about depiction of goblins in 'Harry Potter'
  29. Harry Potter and the problematic slavery parable
  30. The Leaky Cauldron: J. K. Rowling at Carnegie Hall Reveals Dumbledore is Gay, dated to Oct 20, 2007
  31. BBC News: JK Rowling outs Dumbledore as gay, dated Oct 20, 2007
  32. The Christian Post: Conservatives Urge Ban on 'Harry Potter' Over Witchcraft, Homosexuality, dated Oct 30, 2007
  33. The Daily UW: Sex positions: Fishing for a queer audience
  34. Esquire: J.K. Rowling Wants You To Know How Gay Dumbledore Really Was
  35. Insider: LGBT backlash against Fantastic Beasts, dated to Feb 2, 2018
  36. SBS: Rowling omitting Dumbledore being gay is a slap in the face to her queer fans, dated to Mar 19, 2019
  37. Insider: Fantastic Beasts director says movie will not address Dumbledore being gay, dated to Jan 31, 2018
  38. MuggleNet, "New interview with JK Rowling," 9 March 2008
  39. Demisexual and Proud: Albus Dumbledore, J.K. Rowling’s Ex-Gay
  40. 40.0 40.1 40.2 40.3 Catherine Tosenberger, "Homosexuality at the Online Hogwarts: Harry Potter Slash Fanfiction", Children's Literature, volume 36 (2008)
  41. Catherine Tosenberger, "'Oh my God, the Fanfiction!': Dumbledore's Outing and the Online Harry Potter Fandom", Children's Literature Association Quarterly (2008), 33(2)
  42. 42.0 42.1 42.2 Victoria Vestić, "Harry Potter, Heteronormativity and Pronatalism – the Villain as the Antinatalist", Journal of the International Symposium of Students of English, Croatian and Italian Studies (2018)
  43. Thomas Crisp, "Beyond Harold and Dumbledore: (Re-)considering Children's Books Depicting Gay Males, Journal of LGBT Youth (2018), 15(4)
  44. 44.0 44.1 The Paris Review: Harry Potter and the Secret Gay Love Story
  45. Vanity Fair: Why J.K. Rowling's Latest Apology Is Even More Meaningful than It Seems
  46. J K Rowling at the Edinburgh Book Festival, 15 August 2004
  47. 47.0 47.1 The Print: JK Rowling has always been tone-deaf. Just look at the Harry Potter Universe
  48. 48.0 48.1 TN2 Magazine: Not-So-Fantastic Queerbaiting And Where To Shove Your Bad Racial Politics"
  49. Screenshots of the original questions and Rowling's reply.
  50. Digital Spy: #JKRowlingIsOverParty kicks off in protest of a Harry Potter character's sexuality and a Wizarding War erupts
  51. HuffPost: JK Rowling Sirius Black Sexuality Twitter Profile 'Answers' Lead To 'Ton Of Abuse' For Harry Potter Author
  52. 52.0 52.1 52.2 52.3 Vox: The Harry Potter universe still can't translate its gay subtext to text. It's a problem.
  53. 53.0 53.1 The Guardian: Harry Potter and the Possible Queerbaiting: why fans are mad over a lack of gay romance
  54. 54.0 54.1 Logo: Harry Potter and the Relentless Queerbaiting: Why Won't The Magical Closet Be Unlocked
  55. Los Angeles Times: Commentary: A ‘Harry Potter’ play claimed to be a family affair. After major changes, it finally is
  56. Pride.com: This Harry Potter Character Is Even Gayer in Cursed Child Revamp
  57. The Guardian: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: is the shorter, one-part play better?
  58. MuggleNet: Asexual Awareness: Protect Charlie Weasley at All Costs
  59. Transcript of the first day of testimony in Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. v. RDR Books
  60. J. K. Rowling, "Remus Lupin", Pottermore, 10 August 2015
  61. 61.0 61.1 61.2 Tison Pugh & David L. Wallace, "Heteronormative Heroism and Queering the School Story in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series", Children's Literature Association Quarterly (2006), 36(3)
  62. Phillip A. Bernhardt-House, "The Werewolf as Queer, the Queer as Werewolf, and Queer Werewolves", in Queering the Non/Human (2008)
  63. Souvik Datta, "Hijacking the Hysteria: Reading Heteronormativity, Homophobia and a narrative of Queerness into J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels", Lapis Lazuli: An International Literary Journal (2021), 11(1)
  64. Heather Murray, Not in This Family: Gays and the Meaning of Kinship in Postwar North America, page 91
  65. William A. Rushing, The AIDS Epidemic: Social Dimensions of an Infectious Disease (1995), page 157
  66. Christopher R. Fee, Jeffrey B. Webb, American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore (2016), pages 4-6
  67. Jeffrey P. Dennis, "'Do You Like Girls Yet?': Heterosexual Presumption, Homophobia, And Pubescence", in Perceiving Gender Locally, Globally, and Intersectionally (2009), page 68
  68. Janna Marie Jackson, Unmasking Identities: An Exploration of the Lives of Gay and Lesbian Teachers (2007), pages 2-4
  69. https://web.archive.org/web/20220127020340/https://twitter.com/TransSalamander/status/922941885160632320
  70. https://web.archive.org/web/20230330221850/https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1269394077176541189
  71. 71.0 71.1 Vice: JK Rowling's Transphobia Wasn't Hard to Find, She Wrote a Book About It
  72. 72.0 72.1 Indy100: JK Rowling has a 'clumsy and middle-aged moment' by liking a 'transphobic' tweet
  73. 73.0 73.1 73.2 73.3 Phaylen Fairchild: Oops! She Did It Again, Transphobic J.K. Rowling: "No Fox Belongs In a Henhouse."
  74. 74.0 74.1 PinkNews: JK Rowling under fire for following a 'proud transphobe' on Twitter
  75. 75.0 75.1 Femestella: J.K. Rowling Has Been Following Anti-Trans Activists and We Need an Explanation
  76. 76.0 76.1 Vox: J.K. Rowling’s latest tweet seems like transphobic BS. Her fans are heartbroken
  77. Maya Forstater: Woman loses tribunal over transgender tweets, BBC, December 19, 2019
  78. 78.0 78.1 NBC News: J.K. Rowling's Maya Forstater tweets support hostile work environments, not free speech
  79. 79.0 79.1 The Advocate: The JK Rowling Scandal Is Anti-Trans Bigotry Masquerading as Science
  80. Variety: GLAAD: J.K. Rowling’s Support of Anti-Trans Researcher ‘Puts Trans People at Risk’
  81. CBC News: J.K. Rowling unveils new kids tale The Ickabog as free online serial
  82. PinkNews: We guess JK Rowling has had another 'middle-aged moment', because she's been caught liking hideously transphobic tweets again
  83. LGBTQ Nation: "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling continues support for extreme anti-transgender rhetoric
  84. PopBuzz: JK Rowling slammed for liking transphobic tweets on Twitter
  85. 85.0 85.1 Tri-City News: J.K. Rowling threatens legal action against Coquitlam transgender activist over tweets
  86. HuffPost: JK Rowling Speaks Out Over 'Accidental' Tweet About Transgender Woman"
  87. The Mary Sue: J.K. Rowling Accidentally Tweeted Transphobic Content From Her Messages
  88. PinkNews: JK Rowling apologises after accidentally tweeting 'f**k up some TERFs' while responding to a 9-year-old's drawing
  89. The Daily Dot: J.K. Rowling deleted a tweet that included transphobic commentary with a child’s fanart
  90. Vulture: J.K. Rowling Somehow Decides Now’s a Good Time to Double Down on Her Transphobia
  91. Insider: JK Rowling claims trans activism hurts women and lesbians, dated to Jun 7, 2020
  92. If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction. If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn't hate to speak the truth., JK Rowling, Twitter, 6 June 2020; archived.
  93. 93.0 93.1 93.2 93.3 93.4 J.K. Rowling: J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues
  94. 94.0 94.1 The Independent: JK Rowling deletes tweet praising Stephen King after he supports trans women
  95. 95.0 95.1 Newsweek: J.K. Rowling Deletes Stephen King Praise After He Supports Trans Women
  96. 96.0 96.1 Consequence of Sound: J.K. Rowling Blocks Stephen King After He Tweets Support of Trans Women
  97. Forbes: J.K. Rowling 'Canceled' Stephen King For Supporting Transgender Women
  98. The Independent: Stephen King says JK Rowling 'cancelled' him over trans row
  99. 99.0 99.1 A Letter on Justice and Open Debate
  100. ‘Whiny BS’: letter signed by JK Rowling, Margaret Atwood slammed as out of touch, The New Daily, July 7, 2020
  101. HuffPost: Don't Fall For The 'Cancel Culture' Scam
  102. Newsweek: Trans Author Jennifer Finney Boylan Recants 'Cancel Culture' Letter Signed by J.K. Rowling
  103. 103.0 103.1 White, Adam (23 July 2020). "JK Rowling receives apology from children's site after legal threats over trans claims" (in en). The Independent. 
  104. CBC News: J.K. Rowling returns human rights award amid criticism from organization
  105. Reuters: J.K. Rowling Returns Kennedy Family Award Following Kerry Kennedy Remarks
  106. Entertainment Weekly: J.K. Rowling returning human rights award to group that now condemns her trans views
  107. 107.0 107.1 Rachel E. Greenspan (Sep 23, 2020). "JK Rowling promoted a store selling anti-trans merch saying 'transwomen are men' and 'f--- your pronouns'". Insider.
  108. 108.0 108.1 Allie Gregory (Sep 23, 2020). "J.K. Rowling Promotes Proudly Transphobic Online Store". Exclaim!
  109. @DreamsRestless. (September 22, 2020). "JK Rowling is taking the next step in making her hatred of trans people her whole identity by promoting a store with an entire section dedicated to transphobia." Twitter. Archived November 16, 2020.
  110. James Factora, J.K. Rowling, Whose Mansion Is on Wikipedia, Decries "Doxxing". them.us, 24 November 2021.
  111. Global News: J.K. Rowling slams trans rights activists for 'doxxing' her during protest
  112. Stravaiging Around Scotland: Whitehouse - Castle in Edinburgh
  113. YouTube: HARRY POTTER IN EDINBURGH SCOTLAND, GREYFRIAR GRAVEYARD, ELEPHANT HOUSE, J.K. ROWLING'S HOUSE
  114. The Telegraph: JK Rowling wins permission to build magical treehouses in garden
  115. The Guardian: JK Rowling wins permission to build £250,000 Hogwarts-style tree houses
  116. The Guardian: JK Rowling hedge-trimming blamed for traffic 'chaos' around Edinburgh home
  117. Edinburgh Evening News: Traffic halted to let work crew tackle JK Rowling's massive Leylandii hedge
  118. Deadline: Scots author J.K Rowling closes road outside of £2.2 million 17th century home to trim back massive hedge
  119. EdinburghLive: JK Rowling breaks silence over backlash for trimming hedge outside Edinburgh home
  120. Bart Dickson (May 18, 2019). "JK Rowling ordered to cut huge 30ft trees surrounding Edinburgh mansion". The Daily Record.
  121. Twitter: Big love to you xxx, dated to Mar 12, 2022
  122. PinkNews: Anti-LGBT pundit Caroline Farrow hit with injunction over ‘abusive tweets’, dated to May 3, 2019
  123. PinkNews: Children not ’emotionally ready’ for ‘deviant’ gay penguins, says journalist, dated to Jul 3, 2019
  124. Twitter: Image
  125. David Gilbert (October 6, 2022). "J.K. Rowling Ally Arrested for Allegedly Doxing a Trans Activist". VICE News.
  126. Twitter: Virtual signalling. Like virtue signalling, but for people who aren’t really arsed. #VirtualSignalling, dated to Mar 21, 2022
  127. 127.0 127.1 J.K. Rowling Doubles Down on Transphobia in International Women’s Day Twitter Rant, Indiewire, 8 March 2022
  128. Inside J.K. Rowling’s ‘gender wars’ lunch, The Week, 12 April 2022
  129. ‘Gender critical’ author Helen Joyce says she wants to ‘reduce’ number of trans people: ‘Chilling’, Pink News, 3 June 2022
  130. Labour MP Rosie Duffield confronted after repeatedly calling trans women ‘male-bodied’ on the BBC, Pink News, 18 Nov 2021
  131. Labour MP Rosie Duffield explains ‘gender critical’ views in anti-trans tirade, Pink News, 11 September 2021
  132. 132.0 132.1 132.2 PinkNews: JK Rowling blasted as 'perfect example of how not to be an ally' by Lesbian Visibility Week founder
  133. The Guardian: Weekender: Alex Drummond, psychotherapist, 47
  134. WorldCat: Queering the tranny: new perspectives on male transvestism and transsexualism
  135. WorldCat: Grrl Alex: a personal journey to a transgender identity
  136. BuzzFeed News: This Trans Woman Kept Her Beard And Couldn't Be Happier
  137. Wales Online: 'There are no legal bars to a woman having a beard' Alex Drummond wants to broaden how people think about gender
  138. HuffPost: This Incredible Trans Woman Is Challenging The Way We Think About Gender
  139. https://web.archive.org/web/20220831064808/https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1510706840379797511
  140. The Telegraph: JK Rowling is right. Woke men are ruining beards for the rest of us
  141. Twitter: But as I've already told her, she knows where I am., dated to May 29, 2023
  142. The Guardian: Anti-trans activist Posie Parker ends New Zealand tour after violent protests erupt, dated to Mar 25, 2023
  143. The Guardian: Daniel Andrews says Nazis ‘aren’t welcome’ as Victorian government considers ‘further action’ following salutes, dated to Mar 18, 2023
  144. Twitter: Image
  145. https://twitter.com/trans_safety/status/1493233608663908352
  146. Twitter: Video, dated to Jun 7, 2023
  147. 147.0 147.1 147.2 Advocate: JK Rowling and Matt Walsh Bond Over Transphobia, Get Blasted Online
  148. 148.0 148.1 148.2 PinkNews: JK Rowling criticised for praising ‘dangerous’ anti-trans film by far-right bigot Matt Walsh
  149. Twitter: J.K. Rowling said you DO gotta hand it to the Taliban, dated to September 2, 2023
  150. Twitter: At least the Taliban know what a woman is, dated to August 29, 2023
  151. 151.0 151.1 151.2 Shaun on YouTube: JK Rowling's New Friends (relevant part begins at 20:20)
  152. 152.0 152.1 152.2 The Blast: J.K. Rowling Under Fire For… Giving Fan A Positive Reply?
  153. The Post Millennial: Canadian literary editor fired after supporting free speech
  154. 154.0 154.1 154.2 154.3 154.4 Them: Graham Norton Seemingly Driven Off Twitter For Suggesting We Listen to Trans People
  155. 155.0 155.1 155.2 155.3 The Independent: Graham Norton deletes Twitter after comments on JK Rowling and 'cancel culture' go viral
  156. 156.0 156.1 156.2 156.3 156.4 PinkNews: Graham Norton 'hounded off Twitter' for suggesting we listen to trans people
  157. https://web.archive.org/web/20231023114409/https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1580611061698334720
  158. Kelleher, Patrick (November 23, 2022). "JK Rowling 'likes' tweet by far-right, anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok". PinkNews. 
  159. Archived "likes" page of J.K. Rowling, showing the Libs of TikTok tweet
  160. Twitter: Archived screenshot
  161. Washington Post: Twitter account Libs of TikTok blamed for harassment of children’s hospitals, dated to Sept 2, 2022
  162. Them: How Libs of TikTok Became an Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate Machine, dated Sept 30, 2022
  163. 163.0 163.1 Twitter: JK Rowling liking tweets from a "Three Percenter" leader. The "Three Percenters" are a far right militia that are considered a terrorist group in Canada, dated to Jun 16, 2023
  164. 164.0 164.1 Twitter: Just wanted to say we stand with you and III% is proudly members of House Gryffindor 🧙‍♂️, dated to June 14, 2023
  165. Lynnwood Today: Heated protest over transgender rights draws hundreds to Lynnwood
  166. SPLC: Three Percenters
  167. CBC: Three Percenters, neo-Nazi group added to Canada's terrorist list
  168. Tweet by J.K. Rowling
  169. PinkNews: LGBTQ+ groups protest gender critical conference hosting JK Rowling as a speaker
  170. 170.0 170.1 The National: JK Rowling speaks at FiLiA feminist conference labelled 'transphobic'
  171. 171.0 171.1 The Times: JK Rowling makes surprise appearance at feminist conference in Glasgow
  172. Nick Duffy (July 11, 2018). "'Trans women are women' projected onto London landmark after Pride hijack controversy". PinkNews.
  173. 173.0 173.1 Entertainment Weekly: J.K. Rowling says she would 'happily' do prison time for controversial transgender views
  174. PinkNews: JK Rowling would prefer two years in jail over using a trans person’s correct pronouns
  175. Out Magazine: J.K. Rowling Says She'd Rather Go to Prison Than Correctly Gender a Trans Person
  176. The Australian: South Australia court calls for use of preferred gender pronouns
  177. 177.0 177.1 177.2 Inside the Magic: J.K. Rowling Equates Trans Women to Rapists
  178. National Center for Transgender Equality: The Report of the 2015 Transgender Equality Survey
  179. The Sydney Morning Herald: 'What's in your pants?': Gender diverse people exposed to high rates of sexual violence
  180. Statistics Canada: Experiences of violent victimization and unwanted sexual behaviours among gay, lesbian, bisexual and other sexual minority people, and the transgender population, in Canada, 2018
  181. 1news: J.K. Rowling chided for 'unfounded claim' on South Australia courts
  182. 182.0 182.1 https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1753395762514251883
  183. 183.0 183.1 https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1753418692463862204
  184. The Telegraph: JK Rowling labels Guardian journalist 'progressive misogynist' over Parkrun trans row
  185. https://web.archive.org/web/20240209163616/https://twitter.com/WistfulOtter/status/1755366943073112184
  186. 186.0 186.1 186.2 186.3 The Times: JK Rowling donates £70k for legal challenge on defining a woman
  187. 187.0 187.1 187.2 187.3 Pink News: JK Rowling reportedly donates £70,000 to group's Supreme Court appeal over 'woman' definition
  188. 188.0 188.1 188.2 The Telegraph: JK Rowling donates £70k to challenge ruling that men can become women
  189. Tweet by Thomas Willett
  190. Tweet by India Willoughby
  191. 191.0 191.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20240223004741/https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1759940576340770987
  192. CNN: Trans women are still incarcerated with men and it's putting their lives at risk
  193. Valerie Jenness et al., Violence in California Correctional Facilities: An Empirical Examination of Sexual Assault (2007)
  194. News.com.au: A transgender woman talks about life in a male prison
  195. Sky News: Cat killer Scarlet Blake who had 'obsession with death' jailed for life for murdering man
  196. https://web.archive.org/web/20240301044254/https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1762187612352020860#m
  197. 197.0 197.1 Archived tweet by J. K. Rowling
  198. https://web.archive.org/web/20240304214247/https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1764388015118442533
  199. Archived tweet by @OwenJonesStan
  200. 200.0 200.1 200.2 The Independent: JK Rowling deliberately misgenders trans activist India Willoughby
  201. 201.0 201.1 201.2 Erin in the Morning: JK Rowling Transphobia: Rowling Calls Trans Woman Journalist "A Man...Cosplaying
  202. Archived tweet by J. K. Rowling
  203. Archived tweet by J. K. Rowling
  204. 204.0 204.1 204.2 https://twitter.com/BylineTV/status/1765484416275472570
  205. 205.0 205.1 Variety: Broadcaster Says She Reported J.K. Rowling to the Police Over Alleged Transphobia as ‘Harry Potter’ Author Threatens Harassment Claim
  206. 206.0 206.1 Entertainment Weekly: J.K. Rowling reported to police for alleged transphobia by broadcaster
  207. Pink News: Gay former extremist Caolan Robertson says leaving the far-right was like escaping 'a cult'
  208. https://twitter.com/BylineTV/status/1765529551117971581
  209. 209.0 209.1 209.2 209.3 Mediate: BylineTV Producer Apologises For Explicit Outburst At JK Rowling
  210. https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1765685200174862555
  211. The Independent: India Willoughby's JK Rowling complaint did not meet criminal threshold, police say
  212. https://twitter.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1766214992364269598
  213. Trudy Ring (March 15, 2024). "Yes, J.K. Rowling, the Nazis persecuted trans people, burned books". The Advocate.
  214. Reed, Erin (2024-03-13). "JK Rowling Holocaust Denialism: Author Pushes Claims That Trans People Were Not A Target" (in en). www.erininthemorning.com. 
  215. O'Connor, Roisin (23 March 2022). "Trans comedian Jen Ives verbally abused at LGB Alliance conference in new video" (in en). The Independent. "LGB Alliance founder Malcolm Clark also shared..." 
  216. McKenna, Kevin (8 July 2023). "Scots gay pioneer: ‘It’s depressing that a lot of our good work is being trashed’" (in en). The Herald. "Mr Clark is ... a key figure in the LGB Alliance" 
  217. Rowling, J.K. (13 March 2024). "J.K. Rowling on X: "Thread on the persistent claims about trans peopl…" (in en). Twitter. "Thread on the persistent claims about trans people and the Nazis 👇" 
  218. Clark, Malcolm (28 May 2023). "Malcolm Clark on Twitter: "1./ Trans Healthcare and the Nazis. The LG…" (in en). Twitter. "The LGBTQ+ lobby likes to claim trans people were a key target of the Nazis. They weren't." 
  219. Clark, Malcolm (28 May 2023). "Malcolm Clark on Twitter: "21./ The sad truth is trans healthcare's f…" (in en). Twitter. "The sad truth is trans healthcare's founder and first surgeon championed eugenics. Together they invented a new way to sterilise patients, involving fake genitals created surgically. Two years after inventing the vaginoplasty Gohrbandt was busy sterilising the disabled." 
  220. Clark, Malcolm (29 May 2023). "Malcolm Clark on X: "12./ Up to 15000 gay men were sent to concentrat…" (in en). Twitter. "Only ten years after he conducted the first 'sex change surgery' Gohrbandt helped design experiments at Dachau which have become a byword for immoral medical experimentation." 
  221. Marhoefer, Laurie (December 2023). "Transgender Life and Persecution under the Nazi State: Gutachten on the Vollbrecht Case". Central European HistoryWikipedia 56 (4): 595–601. doiWikipedia:10.1017/S0008938923000468. 
  222. Nunn, Zavier (24 July 2023). "Trans Liminality and the Nazi State". Past & PresentWikipedia 260 (1): 123–157. doiWikipedia:10.1093/pastj/gtac018. 
  223. "Marie-Luise Vollbrecht verliert Streit um Meinungsäußerung" (in de). Der Spiegel. 11 November 2022. 
  224. Schillace, Brandy (1 August 2021). "The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic" (in en). Scientific American. 
  225. 225.0 225.1 "New Research Reveals How the Nazis Targeted Transgender People" (in en). Smithsonian Magazine. 21 September 2023. 
  226. (2022). "Transgender Experiences in Weimar and Nazi Germany". Museum of Jewish Heritage.
  227. Rowling, J.K. (14 March 2024). "J.K. Rowling on X: "This, from @rivkahbrown, a journalist who wrote a…" (in en). Twitter. "I'd be delighted to meet you in court, Rivkah, to discuss holocaust denial." 
  228. 228.0 228.1 Hayes, Britt (15 April 2024). "J.K. Rowling's Legal Threat to Journalists for Calling Out Holocaust Denial Backfires" (in en). The Mary Sue. 
  229. Perry, Sophie (14 February 2023). "JJ Welles: Actor apologises for calling JK Rowling a 'Nazi'" (in en). PinkNews. 
  230. "UK vows to stop the super-rich using courts to silence critics" (in en). BBC News. 17 March 2022. 
  231. Elgot, Jessica (17 March 2022). "UK to clamp down on libel ‘lawfare’ by the rich in English courts" (in en). The Guardian. 
  232. Croft, Jane (2022-03-15). "Calls for reform of England’s libel laws to prevent abuse by wealthy litigants" (in en). Financial Times. 
  233. Harrington, Kayla (23 February 2023). "India Willoughby Explains the Troubling Reason J.K. Rowling Is 'Beyond Criticism' in British Media" (in en). The Mary Sue. 
  234. Fox, Mira (16 April 2024). "J.K. Rowling didn’t want to be called a Holocaust denier. That backfired.". The Forward. 
  235. Vaishnavi, Arya (16 April 2024). "Why is JK Rowling being called a ‘Holocaust Denier’? Here's why it is trending on X". Hindustan Times. 
  236. Lavietes, Matt (2 April 2024). "J.K. Rowling will not be arrested for comments about transgender women, police say" (in en). NBC News. 
  237. Lim, Clarissa-Jan (3 April 2024). "J.K. Rowling challenged Scotland’s new hate crime law by attacking trans women" (in en). MSNBC. 
  238. Ferrigine, Gabriella (1 April 2024). ""Arrest me!": J.K. Rowling posts anti-trans rant, responding to Scottish hate crime law" (in en). Salon. 
  239. McDonald, Andrew (4 April 2024). "JK Rowling, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk are fuming over Scotland’s hate crime law. Here’s why." (in en). Politico. 
  240. Sandle, Paul (2024-04-02). "J.K. Rowling will not face action under Scottish hate crime laws, police say" (in en). Reuters. 
  241. Cook, James; Hastie, Paul (1 April 2024). "JK Rowling in ‘arrest me’ challenge over Scottish hate crime law" (in en). BBC News. 
  242. Brooks, Libby; correspondent, Libby Brooks Scotland (2 April 2024). "JK Rowling will not be arrested under new Scottish hate law, say police" (in en). The Guardian. 
  243. 243.0 243.1 "I love JK Rowling’ poster taken down at Edinburgh railway station due to ‘political nature’", The Independent
  244. "I Love J.K. Rowling sign makes brief, controversial appearance in Vancouver", CBC News
  245. J.K. Rowling says 90% of her fans agree with her transphobia but they’re afraid to say so publicly, lgbtqnation
  246. PinkNews: A planned 'gender critical coming out day' sparks searing backlash: 'It's despicable in every way'
  247. PinkNews: Graham Linehan and anti-trans activists plan pathetic, pitiful Christmas campaign for TERFs
  248. LGBTQ Nation: New 'holiday' honors day J.K. Rowling “came out” as an opponent of trans rights
  249. PinkNews: What does ‘Merry Terfmas’ mean? Anti-trans activists’ pitiful Christmas campaign, explained
  250. The Advocate: J.K. Rowling Lambasted for 'Merry Terfmas' Tweet
  251. 251.0 251.1 251.2 251.3 Gemma Stone: 'Likes' are being removed from JK Rowling's transphobic tweet
  252. 252.0 252.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20210303034844/https://twitter.com/christapeterso/status/1366958322151088130
  253. PinkNews: Rosie Duffield thinks it 'deeply frightening' that 'you have to write womxn with an x'
  254. 254.0 254.1 Salon: J.K. Rowling organizes boozy TERF lunch amidst protest and march for transgender rights
  255. 255.0 255.1 PinkNews: JK Rowling enjoys boozy lunch with anti-trans lobby while thousands march for trans equality
  256. 256.0 256.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20220721190313/https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1515423379838455808
  257. 257.0 257.1 The Telegraph: JK Rowling promises to visit 'gender critical' book club set up in her name
  258. 258.0 258.1 Scottish Daily Express: JK Rowling to hang out with feminist Scottish book club named in her honour
  259. Daily Record: JK Rowling drops into Scots book club after promise to organiser who backed gender views
  260. PinkNews: "Here's everything the Harry Potter cast have said about JK Rowling and trans rights
  261. US Weekly: What the 'Harry Potter' Cast Has Said About Where They Stand With J.K. Rowling Amid Controversy"
  262. The Guardian: 'Trans women are women': Daniel Radcliffe speaks out after JK Rowling tweets
  263. Entertainment Weekly: Emma Watson speaks out for trans rights after J.K. Rowling's controversial comments
  264. BuzzFeed: Rupert Grint Just Responded To J.K. Rowling's Anti-Trans Statements
  265. Variety: Eddie Redmayne Criticizes J.K. Rowling’s Anti-Trans Tweets"
  266. Vanity Fair: Katherine Waterston on Why It's "Important" to Denounce J.K. Rowling's Transphobic Comments
  267. Vulture: John Cleese Supports J.K. Rowling, Mocks Trans Rights on Twitter
  268. The Hollywood Reporter: Ralph Fiennes Says Abuse Directed at J.K. Rowling Over Trans Controversy Is "Disgusting"
  269. Vanity Fair: Helena Bonham Carter Goes to Bat for J.K. Rowling and Johnny Depp
  270. Yahoo!Life: Harry Potter's Tom Felton praises JK Rowling for "bringing joy to generations"
  271. https://web.archive.org/web/20220408043144/https://twitter.com/setoacnna/status/1271180048184283136
  272. The Mirror: Piers Morgan hits out at 'ungrateful' Harry Potter stars for not supporting JK Rowling
  273. 273.0 273.1 The Telegraph: Daniel Radcliffe is surely the world’s most ungrateful man
  274. 274.0 274.1 LGBTQ Nation: Internet mocks anti-trans columnist who said Daniel Radcliffe has been 'ungrateful' to JK Rowling
  275. https://web.archive.org/web/20230404110620/https://twitter.com/Glinner/status/1643155114776051713
  276. Them: Transphobes Believe That Daniel Radcliffe's Pregnant Cis Girlfriend Is Trans
  277. PinkNews: Transphobes share conspiracy theory about Daniel Radcliffe's pregnant girlfriend
  278. 278.0 278.1 Daily Mail: 'Woke brat' Emma Watson is blasted for her 'ALL the witches' BAFTAs barb at JK Rowling - the woman who 'plucked her from obscurity' - and 'being so desperate to please trans fans, she s**t on ALL women'
  279. 279.0 279.1 Hibberd, James (April 11, 2024). "J.K. Rowling Says She Won't Forgive Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson for Trans Stance". The Hollywood Reporter. 
  280. 280.0 280.1 Juneau, Jen (April 11, 2024). "J.K. Rowling Hits Out at Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson Over Their Trans Rights Support: They Can 'Save Their Apologies'". People. 
  281. 281.0 281.1 Guinness, Emma (April 11, 2024). "JK Rowling and the row over trans rights: Timeline of author's fall out with Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson". The Independent. 
  282. Internet Archive copy of a Google Cache copy of a tweet. Thanks, Elon!
  283. https://web.archive.org/web/20220718053652/https://twitter.com/Matt_Severn/status/1540638993179721733
  284. Another Internet Archive copy of a Google Cache copy of a Twitter thread.
  285. The Daily Dot: Why did Katherine Waterston's Tina Goldstein vanish from the 'Fantastic Beasts' franchise?
  286. Radio Times: Is Katherine Waterston in the new Fantastic Beasts film?
  287. BBC News: Strike actress wins £11k payout in pregnancy discrimination case
  288. 288.0 288.1 Ellie Harrison, "JK Rowling says she was bullied off a Harry Potter forum she joined under a pseudonym", The Independent, 28 February 2023
  289. 289.0 289.1 Kian Rains, "JK Rowling: author claims she was ‘bullied’ out of a Harry Potter chatroom after joining anonymously", Edinburgh Evening News, 2 March 2023
  290. 290.0 290.1 "Mugglenet Chatroom Uninterested in JKR's Theories", J.K.Rowling Official Site
  291. "JKR is deadly serious when she forbids people to call Voldemort 'Voldy'", J.K.Rowling Official Site
  292. "The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling: Part Two", 16 July 2005
  293. 293.0 293.1 293.2 IFL Science: When You Get A Blood Transfusion, Does It Matter What Sex The Donor Is?
  294. 294.0 294.1 294.2 The Mary Sue: Please Do Not Let J. K. Rowling Convince You Blood Is Gendered
  295. Gizmodo: Donated Blood Is Safe No Matter a Person's Sex, Large Trial Find
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  388. 'Fantastic Beasts' Actor Kevin Guthrie Sentenced to 3 Years in Jail for Sexual Assault
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