J.K. Rowling took to social media to continue to air out her thoughts on gender identity and the intensity of trans activists in the wake of a recent New York Times article, “Transgender Activists Question the Movement’s Confrontational Approach.”
The article, published Nov. 26 and written by Jeremy W. Peters, purported that some within the transgender activist movement think they’re being too confrontational when dealing with anti-trans opponents. The “Harry Potter” author has been vocal against the trans community for years and called the article a “rewriting of history,” adding that, “‘Yes, maybe trans activists went a little over the top at times’ takes are frankly insulting.”
“I’ve been sent thousands of threats of murder, rape and violence,” Rowling wrote on X Monday. “A trans woman posted my family’s home address with a bomb-making guide. My eldest child was targeted by a prominent trans activist who attempted to doxx her and ended up doxxing the wrong young woman. I could write a twenty thousand word essay on what the consequences have been to me and my family, and what we’ve endured is NOTHING compared to the harm done to others.”
She continued, “By standing up to a movement that relies on threats of violence, ostracisation and guilt-by-association, all of us have been smeared and defamed, but many have lost their livelihoods. Some have been physically assaulted by trans activists. Female politicians have been forced to hire personal security on the advice of police. The news that one of the U.K.’s leading endocrinologists, Dr. Hillary Cass, was advised not to travel by public transport for her own safety should shame everyone who let this insanity run amok.”
The Times spoke with Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the executive director of Advocates for Transgender Equality, for its story. He said that if the confrontational approach to dealing with anti-trans people continues, no one will be open to changing perspectives.
“We have to make it OK for someone to change their minds,” Heng-Lehtinen told the Times. “We cannot vilify them for not being on our side. No one wants to join that team.”
Rowling finished her social media post by saying “some who’ve been riding high on their own supply are waking up with a hell of a hangover” and that receipts of interactions she’s faced will make for some “very ugly reading.”
“Mealy-mouthed retconning of what has actually happened over the past 10 years is predictable but will not stand,” she said. “I don’t doubt those who’ve turned a blind eye to the purges of non-believers, or even applauded and encouraged them, would rather minimize what the true cost of speaking out was, but ‘yes, maybe trans activists went a little over the top at times’ takes are frankly insulting. A full reckoning on the effects of gender ideology on individuals, society and politics is still a long way off, but I know this: the receipts will make very ugly reading when that time comes, and there are far too many of them to sweep politely under the carpet.”
