According to LGBTQ Nation Harry Potter creator JK Rowling has a troubling history of transphobic tweets dating back to March of 2018.
This has been a problem for fans as Rowling has a tendency to side with trans exclusionist commentators, a move that has alienated transgender and non-binary fans who identified strongly with the world she created, and were very supportive of her left-leaning platform.
In March of 2018, Rowling liked another Twitter user identified on the platform as @racybearhold. The Tweet in question spoke to the user’s issues with misogyny within the UK Labor Party, but included the line “Men in dresses get brocialist solidarity I never had.”
Wingardium transphobia @jk_rowling pic.twitter.com/s6cJ2rIr6A
— Philip Ellis (@Philip_Ellis) March 21, 2018
The Twitter user in question who has posted anti-transgender screeds to Twitter before, and identifies herself as “gender critical,” that’s a euphemism often used by those who are essentially anti-transgender.
In the wake of fan outrage over this incident, Rowling’s publicist claimed the like was accidental in nature, telling PinkNews that, “I’m afraid J.K. Rowling had a clumsy and middle-aged moment and this is not the first time she has favorited by holding her phone incorrectly.”
The like was removed from Rowling’s Twitter feed. Yet Rowling continues to like anti-transgender content: In October of 2017, she liked a Tweet linking to an article on Medium that argued that transgender women should be kept out of women’s rooms due to rape fears.
JK Rowling hitting that like button on a “trans women are rapists” piece, if you were wondering whether to relax as a trans person in the UK pic.twitter.com/W5JvBmylPW
— weak but not giving in (@sistersinead) October 24, 2017
Rowling’s “middle aged moment,” wasn’t the end of her affinity with trasnphobes, with the writer once again liking an anti-transgender tweet last September. One again, she approved of an anti-transgender pundit speaking out against transgender women in the media.
I know everyone is obsessed with wizard turds or whatever but jk r*wling is doing a lot more damaging, insidious shit and pretending no one cares pic.twitter.com/aJs2PXxjYS
— Goth Ms. Frizzle (@spookperson) January 6, 2019
Rowling has penned a crime fiction series under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith — and in one of the stories featuring detective Cormoran Strike, she introduces a transgender character.
In the story, published in 1997, a trans woman named Pippa attempted to stab Strike. The detective traps Pippa, demanding identification. Her ID reveals her birth gender, leading to comments about Pippa’s Adam’s apple. Pippa, meanwhile, is trying to make a break from Strike out an office door.
“If you go for that door one more fucking time I’m calling the police and I’ll testify and be glad to watch you go down for attempted murder. And it won’t be fun for you inside, Pippa,’ he added. ‘Not pre-op,’” says Strike to Pippa.
