ABOVE: J.K. Rowling in 2010. (Photo by Daniel Ogren, from Flickr)
J.K. Rowling, author of the massively popular Harry Potter series, sparked intimidate backlash after tweeting support for Maya Forstater, a researcher on business and international development who was fired from The Center for Global Development (CGD) in London after comments that were seen as transphobic.
“Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill,” Rowling tweeted Dec. 19.
Dress however you please.
Call yourself whatever you like.
Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you.
Live your best life in peace and security.
But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 19, 2019
Rowling’s tweet came after Forstater lost a court case against CGD for wrongful termination. “I am taking CGD to the Employment Tribunal for discrimination on the grounds of belief, to try to establish that I should not have lost my job simply for expressing my beliefs about sex and gender on my personal Twitter account,” Forstater wrote on the crowdfunding website CrowdJustice. She had posted on the site to raise funds for her legal team.
According to The Guardian, Judge James Tayler ruled that Forstater’s views did “not have the protected characteristic of philosophical belief.” Tayler concluded that, based on the totality of the evidence, Forstater “is absolutist in her view of sex and it is a core component of her belief that she will refer to a person by the sex she considered appropriate even if it violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. The approach is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”
Twitter exploded with comment, accusing Rowling of being a trans-exclusionary radical feminist, or TERF. The hashtags #TERF, #JKRowling and #TransRightsAreHumanRights were among the top trending terms on Twitter Dec. 19.
Hey JK Rowling and the other TERFs, a reminder that “biological sex” isn’t what you think it is: https://t.co/fFquzTMiO7
— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) December 19, 2019
She claims women’s healthcare can be negatively impacted because trans women can be used to test medications for women. This does not happen. Medical testing has not been applied fairly to women because of medical bias not because of trans women.
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) December 19, 2019
Trans women are women.
Trans men are men.
Non-binary people are non-binary.CC: JK Rowling.
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) December 19, 2019
Wholeheartedly disagree. I stand with intersectional feminist humans,who recognize that trans women are real women,and against bigots like yourself. Bigotry masquerading as feminism is anything but. Your internalized distortions are helping me to continue dismantling mine.Thanks!
— Sara Ramirez (@SaraRamirez) December 19, 2019
UK you gotta deal with these TERFs this shit is out of control
— Jesse Thorn (@JesseThorn) December 19, 2019
