Is JK Rowling guilty of transphobia?

An opinion article from one of our directors.

Celebrities are very powerful and highly influential to their unquestionably loyal and faithful followers. What they say and do is important to their fans.

When Taylor Swift simply attended the recent Super Bowl, her mere 54 seconds of on-screen exposure resulted in the highest-ever Super Bowl viewing figure of 123.4m. So powerful is her pull that in the entire US TV history, only the Apollo 11 Moon landing had a higher viewing figure! She wasn’t even performing at the event; her expected attendance to watch her boyfriend playing that day was sufficient to achieve this. This is the pull and power of celebrity status.

So when, in March 2018, JK Rowling ‘liked’ a tweet that appeared to many as being transphobic, there was great concern among many of her devoted followers. As reported at the time by PinkNews:

“The beloved Harry Potter author shocked fans yesterday when she liked a controversial tweet amid a row about the status of transgender women in the left-wing Labour Party– after she liked a tweet that referred to trans women as ‘men in dresses’.”

But the concern was quickly allayed as PinkNews went on to state that a spokesperson for JK Rowling had told PinkNews:

“I’m afraid J.K. Rowling had a clumsy and middle-aged moment and this is not the first time she has favourited by holding her phone incorrectly.”

So limited damage had been done, but there still existed that nagging doubt.

JK Rowling & Maya Forstater – June 2020

But that doubt became a clearer reality some two years later when JKR published her alleged “infamous essay” in June 2020.

This was published by Rowling to explain her tweeting in support of Maya Forstater, who had taken her case to an employment tribunal to rule on whether there was a legally protected right of a Gender Critical belief. Ultimately the tribunal ruling was that our beliefs are protected in UK law, however the contention that followed was due to the claim by those holding Gender Critical beliefs that this ruling permitted all views to be publicly aired, no matter how insulting or harmful.

The judge went to great lengths to make the position clear in the ruling, stating that

“beliefs may well be profoundly offensive and even distressing to many others”

and

“this judgement does not mean that those with gender-critical beliefs can ‘misgender’ trans persons with impunity. The claimant, like everyone else, will continue to be subject to the prohibitions on discrimination and harassment that apply to everyone.”

But the likes of Forstater continue to conveniently ignore this.

JK Rowling is no longer attempting to disguise her beliefs

Moving swiftly up to date, we now find ourselves at a point where JK Rowling is no longer attempting to disguise her beliefs as ‘senior moments’ and made them perfectly clear when she was presented with an image of broadcaster India Willoughby, with JKR refusing to accept she is a woman, insisting that the image shown was that of a man.

So, the question we are asking is whether this outburst by JKR constitutes transphobia and a discriminatory hate crime.

We are, of course, all entitled to hold on to our beliefs, which JKR knows all too well is everyone’s legal right, and like many others, our beliefs on this matter are based on the definition of transphobia.

So, to ensure our views are formed on a fair and independent basis, we refer to the globally accepted United Nations definition, which states:

Transphobia

Any form of prejudice or hostile attitude towards transgender people, including denying their gender identity or refusing to acknowledge it. Transphobia may be targeted at people who are or who are perceived to be trans, and may manifest as exclusion, stigma, harassment, criminalization, pathologization, discrimination and/or violence.

As Robin White, a barrister specialising in harassment, stated on GB News, under current law, a single case of misgendering alone is unlikely to be deemed unlawful. However, Robin did believe that JKR was getting very close to crossing that line, and that was before her latest online outburst.

JK Rowling’s X/Twitter Posts

So what we set out is to see how her two tweets stand up to the UN’s transphobia definition, which we print in full below:

The original tweet by JKR:

“You’ve sent me the wrong video. There isn’t a lady in this one, just a man revelling in his misogynistic performance of what he thinks ‘woman’ means: narcissistic, shallow and exhibitionist.”

Second tweet by JKR:

“The word ‘transphobic’, as used here, does not mean an irrational fear or dislike of trans people. It means refusing to use gender identity ideology’s jargon, refusing to parrot its slogans, refusing to accept that sex doesn’t matter when it comes to sport and single-sex spaces, refusing to believe a bearded heterosexual man becomes a lesbian when he declares himself one, and refusing to believe an abusive, misogynistic male is a woman because he likes to wear mini-dresses and pout in selfies.
Like every other gender critical person I know, I believe everyone should be free to express themselves however they wish, dress however they please, call themselves whatever they want, sleep with any consenting adult who wishes to sleep with them, and that trans-identified people should have the same protections regarding employment, housing, freedom of speech and personal safety every other citizen is entitled to.
But this isn’t nearly enough for the dominant strain of trans activism, which asserts that unless freedom of speech is removed from dissenters, unless trans-identified men are permitted to strip away women’s rights, with particular reference to single sex spaces like rape crisis centres, prison cells, hospital wards, changing rooms and public bathrooms, until we all bow down to their neo-religion, accept their pseudo-scientific claims and embrace their circular reasoning, trans people are more oppressed, and more at risk, than any other group in society.
This is nonsense. 99.9% of the world knows it’s nonsense. The emperor is naked. He might be wearing lipstick, but his balls are swinging in plain sight.”

Before diving into the specific claims JKR has made, it is important to first make clear that it can never be the decision of any person or organisation accused of discrimination to be the arbiter of their own innocence.

A clearly recognised tactic within the Gender Critical playbook is to always ensure they include a claim of “not being transphobic” but to have full empathy and acceptance of trans people to be free to live as they wish.

So it is no surprise this is included in JKR’s tweet, but, in my opinion, it is probably safe to say the entire second paragraph is hollow and meaningless when it appears the remainder of a statement is to openly state precisely why you do not accept trans people should live as they wish and state exactly how you want to limit their participation in everyday life.

Living how you wish with prohibited boundaries and restrictions that you demand is clearly the total opposite of “living as you wish”.

So, how does JKR’s statement stand up to the UN’s definition of transphobia?

As defined by the United Nations, this constitutes Transphobia:

Any form of prejudice or hostile attitude towards transgender people, including denying their gender identity or refusing to acknowledge it.

Here are the key extracts from JK Rowling in her two tweets about India:

‘You’ve sent me the wrong video. There isn’t a lady in this one, just a man revelling in his misogynistic performance of what he thinks ‘woman’ means’

The word ‘transphobic’, as used here, .. means refusing to use gender identity … refusing to accept that sex doesn’t matter.’

‘refusing to believe a bearded heterosexual man becomes a lesbian when he declares himself one, and refusing to believe an abusive, misogynistic male is a woman because he likes to wear mini-dresses and pout in selfies’
‘The emperor is naked. He might be wearing lipstick, but his balls are swinging in plain sight.’

It is hard to argue that this amounts to anything other than hostility and is a refusal to accept and acknowledge being transgender. If you believe this to be the case, then her comments clearly fit the United Nations’ definition of transphobia.

And what is the justification for her choice of descriptive words?

JK Rowling is an experienced author, so she knows the power of words and the importance of her carefully chosen adjectives. These adjectives paint a very vivid picture, just like the characters she depicts in her novels, to create the images she wants in the reader’s mind.

This is what she stated in her follow-up tweet, but this time with adjectives removed:

“when it comes to sport and single-sex spaces, refusing to believe a heterosexual man becomes a lesbian when he declares himself one, and refusing to believe a male is a woman because he likes to wear dresses”

Her intended meaning is not obscure in any way, but this is what she chose to print with the highlighted adjectives restored to her intentionally emotive and demonising text:

“when it comes to sport and single-sex spaces, refusing to believe a bearded heterosexual man becomes a lesbian when he declares himself one, and refusing to believe an abusive, misogynistic male is a woman because he likes to wear mini-dresses and pout in selfies”

And before I hear the cries of ‘well, she’s an author, so it’s simply second nature to use adjectives’, it’s the choice of the adjectives that matters.

My personal choice was to describe JKR as an ‘experienced author’ in preference to describing her as a ‘skilled author’ – in the context of the sentence, the meaning doesn’t change, but I intended not to compliment her – the point is that adjectives are chosen intentionally to paint a chosen picture in the reader’s mind, to add colour, and the colour JKR chose was intentional to demonise and vilify trans women. There is simply no moral or factual justification to portray trans women this way:

‘He might be wearing lipstick, but his balls are swinging in plain sight”

– this vile rhetoric is simply unacceptable, and it paints a picture that is dangerous.

Transphobic Hate Crime

We now have undeniable evidence with the horrific loss of Brianna Ghey that lives are being brutally taken and targeted as a direct result of transphobia, and a further 4 teenagers currently facing charges in Harrow following another vicious case of the stabbing with allegations of transphobia, to deliberately portray trans women this way to her millions of followers has to be seriously questioned. JK Rowling is rightly quick to call out any insulting or threatening messages she receives, but not so quick to do the same when her followers attack trans people or anyone standing by them.

Hate speech empowers hate crime

Over the last few days, our own team member, Katie Neeves, has been subjected to the most disgusting and vile messages of a degrading sexual and threatening nature. These messages do not appear out of nowhere and without the perpetrator feeling empowered and safe to send them.

As clearly demonstrated by Taylor Swift’s power, the empowerment comes from celebrities like JK Rowling using their celebrity status to whip up support from her army of easily influenced lapdogs who will pounce on any target that she points at. Is this intentional? We can all have a view on that.

Safety now needs to come from the law.

Over the last 4 years, this Tory Government have championed ‘freedom of speech’ as a tool to whip up their own angry mob to stoke up their hateful policy of Culture Wars – laws have been relaxed, and the Police directed not to ‘waste’ time or funds in clamp down to protect the victims of such crimes. Labour has made a pledge to make anti-LGBT+ hate crime an aggravated offence, which is currently restricted to racial or religiously aggravated offences. We will see if this goes far enough to protect innocent lives, but adequate legal protection needs to be established as the bar to prove harassment is simply not acceptable. One offence should be punishable without the victim having to endure continued attacks before the law steps in.

The effect of transphobia

Transphobia is having a genuine impact on a targeted minority. We can all decide whether JK Rowling meets the UN definition of being guilty of transphobia or if her carefully chosen words are influencing others to be transphobic. Neither would be acceptable on just a humane or moral level, but there is no question her name and reputation will forever be tarnished for the high-profile role she is playing in a spiteful war against a targeted minority who simply want to be free to live their lives just like she claims to support.

Action will always speak louder than her carefully chosen words.