J.K. Rowling, whose name is becoming synonymous with transphobia, deleting a tweet thanking author Stephen King for his support after he clarified that “trans women are women”. This is swiftly becoming the most overused phrase of 2020, but you do love to see it.
Rowling had issued a nine-tweet response to Shadow Labour Environment Minister Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who claimed she was using her history of domestic abuse to justify transphobic comments. (Russell-Moyle has since unreservedly apologised.)
One of those tweets read:
“Andrea Dworkin wrote: ‘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.’ It isn’t hateful for women speak about their own experiences, nor do they deserve shaming for doing so.”
It was this tweet that famed horror aficionado Stephen King retweeted (and at the time of writing, has still retweeted).
Rowling appeared to be over-the-moon with the (thankfully) rare support for her anti-trans comments. She tweeted:
“I’ve always revered Stephen King, but today my love reached – maybe not Annie Wilkes levels – but new heights. It’s so much easier for men to ignore women’s concerns, or to belittle them, but I won’t ever forget the men who stood up when they didn’t need to. Thank you, Stephen.”
It’s not clear why King shared that particular tweet, but one of his followers asked him to clarify his personal stance on trans rights.
“Trans women are women,” he replied.
Yes. Trans women are women.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 28, 2020
In response, Rowling deleted her fawning tweet. I repeat: you just LOVE to see it.
Unbelievable: Stephen King retweeted one of JKR’s tweets today. She got so excited that a single celebrity finally backed up her views with a mere RT that she wrote a whole thank you
King then said “trans women are women” and JKR deleted her praise. https://t.co/zS08UGnYTF pic.twitter.com/3GAddq1o65
— Andrew Sims+ (@sims) June 28, 2020
Rowling has, of course, outed herself once and for all as a TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist), even if she believes that term is a slur. Her recent stance on trans rights – claiming that they pose a danger to the rights of cisgender women – earned a rebuke from every major Harry Potter actor.
“Transgender women are women,” Daniel Radcliffe said.
“Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”
If you want to learn about why Rowling’s essay was factually incorrect scaremongering, have a read of our interview with trans activist Sally Goldner AM. If you already know her essay was bad, go read the interview anyway. Trust me.
