MANILA, Philippines – Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling aired her controversial beliefs about the transgender community on Thursday, December 19, and stupefied fans are calling it ridiculous.
"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," Rowling tweeted.
Dress however you please.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 19, 2019
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
"But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya#ThisIsNotADrill," she wrote.
Rowling's tweet was in support of UK researcher Maya Forstater, who was fired from the Centre for Global Development in March 2019 for her own anti-trans statements, stating that "people cannot change their biological sex."
After a London judge upheld her dismissal, calling her views on sex and gender "absolutist" and "incompatible with human dignity," Forstater tweeted her disbelief, emphasizing that "sex is a biological fact & is immutable. There are two sexes. Men are male. Women are female. It is impossible to change sex. These were until very recently understood as basic facts of life."
But this does not require removing people’s freedom to speak about objective reality, or to discuss proposed changes to law and to government policies clearly.
— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) December 18, 2019
GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), an American non-government LGBTQ rights organization, said that Rowling's comments "put trans people at risk," when "trans men, trans women and non-binary people are not a threat."
"J.K. Rowling, whose books gave kids hope that they could work together to create a better world, has now aligned herself with an anti-science ideology that denies the basic humanity of people who are transgender,” GLAAD's head of talent Anthony Ramos said in a statement.
GLAAD reached out to Rowling's representatives for an "offline discussion," to which they declined.
Rowling has been called a #TERF activist on Twitter, following several "trans-exclusionary radical feminist" activists herself. She's also been called out for liking tweets that demeaned trans-women in the past. – Rappler.com