JK Rowling’s stance on using other people’s preferred pronouns has taken a U-turn since she first weighed in on the transgender debate.
While the 58-year-old author now refers to some trans women as men – even if they have officially changed their gender – she once promised to “always” respect chosen pronouns.
She made this claim in the podcast documentary series, The Witch Trials by JK Rowlingwhere she explained why she is committed to transgender issues – even though she is a cisgender, heterosexual woman.
The revelation came when podcast host Megan Phelps-Roper asked Rowling if she could understand “the pain” her gender-critical views could cause trans women.
Rowling said she could understand this, but with the caveat that it was a reference to “old-school transsexuals.”
The author describes them in detail as “people who have undergone a complete gender reassignment due to a severe gender identity disorder.”
She said: “I have 100 percent compassion for such people and would absolutely respect their pronouns, I always have and always will, and I would want them to live, as I express them, a comfortable, simple life.”
But just a year after the author’s interview series was published, she became the target of a major backlash against trans rights when she misgendered a trans woman.
Commenting on Scotland’s new hate crime law, Rowling referred to trans women as men and called on police to arrest them.
This was done through the publication of an X/Twitter list of trans women, including transgender television presenter India Willoughby, who pointed out that she was legally recognized as a woman.
Many of the women on the list – which implied that trans women are predators and The Independent has chosen not to disclose it – has also undergone a sex change.
The Harry Potter author became even more embroiled in the online dispute with Willoughby when she referred to the Loose Women presenter as a “man” and using the pronoun “he”.
Rowling accused the broadcaster, who has a gender recognition certificate, of “staging a misogynistic, male fantasy about what a woman is.”
Since then, the author has repeatedly used male pronouns online when referring to trans women, explaining to her millions of followers that her commitment to this issue stems from a desire to protect women’s rights.
She believed she was vindicated on this issue too when Scottish police decided to take “no further action” when her tweets about transgender people were reported.
The author has made the Arrest Me challenge in light of the new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which came into force on 1 April.
It states that it is now a crime to “incite hatred” based on protected characteristics such as gender identity.
She later tweeted: “I hope that every woman in Scotland who wants to stand up for the reality and meaning of biological sex will be reassured by this announcement, and I trust that all women – regardless of their profile or financial means – will be treated equally under the law.”
“If they sue a woman for calling a man a man, I will repeat that woman’s words and they can sue us both at the same time.”
One viewpoint that remained unchanged in the podcast, however, is Rowling’s belief that trans women violate the rights of cis women and girls.
She said: “I can understand that it hurts (when trans women are misgendered). The thing is, to my knowledge, women are the only group that are asked to accept members of their oppressor class without reservation and without qualification.
“This movement argued and continues to argue that a man who may not have undergone surgery but identifies as a woman should have the door open to every women’s restroom, locker room, and rape center.
“And I say no, I’m afraid I say no. And we’re in a cultural moment where the pain of the individual is being put above the pain of women, whose rights and boundaries are constantly being attacked, and I find it interesting to ask why the pain of one group is being put above the pain of other groups.”
In one of her recent posts on this topic, the author decided to describe trans women as “trans-identified men.”
Referring to transgender model Munroe Bergdorf, Rowling stated that cisgender women do not have to agree to be women, even if trans women undergo gender reassignment surgery.
The author wrote: “Femininity has nothing to do with how well an individual – man or woman – embodies femininity by male standards. That is the very definition of misogyny.”
The revelation came a day after Rowling told Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson to “save your apologies” as their relationships remained strained over their stance on trans rights.
The author, who once had a close relationship with the pair when they starred in film adaptations of her wizarding novels, criticised the stars in the wake of a groundbreaking investigation into gender treatment in the UK.
Rowling, who first faced backlash from several key cast members when she made controversial remarks about the trans community in 2020, has seen her relationship with the stars deteriorate amid increasingly toxic debates.
The author criticized celebrities who supported gender reassignment surgery for children and said she could not forgive Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson for their stance in the debate.
The Independent has reached out to representatives for JK Rowling for comment.
