Is JK Rowling Really A Transphobe?
Celebrities don’t get a say in how they’re defined.
Despite his contributions to hip-hop, fashion, and getting Keeping Up The Kardashians cancelled, Kanye West will always be the guy who didn’t let Taylor Swift finish. Despite 9 years playing the beloved Kramer on Seinfeld, Michael Richards will always be remembered for the last few minutes of that standup gig. And despite single-handedly creating an entire wizarding world, if you’ve seen JK Rowling’s name in a headline in the past couple of years, it’s almost certainly been about transphobia:
“J.K. Rowling just won’t stop attacking trans people online,” says Vice. “JK Rowling’s transphobia is an abuse of her platform,” claims Varsity. “JK Rowling is up to her transphobic nonsense once again,” writes The Mary Sue.
Rowling has become so synonymous with anti-trans bigotry that a poster that read, simply, “I ♥️ JK Rowling”, was removed from a train station in Edinburgh, over fears it “might make the city look transphobic.” This year’s Trans Pride in London featured “activists” holding “Rot In Hell JK Rowling” and “Kill J.K. Rowling” signs. And that’s just a sample of a two-year campaign of misogynistic abuse and death threats that’s been almost completely ignored by the media.
