GLAAD Campaigns To Cancel Harry Potter Author J.K. Rowling For Defending Biological Sex

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Jun 11, 2020

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling recently defended biological sex in a series of tweets and now the lobby and activist group GLAAD is demanding she be cancelled.

Rowling posted to Twitter, “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.”

Related: Harry Potter Scribe J.K. Rowling: “If Sex Isn’t Real, The Lived Reality Of Women Globally Is Erased”

She added, “The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women – ie, to male violence – ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences – is a nonsense.”

She concluded, “I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”

GLAAD Targets J.K. Rowling For Cancellation

In response to these tweets, GLAAD demanded Rowling being canceled. GLAAD’s head of celebrity talent Anthony Ramos spoke to Variety demanding Warner Bros. and others who work with Rowling to issues statements contrary to her.

Ramos stated, “J.K. Rowling proactively spreads misinformation and has refused conversations with LGBTQ leaders who merely want to have a dialogue and let her know the negative impact that these tweets have.”

“A generation raised on J.K.’s own books about embracing differences is now making their voices loud and clear and if she refuses dialogue, then companies that partner with her should tell the community where they stand,” Ramos continued.

Ramos then concluded, “Studios, networks, and brands affiliated with J.K. Rowling owe it to their transgender employees and consumers to speak out against her inaccurate and hurtful comments.”

Related: Harry Potter Scribe J.K. Rowling Accused of Racism After New Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Trailer

This isn’t the first time GLAAD has come out against Rowling. Earlier this month their official Twitter account accused Rowling of “targeting trans people.”

They posted, “JK Rowling continues to align herself with an ideology which willfully distorts facts about gender identity and people who are trans. In 2020, there is no excuse for targeting trans people.”

In a subsequent tweet they added, “We stand with trans youth, especially those Harry Potter fans hurt by her inaccurate and cruel tweets.”

GLAAD previously targeted Rowling back in December 2019 saying, “JK Rowling has aligned herself with an anti-science ideology that denies the basic humanity of people who are transgender.”

They added, “Trans and non-binary people are not a threat to women, and to imply otherwise puts trans people at risk.”

They followed that up writing, “Now is the time for feminists who know and support trans people to speak up and support trans people’s right to be treated equally and fairly.”

Interestingly enough the organization had previously promoted Rowling’s work.

Rowling Responds

Rowling would respond to her critics including GLAAD in a recently penned essay on her official website that explained her views on gender and biology. The author, in writing the essay, didn’t hold any punches and continued to push her views that there are separate genders.

The essay, which she shared to Twitter, began with her reflecting on statements that have caused a stir with Twitter activists and Harry Potter fans, many of whom have accused her of being transphobic.

Related: Harry Potter Scribe J.K. Rowling Accused of Transphobia After Supporting Fired Researcher Maya Forstater

In the essay, Rowling documents her private and public foray into gender politics issues detailing how she supported researcher Maya Forstater, who lost her job over tweets that were deemed transphobic.

She explains, “All the time I’ve been researching and learning, accusations and threats from trans activists have been bubbling in my Twitter timeline. This was initially triggered by a ‘like’.”

Rowling continues, ” When I started taking an interest in gender identity and transgender matters, I began screenshotting comments that interested me, as a way of reminding myself what I might want to research later. On one occasion, I absent-mindedly ‘liked’ instead of screenshotting. That single ‘like’ was deemed evidence of wrongthink, and a persistent low level of harassment began.”

She then detailed that she compounded her “accidental ‘like’ crime by following Magdalen Berns on Twitter.”

Rowling details she followed Berns because she wanted to get in touch with her, “Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour. I followed her because I wanted to contact her directly, which I succeeded in doing.”

However, following Berns would result in increased social media abuse according to Rowling, “However, as Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises, dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased.”

Related: Harry Potter Scribe J.K. Rowling Targeted For Cancellation Again

Rowling goes on to explain this prepared her for what would happen when she supported Forstater, “I mention all this only to explain that I knew perfectly well what was going to happen when I supported Maya. I must have been on my fourth or fifth cancellation by then.”

She added, “I expected the threats of violence, to be told I was literally killing trans people with my hate, to be called c*** and b**** and, of course, for my books to be burned, although one particularly abusive man told me he’d composted them.”

However, Rowling also detailed she received plenty of support for supporting Forstater, “What I didn’t expect in the aftermath of my cancellation was the avalanche of emails and letters that came showering down upon me, the overwhelming majority of which were positive, grateful and supportive.”

She would go on to denounce trans activists using accusations of TERF or a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist to intimated people and organizations. She also called on people to stand up to them.

Rowling wrote, “Speaking as a biological woman, a lot of people in positions of power really need to grow a pair (which is doubtless literally possible, according to the kind of people who argue that clownfish prove humans aren’t a dimorphic species).”

She would later double down on this towards the end of the essay writing, “But endlessly unpleasant as its constant targeting of me has been, I refuse to bow down to a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it.”

Related: Star Wars Icon Mark Hamill Explains Why He “Liked” J.K. Rowling’s Tweet Supporting Maya Forstater

She continued, “I stand alongside the brave women and men, gay, straight and trans, who’re standing up for freedom of speech and thought, and for the rights and safety of some of the most vulnerable in our society: young gay kids, fragile teenagers, and women who’re reliant on and wish to retain their single sex spaces.”

Rowling goes on to criticize political parties, “Political parties seeking to appease the loudest voices in this debate are ignoring women’s concerns at their peril. In the UK, women are reaching out to each other across party lines, concerned about the erosion of their hard-won rights and widespread intimidation.”

She adds, ” The supreme irony is that the attempt to silence women with the word ‘TERF’ may have pushed more young women towards radical feminism than the movement’s seen in decades.”

As for why she is speaking out against these trans activists, Rowling details its because of her charitable trust, the fact that she’s an ex-teacher, a proponent of free speech stemming from the fact many of her books are banned, her concern for “the huge explosion of young women wishing to transition and about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning (returning to their original sex), because they regret taking steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility, and the fifth reason is her revelation that she is a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

She concludes her essay writing, “All I’m asking – all I want – is for similar empathy, similar understanding, to be extended to the many millions of women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse.”

What do you think of Rowling’s unwillingness to waver to the online activists? Let me know your thoughts!

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