Young adult fiction author JK Rowling said that the does not want to “bow down” to criticism about her recent comments on transgender people.
On Wednesday the author of the Harry Potter series wrote a long post on her site to address the criticism over her “new trans activism.” Rowling has been facing heavy criticism about her opinion on transgender identity from the LGBTQ community along with Harry Potter franchise stars, Eddie Redmayne and Daniel Radcliffe.
“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,” she said.
The author received backlash on Twitter last Saturday when she condemned an opinion piece published by the website Devex. It is a media platform for the global development community and the site used the phrase “people who menstruate” instead of “women.”
Rowling then added another thread talking about the concept of biological sex. She revealed that she felt compelled to share her thoughts on her experience with domestic abuse and sexual assault.
“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,” she said in her post on Wednesday.
Rowling’s social media posts caused a backlash from the LGBTQ community and others who felt offended by her remarks. A Harry Potter fan group tweeted its disagreement to Rowling’s post and urged fans to contribute to a group that supports transgender women. Redmayne, the actor for two Fantastic Beast films disapproved with Rowling’s comments. He said that his transgender friends and co-workers are fed up of the “constant questioning of their identities.”
“Trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary identities are valid,” said Redmayne, who played a transgender woman in the 2015 film “The Danish Girl,” which earned him an Oscar nomination. He joined Radcliffe who also disapproved of Rowling’s thoughts on transgender identity. Radcliffe posted a long essay on Monday about Rowlings’ tweets on a website for a nonprofit organisation. The organisation is dedicated to crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ people. He said, “transgender women are women.”
“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,” Daniel Radcliffe added.