JK says thank you to stars for backing in row over trans rights
FOR the past few months she has been on the receiving end of horrendous abuse and even death threats.
But now Harry Potter author JK Rowling has thanked a group of fellow writers who have lent their support to her in a public letter.
Yesterday, Miss Rowling expressed her gratitude to the 58 people who signed a letter supporting her after she was subjected to the ‘insidious, authoritarian and misogynistic trend’.
Signatories included Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan, playwright Sir Tom Stoppard and comedian Griff Rhys Jones.
Critics of her stance on transgender rights declared her ‘dead’ by starting a #RIPJKRowling hashtag which topped Twitter’s trending charts. It followed the release of her latest Cormoran Strike novel, Troubled Blood, which features a cross-dressing male killer.
The 55-year-old author drew strong criticism for her comments on gender identity – including from Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson – but vehemently denies she is transphobic.
After reviews of Troubled Blood, which she wrote under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, revealed it featured a male murderer with a fetish for women’s clothing, #RIPJKRowling trended on Twitter.
The letter in the Sunday Times, also signed by author Lionel Shriver, writers Graham Linehan and Andrew Davies and actors Alexanat
‘Solidarity with women’
der Armstrong, Ben Miller and James Dreyfus, said: ‘We are signing this letter in the hope that, if more people stand up against the targeting of women online, we might
least make it less acceptable to engage in it or profit from it.’
Responding on Twitter, Miss Rowling wrote: ‘I’m profoundly grateful to all the signatories, not only on a personal level (though believe me, I’m extremely grateful on that level), but because the signatories are showing solidarity with all the women who’re currently speaking up for their own rights and facing threats of violence and even death in return.’
She added: ‘This is also an opportunity to express my gratitude once more to the thousands of people who’ve sent me personal emails and letters of support. I’m trying to respond to all of them.’
Miss Rowling was accused of being transphobic after reacting to an article headlined ‘Creating a more equal post-Covid-19 world for people who menstruate’. She tweeted: ‘People who menstruate. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’
The author defended her comments and said: ‘If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction.
‘If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.
‘It isn’t hate to speak the truth.’