JK’s boozy lunch with the Respect My Sex activists
Author’s show of solidarity with women’s rights group
JK ROWLING has thrown her weight behind the ‘Respect My Sex’ campaign for women’s rights.
The Harry Potter author invited leaders of the campaign and other women who have concerns over the trans rights agenda to what turned out to be a boozy lunch.
Among them was Maya Forstater, executive director of the campaign group Sex Matters.
Earlier this month Miss Forstater and fellow activists Caroline Ffiske and Heather Binning launched their ‘Respect My Sex If You Want My X’ campaign in the Daily Mail, urging voters to call on local election candidates to set out their stall on issues such as how they define the word woman.
Others who attended the lunch in London included Labour MP Rosie Duffield and the SNP’s Joanna Cherry. Miss Rowling, who has attracted the
‘Such a source of strength to me’
ire of trans rights activists for her support for gender-critical views, tweeted a picture of the group, and added: ‘There was a lunch and I’m not saying I’ve only just sobered up enough to type this tweet but at the same time, I’m not not saying that.’
She added three hearts in purple, white and green – the colours of the suffragette movement – and the hashtag #RespectMySex.
Miss Forstater tweeted: ‘JK Rowling has been such a source of strength to me and to so many women standing up for women’s rights. #SexMatters #RespectMySex
‘We could have had a table a hundred times bigger to fit all the women (and a few men) who have given so much to fighting back for the ability to say the truth, and to protect children. It’s amazing that we have had to put so much effort into this simple thing. But on the other hand I got to meet all these smart, funny, brave women.’
Miss Cherry tweeted: ‘I had the best day yesterday. Thank you JK Rowling for bringing together so many of the women who’ve helped sustain each other through difficult times.’ Miss Rowling, who lives in Edinburgh, replied: ‘Courage calls to courage xxx.’ The author also posted a picture of Miss Duffield, with the caption: ‘Two ex-single mums now united for women’s rights.’ It is rumoured that Miss Duffield is considering quitting Labour over abuse she has received for her views.
Other guests included Professor Kathleen Stock, who resigned from her University of Sussex job after being accused of ‘transphobia’ and Helen Joyce, who wrote the book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.
Another was Liane Timmermann, veteran activist and campaigner at the ‘Get The L Out UK – Lesbian NOT queer’ group, and barrister Allison Bailey who is suing charity Stonewall and her London chambers over claims she was ‘silenced’ for her views on transgender issues.
Angela Wild, a businesswoman who says she is sent ‘death and rape threats on a daily basis’ by transgender rights activists over her T-shirts and badges campaigning for women’s sex-based rights, also attended. So too did journalists Julie Bindel and Suzanne Moore, who said she was forced out of The Guardian over her views.
Writing in the Mail this month, Miss Forstater said the growing campaign to protect sex-based rights ‘represents the most significant women’s movement since the suffragettes’ because ‘we women have had enough’.