JK’s jibe at trans activists dressed as masked ‘ninjas’
She mocks mob over woman’s ordeal
HARRY Potter author JK Rowling has ridiculed trans activists dressed as ‘ninjas’ seen grabbing a lone woman protester.
In extraordinary scenes beside a bronze statue of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, a masked mob tried to disrupt an event held by the Standing For Women group.
During the clashes, black-clad trans protesters appeared to grab a woman holding a purple, white and green suffragette flag and pull her off a wall – only for her to keep the banner flying throughout.
Sharing Sunday’s incident in Manchester with her 14million Twitter followers, Miss Rowling wrote: ‘I never expected the right side of history to include so many people in masks intimidating and assaulting women, did you?
‘But she never dropped her flag. Emmeline would be proud.’
The writer, who has been criticised by Harry Potter stars including Emma Watson for her campaign for safe spaces for women, also mocked the masked mob, said to include men or trans men.
Highlighting the irony of the their involvement, she posted: ‘There is no conflict between women’s rights and our ideology. To prove it, we’ve dressed up as ninjas to block public access to a statue of a suffragette.
‘We’re confident this has done wonders for our cause and definitely isn’t an unintentionally hilarious own goal.’
The Standing for Women gathering was part of an event which feminist activists said was aimed at reclaiming ‘a part of Manchester for women’s voices’.
The sculpture of Manchesterborn Emmeline Pankhurst – depicted in impassioned flow atop a chair – was unveiled in 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of UK women being granted the vote.
However, the gathering – at which police appear to have been present – attracted a counter-protest by Manchester Trans Rise Up members. They put a trans rights flag around the statue’s neck.
Some accused the woman protester of being a ‘fascist’.
One feminist asking the masked group to ‘blink once for yes, twice for no’ if they thought they were helping their cause.
But Manchester Trans Rise Up claimed victory on Twitter, with supporters saying they would be on the ‘right side of history’ and declaring that they had ‘claimed the space for the entire time’.
Members are understood to deny that the group in masks were part of their planned protest.
But Kellie-Jay Keen, founder of Standing For Women, told MailOnline: ‘In 2022 nothing could encapsulate the assault on women’s rights so perfectly as masked men preventing women from speaking next to the Pankhurst statue.
‘Women face an existential threat posed by transgender ideology – an ideology that places men into women’s rights, spaces and even our language.’
Last night, Greater Manchester Police said that no arrests had been made over Sunday’s confrontation.
The force said the ‘brief altercation’ had not been witnessed by officers, but afterwards a patrol had spoken to the woman with the flag after noticing signs of a ‘disturbance’. Officers ‘encouraged her away from the area to discuss the incident, which she didn’t wish to do,’ a spokesman said. No reports were made to officers but any complaint would be fully investigated, he said.
Miss Rowling, who lives in Edinburgh, has faced abuse over her views on the trans debate.
She has been accused of being transphobic over her statements that biological sex is real.
Last month the Mail reported on a backlash against transgender author Gretchen Felker-Martin over her horror novel Manhunt.
It depicts Miss Rowling’s death in a fire at a Scottish castle at the hands of trans activists.
‘Hilarious own goal’