‘We’re fighting misogyny, not against trans people’
I HAVE been in contact with Jo Rowling for two of three years. She got in touch on Twitter having seen the abuse I had been receiving at the hands of misogynists since 2004.
I don’t know when she picked up on what was happening to me but she was clearly concerned about women’s rights and safety.
This was before she decided to go public in her support for Maya Forstater (who lost her job for tweeting views on sex and gender) and before her now famous essay in which she explained why she felt so passionately that women’s safe spaces must be protected because of the prevalence of male violence.
We have talked regularly ever since and I soon learnt what an amazing person she is.
She has a wonderful sense of humour and an enormous amount of integrity and generosity.
She cares about the women at the bottom of the pile, when she is one of the wealthiest and most influential women in the world.
While I have experienced my fair share of the vitriol that is so easily spread on Twitter, Jo’s profile has meant she is a huge target.
It would be so easy for her to stay quiet but she doesn’t. She puts her views out there, stands up for those far less fortunate and exposes
herself to vicious threats to her life. People she knew in real life denounced her. She was compared to a Nazi, labelled a bigot, a transphobe, a Terf (Trans Exclusionary Feminist).
Her lifetime of philanthropic work was trashed and even dismissed as fake. But a solidarity has grown between us feminists, as it always does when we are under attack.
So when a message dropped into my inbox inviting me to a lovely lunch with like-minded women I, of course, jumped. I do not tend to get starstruck but the amazing charisma and presence Jo has is just tangible – she is a woman who has risked so much for other people. We discussed all sorts of things – feminism, politics, Ukraine. But mainly, we laughed. There was lots of joking, lots of fun and lots of heart.
There’s nothing grand about Jo, she laughs hard until she is clutching her stomach.
And I’ve never heard Jo say one anti-trans thing, I’ve never even heard her say one antitrans word. She is pro-women’s rights.
Some of us have been in the movement for decades and have fought with our blood, sweat and tears for the single-sex spaces and refuges that have been built.
We would happily fight beside trans people for their own safe spaces. We just don’t want them to be taken from women in the process.
This movement is growing and we are fighting against misogyny, not against trans people.
Now, people who used to be too afraid to speak out for fear of losing their livelihoods are telling me they are going to go public.
When we work together we have power.when we are united we get things done.
This is just the beginning. Jo has survived an onslaught of horrendous bullying and targeting, but she has brought us together and showed that they can’t divide or conquer us.
Women have strength beyond measure.