Rowling: trans stand was moral obligation

JK ROWLING has defended her stance on women-only spaces by stating that “98-99 per cent of sexual offences are caused by those born with penises”.

The Harry Potter author said she felt a “moral obligation” to take on trans activists who had adopted “the attitude of the fundamentalist”.

Those close to Rowling had implored her not to enter the debate. “There were people close to me who were begging me not to do it,” she said in the latest episode of The Witch Trials of JK Rowling podcast. But Rowling said she had no choice but to stand up against “a movement that I see as authoritarian, illiberal”.

“I think I have a very realistic view, not a scaremongering view, on what may happen when you loosen boundaries around singlesex spaces for women and girls,” she said.

“I can already hear the screams of outrage: ‘You are saying that trans people are all predators.’ Of course I am not, any more than I’m saying all men are predators. I have good men in my life who are among my favourite people. But I am also aware that 98-99 per cent of sexual offences are caused by those born with penises. The problem is male violence.”

According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, between 2017 and 2020, the 98 per cent of victims who had experienced rape or assault by penetration since they were 16 years old reported that the perpetrator was male. Data also show that in the year ending June, of the 6,403 people convicted of serious sexual offences, 6,223 were male – or 97.2 per cent.

On why she felt moved to act, Rowling said: “I had been becoming increasingly concerned about the way in which women were being shut down. I was starting to see activists behaving in a very aggressive way outside feminist meetings.

“I’m looking at an assault now on freedom of speech, freedom of thought, even freedom of association.”