➤ J.K ROWLING, from p.44 aftermath of Rowling’s latest comments, countless
the current trans activism.”
Many transgender people and their allies
view this language as the work of a “concern
troll” — someone who speaks in gentle tones
but has an underlying hostility to the people
they are talking about.
“When you throw open the doors of bathrooms
and changing rooms to any man who
believes or feels he’s a woman — and, as I’ve
said, gender confi rmation certifi cates may now
be granted without any need for surgery or hormones
— then you open the door to any and all
men who wish to come inside,” Rowling wrote.
“That is the simple truth.”
Here, of course, “concern” is thrown out the
window — and trans women become nothing
other than men with a perverted desire to invade
women’s intimate spaces. This language
can be heard from right-wing Republicans in
legislative debate over trans rights.
Rowling tried steering the narrative in the direction
of suggesting that cisgender women are
under attack by trans activism. And yet, as she
continued writing, she would go on to add more
and more qualifi ers that blurred the focus and
direction of her argument time and again.
One example came when Rowling wrote, “So I
want trans women to be safe. At the same time,
I do not want to make natal girls and women
less safe.”
On another occasion, she wrote, “I know
transition will be a solution for some gender
dysphoric people, although I’m also aware
through extensive research that studies have
consistently shown that between 60-90 percent
of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their
dysphoria.”
The precision suggested by using such numbers
was not backed up by any data Rowling
bothered to point to, despite the length of her
post.
Rowling also fed into narratives that cast
doubt on whether transgender people even know
what they are doing when they decide to transition,
giving new life to perspectives that argue
there is a growing number of people transitioning
in recent years because of “social contagion”
rather than to affi rm their gender identity.
Adding insult to injury, Rowling further invalidated
transgender identities when she suggested
that mental health disorders — as distinguished
from gender dysphoria — could cause
people to choose to transition. Speaking about
writings of young transgender men, Rowling
curiously wrote, “The more of their accounts of
gender dysphoria I’ve read, with their insightful
descriptions of anxiety, dissociation, eating
disorders, self-harm, and self-hatred, the more
I’ve wondered whether, if I’d been born 30 years
later, I too might have tried to transition.”
Unsurprisingly, Rowling’s head-fi rst dive
into the wild world of transphobia has infuriated
transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming
folks, as well as their allies. In the
transgender and non-binary people have
posted on social media reminding followers that
trans women are women, trans men are men,
and non-binary people are non-binary.
Movie stars who depicted characters in fi lms
adapted from Rowling’s books have also voiced
their opposition to her comments. Daniel Radcliffe,
an actor who came to world renown by
playing Harry Potter in the eponymous movies,
took issue with a tweet by Rowling in which she
wrote, “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there
used to be a word for those people, Someone
help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
“Transgender women are women,” Radcliffe
said in a written statement on the website of
The Trevor Project, the leading national group
focused on preventing suicide and self-harm
by LGBTQ young people. “Any statement to
the contrary erases the identity and dignity of
transgender people and goes against all advice
given by professional health care associations
who have far more expertise on this subject
matter than either Jo or I… To all the people
who now feel that their experience of the “Harry
Potter” books has been tarnished or diminished,
I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments
have caused you.”
H a p p y P r i d e
M o n t h 2 0 2 0
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