JK Rowling Essay Says Her Family “Begged” Her Not To Share Transphobic Views

JK Rowling has published a new essay in which she describes trans rights as “the greatest assault of my lifetime” on women’s rights.

The Harry Potter author says her family “begged” her not to speak out about her transphobic views, but claims she would have “felt ashamed for the rest of [her] days if [she] hadn’t” spoken up.

“I’d come to believe that the socio-political movement insisting ‘trans women are women’ was neither kind nor tolerant,” reads an excerpt of Rowling’s essay, published in The Times, “but in fact profoundly misogynistic, regressive, dangerous in some of its objectives and nakedly authoritarian in its tactics.”

The essay is featured in The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, a book of essays that speak on a ‘five-year campaign to protect women’s sex-based rights’ in Scotland.

I’m very proud to have contributed an essay to this book, alongside many women I’m proud to call my friends.

For non-Scots, ‘wheesht’ means ‘be quiet’ or ‘hush up’, but I suspect you could have worked that out from the context… https://t.co/EpcDW3CTmf

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 16, 2024

Rowling’s family ‘begged her’ not to speak

She claims she watched women campaign for their rights from the sidelines because: “people around me, including some I love, were begging me not to speak”, adding the guilt caused her “chronic pain”.

“I believe that what is being done to troubled young people in the name of gender identity ideology is, indeed, a terrible medical scandal.

“I believe we’re witnessing the greatest assault of my lifetime on the rights our foremothers thought they’d guaranteed for all women.

“Ultimately, I spoke up because I’d have felt ashamed for the rest of my days if I hadn’t. If I feel any regret at all, it’s that I didn’t speak far sooner.”

JK Rowling claims she is victim of “online monstering”

In the essay she also addresses the backlash to her support for Maya Forstater, a tax expert for international think tank Centre for Global Development, who was sacked after tweeting that transgender people can’t change their biological sex.

“Nobody who’s been through an online monstering or a tsunami of death and rape threats will claim it’s fun, and I’m not going to pretend it’s anything other than disturbing and frightening.”

On Harry Potter stars denouncing transphobic views

Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne have all spoken up in support of trans rights.

Rowling reflected: “People who’d worked with me rushed to distance themselves from me or to add their public condemnation of my blasphemous views (though I should add that many former and current colleagues have been staunchly supportive).

“The thing is, those appalled by my position often fail to grasp how truly despicable I find theirs,” she said.