J.K. Rowling Rails Against Trans-Rights ‘Activist Actors’ Who Doxxed Her
The Harry Potter writer decried the death threats she’s received over her controversial statements about transgender women.
Dia Dipasupil
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling took to Twitter on Monday to rail against transgender-rights activists she says doxxed her during a protest outside her home.
The author claimed that three demonstrators posed in front of her home—with her address clearly visible—and took a photo that was posted on social media last week.
“Last Friday, my family’s address was posted on Twitter by three activist actors who took pictures of themselves in front of our house,” she wrote. “I want to say a massive thank you to everybody who reported the image to Twitter Support. Your kindness and decency made all the difference to my family and me. I’d also like to thank [the Scotland police] for their support and assistance in this matter.”
Last Friday, my family’s address was posted on Twitter by three activist actors who took pictures of themselves in front of our house, carefully positioning themselves to ensure that our address was visible. 1/8
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 22, 2021
“I implore those people who retweeted the image with the address still visible, even if they did so in condemnation of these people’s actions, to delete it,” she continued.
The Post Millennial reported that drag performer and self-proclaimed “trans-ally” Holly Stars posted the photo, but took it down from social media after the post received an overwhelming amount of transphobic responses in the comments.
“Yesterday we posted a picture we took at J.K. Rowling’s house,” Stars posted online. “While we stand by the photo, since posting it we have received an overwhelming amount of serious and threatening transphobic messages. ...Decided to take the photo down. Love to our trans siblings.”
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Rowling has repeatedly been accused of transphobia in recent years. In December 2019, she pledged her support for Maya Forstater, who lost her job in the U.K. after declaring “men cannot change into women” and “it is unfair and unsafe for trans women to compete in women’s sport.”
“Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?” Rowling tweeted at the time, with the hashtag “IStandWithMaya.”
Her comments didn’t go over well, as many ardent Harry Potter fans labeled her as a trans-exclusionary-radical feminist, or TERF.
She’s only defended her stance since then. In a lengthy June 2020 essay that was widely maligned, Rowling insisted “trans people need and deserve protection,” but then went on to share her “concerns around single-sex spaces.”
“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 confirmation certificates 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. That is the simple truth,” she wrote.
In September 2020, Rowling released a book that featured a cisgender male serial killer who dressed up as a woman to get closer to his victims. The ham-handed correlation of cross-dressing and violence was not lost upon critics.
In her lengthy Twitter thread Monday, Rowling said she’s received death threats for her comments and insisted other women have gone through similar “campaigns of intimidation” in the past.
Over the last few years I’ve watched, appalled, as women like Allison Bailey, Raquel Sanchez, Marion Miller, Rosie Duffield, Joanna Cherry, Julie Bindel, Rosa Freedman, Kathleen Stock and many, many others, including women who have no public profile 4/8
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 22, 2021
“None of these women are protected in the way I am. They and their families have been put into a state of fear and distress for no other reason than that they refuse to uncritically accept that the socio-political concept of gender identity should replace that of sex,” Rowling posted.
“I’ve now received so many death threats I could paper the house with them, and I haven’t stopped speaking out. Perhaps—and I’m just throwing this out there—the best way to prove your movement isn’t a threat to women, is to stop stalking, harassing and threatening us.”
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