JK Rowling slammed for anti-trans tweets claiming she supports trans people but doesn’t want sex to be erased
JK Rowling, in a series of tweets on Saturday, explained why she supports trans people and respects them but doesn't agree with them. She did so by speaking about the concept of sex being erased and how that would negatively impact women as it "removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives."
She started with, "If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth."
She then added, "The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women - ie, to male violence - ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences - is a nonsense."
Further explaining, she wrote, "I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so."
The difference between sex and gender has always been clear. However, the one argument that haunts the trans rights movement especially in Britain today is if trans people were allowed to be identified as their chosen gender the legal rights of cisgender women might be used by those of the trans community, or those using the movement as a smokescreen in a negative manner.
The argument that Rowling has made, refers to a subset of the argument above and contemplates what would happen if sex as a concept was erased to give trans people the right to be identified by their chosen gender. The thread lead to equal support and backlash on Twitter with some telling the author to also "please talk to some queer people."
Rowling, however, did not give in to the backlash and only continued to support her argument further. To the fan who told her to talk to a person from the LGBTQIA+ community, Rowling replied, "One of my best mates just called me. Self-described butch lesbian. It was hard to tell, because she was shouting quite loudly, but I could just make out ‘F**KING YES!’"
One supporter tweeted, "@jk_rowling has pinpointed why so many gay peeps are concerned about the new version of trans activism. We used to be comrade-in-arms with our trans mates until some extremists insisted biological sex was an illusion. Our legal protections and our identities are based on it."
Detractors, however, disagreed. One such person tweeted, "I mean, we knew shes transphobic. But it should be a big ol red flag that this white billionaire picked RIGHT NOW to go on a terfy woe is me rant. Also, you'd march with us if we were discriminated against? Bit**, let's talk about Maya Forstater. You picked your side."
The person here is referring to when Rowling had supported Maya Forstater, a researcher who had said that "men cannot change into women".
One person tweeted "1. Sex is real. 2. The gender binary is not. It’s a power structure. 3. Gender is a spectrum and trans people and cis are on that spectrum. 4. Expansion isn’t erasure," in an attempt to simplify how trans people fighting to identity by their chosen gender are not "erasing sex".
A Black trans woman also replied to Rowling's tweets and said, "Wealthy white women have used essentialism to devalue more marginalized women for centuries. It’s not lost on me as a Black trans woman that J. K. Rowling would have been an early white suffragist who denied cis Black women their womanhood as well."