Author J.K. Rowling clapped back at a transgender activist who reported her for a hate crime after the “Harry Potter” writer referred to them as a man.
Rowling has become persona non-Grata with the transgender community since 2020, when she was dubbed a trans-exclusive radical feminist for dunking on the use of “people who menstruate” as a term for women.
Since then, she has frequently become targeted by trans activists on social media, and has not been afraid about enraging them with her opinions.
Rowling engaged in a discourse about how barring transgender women from using single sex spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms is “essential” to protecting biological women from sex crimes.
You've sent me the wrong video. There isn't a lady in this one, just a man revelling in his misogynistic performance of what he thinks 'woman' means: narcissistic, shallow and exhibitionist.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 4, 2024
When one responder questioned why trans women should be “forced to use male spaces” and how “humiliating” it would be for them, Rowling shot back:
“Somebody really should have explained to you that your hurt feelings don’t trump other people’s rights, nor are women and girls validation props or comfort blankets.”
One user replied with a video of India Willoughby, transgender reality star, dancing proactively in a shiny black dress in a video, and asked if the “lady should use the men’s locker room.”
“You’ve sent me the wrong video,” Rowling replied. “There isn’t a lady in this one, just a man revelling in his misogynistic performance of what he thinks ‘woman’ means: narcissistic, shallow and exhibitionist.
Willoughby blasted Rowling in an interview, and claimed that her commentary constituted a crime in the United Kingdom.
“She knows I’m a woman and she calls me a man,” the “Big Brother” contestant stated. “It’s a protected characteristic and that is a breach of both the Equalities Act and the Gender Recognition Act.”
“I’ve been to the police and I’ve reported it as an issue,” Willoughby added. “I don’t know if that’s going to be treated as a hate crime or malicious communications, but it’s a cut-and-dried offense as far as I’m concerned, and at the end of the day it is a hate crime.”
“Calling a trans person a man, deliberately, knowing that person is a woman… is grossly offensive,” they concluded.
Rowling responded to the police report in a series of tweets on Wednesday that highlighted how Willoughby has been one of the many transgender activists that have gone after her since 2020.
Some time ago, lawyers advised me that not only did I have a clearly winnable case against India Willoughby for defamation, but that India's obsessive targeting of me over the past few years may meet the legal threshold for harassment. 1/5 https://t.co/kMSMBWO7gm
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 6, 2024
“Some time ago, lawyers advised me that not only did I have a clearly winnable case against India Willoughby for defamation, but that India’s obsessive targeting of me over the past few years may meet the legal threshold for harassment,” she tweeted.
“I ignored this advice because I couldn’t be bothered giving India the publicity he so clearly craves,” Rowling added.
“Nevertheless, we must all do our bit to combat hate, so India will be glad to know I’ve taken note of his homophobia, racism, and humane stance on immigration.”
She included a series of social media posts made by Willoughby to illustrate her point, along with one that Rowling believes displays the reality competitors’ “shocking transphobia.”
“Surprisingly for such an eminent legal authority, he appears to have forgotten that the Forstater ruling established that gender critical views can be protected in law as a philosophical belief. No law compels anyone to pretend to believe that India is a woman,” the “Harry Potter” author added.
“Aware as I am that it’s an offense to lie to law enforcement, I’ll simply have to explain to the police that, in my view, India is a classic example of the male narcissist who lives in a state of perpetual rage that he can’t compel women to take him at his own valuation,” she concluded.
I'm so sick of this shit. This is not a woman. These are #NotOurCrimes https://t.co/ycjWefLCiw
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 26, 2024
Rowling recently called out Britain’s Sky News for calling a biological male a “woman” while reporting on the Oxford “Cat Killer” Scarlet Blake, who was convicted of killing a man and his pet cat.
Sky News repeatedly referred to Blake as a “woman” without mentioning that the criminal is actually a transgender woman.
“This is not a woman. These are #NotOurCrimes,” she posted on Feb. 26.