Despite facing continued backlash for what many deem her "anti-trans" views, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling isn't backing down. It all began when she shared an article about "creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate," admitting that it angered her to see women no longer being referred to as, well, women.
Talking on The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling podcast (via Variety), Rowling said she knows that was "like dropping a hand grenade into Twitter," adding: "Did I mean to drop a hand grenade in? No. I was just keeping a rein on my own fury. So off it went."
Since then, the writer has continued to express concerns about certain elements of the trans community, including the fact allowing men who identify as women to enter women's changing rooms and bathrooms is a slippery slope that could lead to disastrous outcomes. The floodgates of hatred aimed at Rowling have since opened and she reflected on what that's been like.
"I absolutely knew that if I spoke out many people who would love my books would be deeply unhappy with me," she admits. "Personally, it has not been fun and I have been scared at times for my own safety and, overwhelmingly, for my family’s safety. Time will tell whether I’ve got this wrong."
"I can only say that I’ve thought about it deeply and hard and long and I’ve listened, I promise, to the other side."
Rowling would add, "I have to tell you, a ton of Potter fans were still with me. And in fact, a ton of Potter fans were grateful that I’d said what I said. I stand by every word that I wrote there, but the question is, What is the truth? And I’m arguing against people who are literally saying sex is a construct, [that] it’s not real."
"I believe absolutely that there is something dangerous about this movement and it must be challenged," she continued. "My position is that this activist’s movement, in the form that it’s currently taking, echoes the very thing that I was warning against in Harry Potter."
There are plenty of people who agree with Rowling and while some Harry Potter cast members were quick to criticise her views, she's been defended by Ralph Fiennes, Evanna Lynch, and Helena Bonham Carter. While the author ironically doesn't always choose her words carefully, any valid points she might have made are typically overshadowed by her being labelled anti-trans.
No matter what you do and don't agree with, it will be interesting to see if Rowling's elaboration on past comments cools things off or add further fuel to the fire.