Feminist Writing. Fourth Wave. For Women.

J.K. Rowling: "It isn’t hate to speak the truth."

J.K. Rowling: "It isn’t hate to speak the truth."

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has spoken out again on women's sex-based rights, this time unequivocally.

"If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction," she tweeted on Saturday evening. "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."

Her three-tweet thread elaborated on her position:

"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."

"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."

Rowling is responding to the growing trend on the left to treat women who recognize sex-based oppression as "bigots." Women who acknowledge biological sex is real and matters have been censored, fired, assaulted, defunded, harassed online, and cancelled.

The transgender movement increasingly seeks to erase women by denying biological reality. Discussions of periods, pregnancy, breast-feeding, and female genital mutilation have all been regarded as "transphobic" and "hateful" by more extreme trans activists.

The Move to Erase Women from Periods, Pregnancy, and Parenting
How gender-neutral language is masking global sexualized violence and discrimination against women and girls

The trans activists have also been accused of homophobia for increasingly denying same-sex attraction exists, and pressuring gender non-conforming youth into transition to conform to more traditional gender roles.

Rowling also shared an article posted by Julia Diana Robertson titled, "Anonymous Letter From a Terrified Lesbian." The letter details the environment of terror created for lesbians at a supposedly "progressive" company.

"I’ve never felt as shouted down, ignored, and targeted as a lesbian *within* our supposed GLBT community as I have over the past couple of years."

"I work for a very Pride-happy company, and I’m actually afraid to follow either of you on Twitter or like most of your posts because I’m terrified someone will brand me… [and] take it back to my Company."

This isn't the first time Rowling has spoken up in defense of women's sex-based rights. In December, Rowling made waves with a Tweet defending Maya Forstater, a woman who lost her job at the Center for Global Development (CGD), a think tank in London.

"Dress however you please," the tweet read, "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?  #IStandWithMaya#ThisIsNotADrill"

Rowling’s support of Forstater marked an important milestone for women who are being silenced in the current gender debate, painted as “hateful” for rejecting the erasure of their biological reality.

Rowling is one of a very small handful of public figures and celebrities willing to defend women's rights publicly. In response, she has been subjected to a slew of harassment. The author, who has repeatedly expressed solidarity with trans people, has been repeatedly called a “TERF” (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist), a term typically associated with violent threats and misogyny, leading many to consider it a slur.

Rowling has once against been called a “TERF,” “bigot,” "bitch,” and told to “Shut the fuck up” by men in response to her tweets. Others have accused her of "hurting children."

Feminists, however, are thanking her for speaking out.

"Thank you for saying this," wrote Jana Cornel, a black radical feminist. "I have been told not to speak out about female genital mutilation because it's 'transphobic.' How am I able to campaign for myself and millions of my sisters who have also suffered if I can't recognize sex?"

"We've been saying it for 10 years - but now *you're* saying it. I couldn't be happier," wrote Helen Staniland, a feminist and programmer.


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