The world's most famous fantasy writer, JK Rowling, apparently doesn't believe in transgender magic. In a Twitter (X) post on April Fool's Day, she bravely described several transgender "women" as biological men — including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures.
Unnaturally, this resulted in numerous complaints being filed with the police under Scotland's 2021 Hate Crime and Public Order Act, demanding she be locked up in Hogwarts' deepest dungeon. Thankfully, the world is saner than TikTokers may lead you to believe. A BBC report said her words won't be "treated as criminal" and "no action will be taken."
Katie Neeves, a man claiming to be a "trans woman," who was appointed a UN Women UK delegate, didn't agree with the police, saying: "JK Rowling is a bully and [the Hate Crime and Public Order Act] was designed to stop bullying, and if they're not going to enforce it then that's very disappointing."
Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, however, defended the Harry Potter novelist: "We should not be criminalizing people saying common sense things about biological sex, clearly that isn't right... We have a proud tradition of free speech."
A spokesperson for the first minister added: "...the right to freedom of expression is built into [the Hate Crime and Public Order Act] and that it also has a high threshold for criminality. The legislation does not prevent people expressing controversial, challenging or offensive views, nor does it seek to stifle criticism or rigorous debate in any way."
As if calling a man a man is controversial.
But even if it was, the European Convention on Human Rights includes protection for "ideas that offend, shock or disturb."
Of course, words that are inciting violence toward anyone (irregardless of their personal beliefs regarding gender) should not be tolerated. But JK Rowling's words weren't threatening or abusive. And while she may have hurt a few mushable people's feelings, she hasn't physically harmed anyone — quite unlike rapist "Katie Dolatowski" (a biological man claiming to be a woman) who Rowling highlighted in her April 1st post:
"Fragile flower Katie Dolatowski, 6'5", was rightly sent to a women's prison in Scotland after conviction. This ensured she was protected from violent, predatory men (unlike the 10-year-old girl Katie sexually assaulted in a women's public bathroom.)"
"For several years now," says JK Rowling in her Tweet, "Scottish women have been pressured by their government and members of the police force to deny the evidence of their eyes and ears, repudiate biological facts and embrace a neo-religious concept of gender that is unprovable and untestable."
I don't know about you, but I think there is some irony in a fantasy writer telling the government, the police and the courts not to deny "the evidence of their eyes and ears" and accept "biological facts."
After all, Rowling has an above-average ability to exercise her imagination. In the Harry Potter novels, there is the Animagus transformation, where a wizard or witch can transform into a specific animal at will. For example:
- Sirius Black transformed into a large black dog
- Peter Pettigrew became a rat
- Professor Minerva McGonagall morphed into a cat
John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. You get free chapters from his novels by subscribing to his Blazing Pine Cone email newsletter at https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/
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