JK Rowling speaks out about death threats over transgender comments
'Media Buzz' host Howard Kurtz discusses the controversy over the ‘Harry Potter’ author's remarks about transgender people on 'The Story.'
"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling was confronted by her critics over comments she made in recent years about trans women.
In Tuesday's installment of The Free Press' podcast "The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling," Rowling was asked to respond to a series of criticisms leveled against her.
Podcast host Megan Phelps-Roper summarized comments made by one critic, Natalie Wynn of the YouTube channel ContraPoints, who was previously interviewed on the "Witch Trials" podcast. Wynn accused Rowling of "indirect bigotry," which means instead of using direct slurs towards marginalized people, she says she's just "asking questions" or expressing "concern," all while "undermining people's rights."
"I see this constantly and the most frequent example of that is 'they're pretending to be concerned about children. It's not about the children. They really hate trans people,'" Rowling responded. "Now, if you're saying the indirect bigotry is asking questions where you believe significant harm is done, if you're saying indirect bigotry is standing up for women's rights, then you know what, guilty as charged. I think it is a very bad faith argument to say that people who are asking questions are being indirect bigots because, you know, that itself, in my view, is a very bad faith position."
Phelps-Roper then pressed Rowling on the accusation that she believes trans women are "second-class women" because of their biological differences and that they're "not quite" women.
J.K. Rowling responds to her critics outraged by her comments about trans women. (Getty Images)
"Can you understand the pain that that could cause?" Phelps-Roper asked.
"Yes is the short answer. Yes, I could understand that hurt," Rowling said. "The thing is, women are the only group, to my knowledge, that are being asked to embrace members of their oppressor class unquestioningly with no caveat. Now, on an individual basis and I think many people new to this argument would see it on that level because many people of my generation particularly think that we're talking about old school transsexuals, people who've been through full sex reassignment because of profound gender dysphoria, and I feel 100% compassion for such people and I would absolutely respect their pronouns — always have, always will — and would want, as I say, to have comfortable, easy lives. This [new] movement, though, is pressing for something different, very different. This movement has argued, continues to argue, that a man may have had no surgery whatsoever but if he feels himself to be a woman, the door of every woman's bathroom, changing room, rape center should be open to him. And I say no. I'm afraid I say no."
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"And we are in a cultural moment where that individual's hurt is being prioritized over the hurt of women whose rights and boundaries are under sustained assault. And I think it's interesting to ask why the pain of one group is being prioritized over the pain of other groups," she added.
Rowling was the subject of The Free Press' new podcast "The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling." (Mike Marsland via Getty Images)
When confronted by critics who say her comments are "giving fuel to the right," Rowling fired back ,"You're giving fuel to the right!"
"This is why many left-wing feminists in particular are sitting with their head in their hands," she said. "The right has wanted for years and years and years — not all of the right, but certainly the further right and the religious right — have wanted to castigate the lesbian and gay and bisexual movement as inherently degenerate and part of the left's broader degeneracy. When you defend the placing of rapists in cells with women, you are handing the right a perfect opportunity to say, ‘You see, we told you the moral degeneracy that would result if you say homosexual relationships are okay.’ And I think for many leftists, for many feminists, we are despairing of the fact that people are, in our view, colluding with a deeply misogynist movement which is benefiting, politically speaking, the far right."
Rowling went on to slam "the left," which she says she still aligns herself with, for being "increasingly puritanical, and authoritarian, and judgmental," something she warned is "pushing swathes of people towards not just the right" but "the alt-right."
"I think that the left is making a tremendous mistake in espousing this kind of, in my view, quasi-religious, incredibly, sort of witch-hunting behavior because there will be people who will just feel when they've been shamed and abused, and they feel it was unfair, where are they going to go?" Rowling said.
The "Harry Potter" creator was quick to dismiss claims she is being "contradictory" when writing books about children who have the autonomy to make big decisions while opposing children who want to receive medical treatment as part of a gender transition, telling Phelps-Roper, "Those are fantasy books."
Over 500 million copies of Rowling's "Harry Potter" books have been sold around the globe. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
"We are dealing with the real world here," Rowling said. "We're dealing with children, in my view, being persuaded that a solution for all distress is lifelong medicalization. That is real world harm. There's no closing the book and walking away. There's no playing with this, experimenting with this and not suffering harm, in my view… I certainly hope that for adults who have found no other way to resolve their gender dysphoria, transition may be the answer. I want to see those people protected. I want their rights protected. I wish them lives full of joy and fulfillment. But when we're talking about children, I think that is a very different question."
She later continued, "I genuinely think that we are watching one of the worst medical scandals in a century. And I believe that those who should have known better… I am talking about medics, and those who have cheered this on unquestioningly creating a climate in which many people trying to raise red flags have been intimidated and silenced. And I would ask proponents of gender identity ideology, ‘Who is so militant, who was so determined on no debate?’ I would ask them, 'What if you are wrong?' If I'm wrong, honestly, hallelujah. If I'm wrong, great. People aren't being harmed. But if you are wrong, you have cheered on, you've created a climate, quite a threatening climate, in which whistleblowers and young people themselves are being intimidated out of raising concerns."
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The British author slammed critics who say her words are "harming" trans people, saying such "hyperbolic accusations are thrown at anyone who challenges this ideology."
"Blaming women for the violence of men is a hallmark of something that is not normally seen as progressive, that is misogyny writ large," Rowling said.
"I'm asking questions because I think some vulnerable groups are being harmed and that includes the gay community, that includes vulnerable women and it includes vulnerable youth. Now, if you identify as trans, if that is an answer for you, then I'm with you 100%, but we are seeing mounting evidence that is not the answer for everyone and that we may be living through a cultural moment that we will look back on not with pride but with puzzlement that we let it happen," she later added.