JK Rowling reveals receiving death threats after being accused of transphobia

AFP

British JK Rowling, 56, author of the successful Harry Potter saga, revealed this Monday (22) that she has received death threats, according to her, from transgender rights activists who accuse her of transphobia.

“I got so many death threats that now I could put them on my wallpaper,” the novelist said in a series of tweets.

In those messages, Rowling claims that three activists tweeted photos of them outside the writer’s house last week, “expressly positioning themselves so that (my) address is visible.”

Wanted by the AFP, Scottish police said the case was being investigated.

Last year, the author of the Harry Potter stories shared an article about “people who menstruate” on Twitter. “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for these people. Anyone help me? Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud? (purposeful modification of the word ‘Woman’, English for woman),” she said at the time.

Critics have pointed out that Rowling’s views equate femininity with menstruation, while many transsexual men menstruate and many women do not.

Rowling said her comments were not intended to offend the transgender community, just to emphasize that “sex is real and has vivid consequences.” “I respect the right of all transgender people to live in a way that is authentic and comfortable for them. I would protest to you if you are discriminated against on the basis of being trans,” Rowling wrote on Twitter. “At the same time, my life was shaped by being a woman. I don’t think it’s hateful to say that.”

Rowling said Monday that she was contacted by many women who were victims of “bullying campaigns”, ranging from harassment to threats of rape.

And she accused these three activists who released her address of having done it to “intimidate her and prevent her from defending women’s rights based on biological sex”.