Four transphobic quotes from JK Rowling’s Essay.

You can read JK Rowling’s Essay here:

J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues

1. “So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe. When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman”

Interesting how she quickly went from being “genuinely concerned about autistic kids” to “trans women shouldn’t use women’s bathrooms”.

This a classic transphobic position, and one which has been debated for years. It’s a world away from “concerns about transitioning too early”.

Since she is primarily concerned about safety, I’ll provide links to two peer-reviewed studies below.

The first is on how trans inclusion in public bathrooms and changing rooms is not associated with less safety.

The second (cited by Harvard: School of public health, conducted through the LGBTQ Teen Survey) is on how depriving trans people of using their bathroom of choice puts them at far more risks, and even less safety.

“Researchers looked at data from a survey of nearly 3,700 U.S. teens aged 13-17. The study found that 36% of transgender or gender-nonbinary students with restricted bathroom or locker room access reported being sexually assaulted in the last 12 months. Of all students surveyed, 1 out of every 4, or 25.9%, reported being a victim of sexual assault in the past year.”

Assuming the “safety of teens” is what she is primarily concerned with, then the latter should be far more alarming. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

In fact, she feels so strongly about bathroom segregation, she even decided to write a book on a wig-wearing serial killer who creeps up on women in their spaces.

In other words, reinforcing the notion of a “perceived threat” (where it’s largely lacking) at the expense of where a real threat is abundant. Among trans teens deprived of using their bathrooms of choice.

2. “On Saturday morning, I read that the Scottish government is proceeding with its controversial gender recognition plans, which will in effect mean that all a man needs to ‘become a woman’ is to say he’s one.”

Reducing transgenderism to “Men who decide to say they’re women” is another transphobic trope. Moreover, the statement she made in regards to the reforms are entirely false.

The reforms require trans individuals to live their acquired gender for up to six months before being granted a gender recognition certificate (Source provided below).

The fact she has been disingenuous about this detail is questionable.

3. “I refuse to bow down to a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it.”

Further recognition for womanhood (the gender) doesn’t erode womanhood (the biology). Women’s medical needs aren’t being sidelined due to trans activism, whereas trans medical needs have been overwhelmingly neglected due to the lack thereof; in addition to decades of anti-trans sentiments.

This represents another case where she prioritizes scenarios where the “perceived threat” is largely lacking, at the expense of where it is actually abundant.

According to the 2015 US transgender survey, 33% of trans individuals experienced discrimination (refused treatment, verbal harassment) in a health care setting. A separate survey finds that these numbers go up to 70% (Source linked below).

4. “None of the gender-critical women I’ve talked to hates trans people; on the contrary.”

She is closely aligned with an organization (Wild Womyn) that sells merch that trans people largely perceive as hateful.

This includes the T-shirts and stickers that says the following: “Fuck your pronouns”, “Sorry about your dick bro” and “Transactivism is misogyny”.

Given these details, how she perceives “none of the gender-critical women she talked to” as hateful is beyond me.

It doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t “feel hateful” when the discourse they engage in is hateful, particularly if that overwhelmingly represents what is experienced on the receiving end.

Upon reading her essay, I was genuinely hoping things would turn around. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case since she diverted right back into all the classic transphobic talking points.

Overall, it was an underwhelming piece.

Sources:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13178-018-0335-z