CULTURE

From time to time, I have to garden our evergreen, ever-growing laundry list of J.K. Rowling’s transphobia. It’s one of the most repulsive topics I’ve ever tackled. As a formerly zealous Harry Potter fan who’s also nonbinary, I wrote five years ago about what a personal betrayal her descent into bigotry was. What I hadn’t anticipated then was just how much worse things would get.

In 2023, I created a comprehensive list of Rowling’s most damning transphobic statements and actions — a list that was very necessary at the time, given just how much controversy and confusion there was around her claims that trans women are harming “real” women. (They aren’t.) Over the last two years, the list has become a record not only of Rowling’s bigotry but of the larger cultural influence her embrace of transphobic ideology has had in the UK. Last week, the UK’s supreme court delivered a major, unanimous ruling that explicitly stripped trans women of protection from discrimination on the basis of gender, setting a precedent that allows them to be banned from a litany of public spaces and services. Rowling previously gave nearly $100,000 to the transphobic group funding the lawsuit.

The larger impact her voice has had on the cultural conversation is also clear throughout the piece, which shows her moving progressively from professed support of trans people to outright denial of their humanity, even to the point of attacking cis women whom Rowling believes to be men in disguise. Her bigotry has not only led a once beloved author to unconscionable places; she’s taken her country along for the hateful ride.

—Aja Romano, Senior Culture Writer

How (and why) to stop holding a grudge

a medium-close photograph of a red-haired woman in an evening dress in front of a peach wall

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J.K. Rowling’s supporters frequently claim the author has never actually said or done anything transphobic. It’s a position you can see on social media, in the pages of the New York Times, and even on a 2023 podcast with Rowling herself.

It’s also an easily debunked lie.

Some of this confusion around Rowling’s opinions can be cleared up with a definition of transphobia, which doesn’t — despite the “phobia” — solely mean fear of trans people but, per Merriam-Webster, also an “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against transgender people.” (In fact, Merriam-Webster’s own examples list cites multiple articles related to Rowling.) Rowling can say she likes everyone, but she has displayed that prejudice time and again. She’s also peddled explicit fear of trans people, particularly trans women, insisting they’re an inherently dangerous threat to cisgender women.

Although some in the media distort the anger directed at Rowling from trans activists, trans people, and allies, the truth is those feelings — not just anger, but betrayal and grief — are justified. Rowling has made her antagonistic position on trans issues clear through tweets, sound bites, actions, and even a 3,600-word blog post. By 2025, her transphobia has become so rampant and constant that it’s difficult to build a completely comprehensive timeline of it. For those attuned to it, she doesn’t have to spell it out every single time; it’s a huge part of her identity.

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