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JK Rowling unleashes her millions of followers on 3 activists who protested outside her home

J.K. Rowling at the world premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in 2010.
J.K. Rowling at the world premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in 2010. Photo: Shutterstock

JK Rowling condemned three transgender equality activists who protested outside her home on the Transgender Day of Remembrance – comparing their protest to rape threats – and sent her 14 million followers on Twitter to attack them.

The transgender equality activists have already deleted social media accounts or made them private.

Related: Unhinged JK Rowling fan wearing a sandwich sign arrested after harassing a trans politician

Comedian Holly Stars, actor Georgia Frost, and drag performer Richard Energy protested in front of Rowling’s home this past Friday with signs that read “Trans liberation now,” “Don’t be a cissy,” and “Trans rights are human rights,” according to Pink News.

They were responding to Rowling’s long history of transphobia, where she has repeatedly attacked the validity of trans identities, portrayed trans women as threats to cis women’s safety, and even promoted vile merchandise with anti-transgender messages.

On Twitter this morning, the Harry Potter author claimed that her address was visible in a photo that the three performers posted online, going so far as to accuse them of “carefully positioning themselves to ensure that our address was visible.”

In her Twitter thread, Rowling said that she called the police, although she did not say what the activists did that was illegal.

She compared herself to several other prominent writers who have made anti-LGBTQ and particularly anti-transgender statements, including Julie Bindel, Kathleen Stock, Marion Miller, and Raquel Sanchez. She said that the writers “have been subject to campaigns of intimidation which range from being hounded on social media, the targeting of their employers, all the way up to doxing and direct threats of violence, including rape.”

While Rowling said she’s against people being “hounded on social media,” she then proceeded to post the names of the three activists on her Twitter feed for her 14 million followers.

The activists “thought doxxing me would intimidate me out of speaking up for women’s sex-based rights,” Rowling wrote. “They should have reflected on the fact that I’ve now received so many death threats I could paper the house with them, and I haven’t stopped speaking out.”

“Perhaps – and I’m just throwing this out there – the best way to prove that your movement isn’t a threat to women is to stop stalking, harassing, and threatening us,” Rowling concluded. If there is any evidence that the activists she attacked were stalking, harassing, or threatening her, she didn’t share it.

Rowling “came out” as transphobic nearly two years ago when she wrote about her support for Maya Forstater, a social justice nonprofit employee who lost her job for attacking transgender people on social media and refusing to use the correct pronouns for transgender people. She sued and lost her case since the court believed that her actions could create “an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.”

Rowling spent the next year issuing diatribes about transgender people, came out in support of conversion therapy for trans people, and claimed that almost everyone agrees with her, even as famous people that she has worked with condemned her words. She also published a book – under a male pen name – about a man who wears dresses in order to kill women.

Rowling’s anti-transgender views have been cited by Republicans in the U.S. to attack LGBTQ rights.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article called the activists “transgender activists,” which referred to their purpose, not their identities. Responses from readers – as well as from respected LGBTQ journalists – helped us to understand that that expression can be understood differently than we intended. The article has been updated and we at LGBTQ Nation will be more careful with expressions like this one in the future. 

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