Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling hasn’t come out as a lesbian, but she is very concerned with deciding who gets to be a lesbian and who doesn’t.
Tweeting this morning about Lesbian Visibility Week in the U.K., Rowling shared an image of Allison Bailey, one of the co-founders of the anti-LGBTQ organization LGB Alliance.
Related: JK Rowling mocked police officers showing LGBTQ solidarity after brutal hate crime
“A good moment to salute the resilience and courage of my inspirational friend,” Rowling wrote with a picture that said that Bailey was marching for LGB (that is, without the T) rights.
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Bailey and several other anti-transgender activists created LGB Alliance in 2019 as a protest against transgender equality and the inclusion of transgender people in the LGBTQ community. But while the organization claims to oppose discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, it also has also claimed that it’s not homophobic to oppose marriage equality.
Linda Riley, the publisher of the U.K. queer women magazine DIVA and the creator of Lesbian Visibility Week, knew exactly what Rowling was implying (that anti-trans lesbians are more worthy of respect than lesbians who are accepting of trans people) and called Rowling out.
“Wow! I certainly did not create Lesbian Visibility Week so that people like JK Rowling could use it as a vehicle to stir up more hate within our community,” Riley wrote. “This is a perfect example of how not to be an ally.”
Wow! I certainly did not create #LesbianVisibilityWeek so that people like @jk_rowling could use it as a vehicle to stir up more hate within our community. This is a perfect example of #HowNotToBeAnAlly #IStandWithStonewall –#LWithTheT https://t.co/yrUEKIPHrf
— Linda Riley (@LindaRiley8) April 25, 2022
Rowling, who has 14 million followers on Twitter, decided to attack Riley by implying that Riley is racist (when her issue with Bailey was her transphobic views, not her race) and sharing the picture of a trans lesbian with a beard. Sharing images of transgender women who don’t conform to society’s standards for female beauty is a common pastime for anti-transgender activists.
“Apparently it stirs up hate to post pictures of black lesbians marching for their rights, so here’s a picture of Alex Drummond, white, bearded, Stonewall-approved lesbian,” Rowling wrote, referring to the U.K. LGBTQ organization Stonewall.
Wait so which is it – you people like to claim that gender-non-conforming girls should be allowed to do so, and that rigid gender stereotypes are sexist, yet when a woman decides to break out of that stereotype it's an issue? Give us a crumb of consistency Joanne I'm begging
— Seóirse Duffy (@Seoirse_) April 25, 2022
Rowling’s transphobic antics have led many Harry Potter fans to distance themselves from her.
The author has issued diatribes about transgender people, come 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 about a man who wears dresses in order to kill women.
