JK Rowling donates big money to anti-trans group

JK Rowling made headlines again for her anti-trans obsession with the discovery that she donated a hefty £70,000 (about $89,000) to a Scottish women’s organization challenging an inclusive government definition of “woman.”

Rowling made the pledge with a crowdfunding campaign organized by For Women Scotland (FWS), which has been in court arguing with the Scottish government over the 2018 Gender Representation on Public Boards Act. 

Related:

JK Rowling says she’d happily go to prison for misgendering a trans person

She was railing against a hypothetical hate speech law.

That legislation seeks gender equity on public boards in Scotland and features language inclusive of trans people with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).

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The Times of London, the Telegraph, Scottish Daily Express, and the Daily Mail all featured Rowling’s donation prominently.

FWS has argued that the Gender Representation law threatens cisgender women’s rights in general and their place in single-sex spaces in particular.

The group scored a victory earlier when a court ruled the Scottish National Party’s position recognizing anyone identifying as trans could count among gender quotas was unlawful.

FWS lost another challenge, however, after a Gender Recognition Certificate requirement was added to the legislation.

Approval for an appeal of that case to move forward earned Rowling’s big donation and half-hearted attempt at anonymity. She associated just her first initials, JK, with the crowdfunding contribution.

A post accompanying her check read: “You know how proud I am to know you. Thank you for all your hard work and perseverance. This is truly a historic case.”

Before filing their appeal and appealing for cash, FWS responded to their latest loss.

“Naturally, we are hugely disappointed in [the] judgement, which has ruled that women’s protections under law may – in some cases – include men who have obtained a GRC,” the group wrote in a statement.

LGBTQ+ organization Stonewall praised the source of FWS’s disappointment.

“This ruling is welcome, and it serves to affirm what the long-standing law on this has always said,” a spokesperson said.

“It also demonstrates that the way trans people are accepted and counted as who they are is working — despite a concerted campaign by anti-trans campaigners to remove the existing rights trans people have had for decades.”

Scotland has been a hotbed of anti-transgender activism for several years now.

The SNP and Green Party have both advocated for trans people earning government recognition of their gender, while “campaigners” like FWS and other “gender critical” (another word for TERF, or trans-exclusionary radical feminist) organizations have argued that trans rights infringe on women’s rights.

Last year, the U.K. blocked Scotland’s Gender Recognition Bill, arguing it had negative implications for the nationwide Equality Act.

For her part, Rowling claims her position on transgender issues has been “profoundly” misunderstood.