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JK Rowling: BBC can't be trusted to report trans issues
JK Rowling has claimed that the BBC can no longer be trusted to report trans issues.
The Harry Potter author attacked the broadcaster after it failed to report that a women-only housing development would be open to biological men.
The BBC published an online report about the women-only tower block, opening in west London next summer.
The block is designed for survivors of domestic abuse struggling to find a home, but the BBC story did not say that the flats would be open to trans women and non-binary people, whatever their biological sex.
This prompted her to write on X: 'It's not women only. Men will be accommodated there if they say they're women.
'Our national broadcaster can no longer be trusted to report truthfully or impartially on matters relating to sex, preferring to push its own luxury beliefs on the unenlightened masses.'
It is the latest in a series of spats between Rowling, who campaigns on women's rights, and the corporation.
Two years ago, the BBC received more than 100 complaints after the Radio 4 PM presenter Evan Davis failed to challenge accusations against the author.
Stacey Henley, a trans woman and the editor-in-chief of The Gamer, a video games website, accused the author of pushing 'transphobia', as well as having 'a campaign against trans people'.
The BBC was forced to issue an apology, saying that 'we should have challenged the claims more directly'.
Rowling has also criticised the corporation over its coverage of sport, after it emerged that Alex Kay-Jelski, its head of sport, had blocked Martina Navratilova and Sharron Davies, the former sports stars-turned-women's rights campaigners, on social media.
Brook House, in Acton, will provide 102 affordable rented flats. The tenants will be a mixture of women from Ealing council's waiting list and residents put forward by Women's Pioneer Housing, which was founded by suffragists in 1920.
The housing association said its mission was to offer single women access to 'safe, secure and affordable homes and services', and to encourage other housing providers to 'understand the needs of single women'.
It said the building would be open to anyone who has a 'gender recognition certificate legally declaring them female'.
Flats would also be open to trans women who 'intend to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone gender reassignment', as well as 'non-binary people who meet the aforementioned criteria'.
This is despite the fact that the Supreme Court confirmed in April that it would be legal to restrict access to the tower block based on biological sex and not gender identity.
