Latest news with #Terf
Spectator
04-06-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Letters: Pride has taken a nasty turn
Lionel is right Sir: Gareth Roberts's piece ('End of the rainbow', 31 May) gave me pause to reflect. It's not that Pride has become irrelevant; after all, same-gender relationships are still criminalised in 64 countries – and in eight of those the death penalty is applicable. Rather, since the pandemic, it seems to have taken a rather nasty and unpleasant turn, with those dissenting from whatever ludicrous party line happens to be in vogue routinely heckled and vilified. Placards emblazoned with slogans such as 'If you see a Terf [trans-exclusionary radical feminist] then smash them in the face' are often to be spotted on Pride marches. Those producing such placards seem to forget that it was the first- and second-wave feminists (as well as early LGBT activists) who've brought us to the relatively benign state of affairs we now enjoy – in this country at least. As Lionel Shriver pointed out elsewhere in the issue ('The war on normal'), it's curious, if not downright laughable, how these and other such revolutions manage to eat themselves in the end. Bernard Jennings London SE11 Lionel is wrong Sir: Lionel Shriver does precisely what she accuses gay people of doing. She reduces relationships to mere sex and then equates sex with only reproduction (or lack of it). Does she not know that both 'heteronormative' and homosexual people have sex for pleasure? Most sexual activity in the world is for this hedonistic purpose, not reproduction. She also repeats the fallacy that homosexual couples cannot reproduce. I can assure her they can, if not with each other, and play their part in advancing human evolution.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
JK Rowling's journey from Harry Potter creator to gender-critical campaigner
Cocktail in hand and puffing on a celebratory cigar onboard her superyacht, reportedly somewhere in the Bahamas, JK Rowling celebrated on social media after this week's UK supreme court ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. 'I love it when a plan comes together,' she posted on X, borrowing the catchphrase from the popular 80s TV series The A-Team. She added, referencing the bitter and polarised gender identification debate: 'To those celebrating the fact that I'm smoking a blunt [a type of joint]: it's a cigar. Even if it decided to identify as a blunt for the purposes of this celebration, it would remain objectively, provably and demonstratively a cigar.' It was a typical response from the 59-year-old multimillionaire creator of the Harry Potter franchise, who has over recent years regularly utilised social media in her support of women-only spaces, and who has been a vocal and financial supporter of For Women Scotland, having donated £70,000 to the group's crowdfunding for the legal challenge that culminated in Wednesday's ruling. The writer has evolved from celebrated laureate of children's literature to a fearless figurehead for gender-critical campaigners: someone willing to have battles on X in particular, where she is something of a lightning rod, who fights fire with fire, and seemingly cannot be cowed. Supporters will say Rowling's financial contribution has been important, though point out the lesser sums donated by hundreds of other women to the crowdfunding were equally so. Her vocal support, however, has been of even greater consequence. They admire her doggedness, her clear-sightedness as an uncompromising feminist. She is, they believe, strategic. Detractors are highly vocal in accusing her of transphobia, of using provocative language. They question her claims about transitioning, and detransitioning. She has been labelled a Terf (trans–exclusionary radical feminist). She denies she is transphobic, having said she respects 'every trans person's right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them'. Rowling's first public foray into this space came in December 2019 when she tweeted support for Maya Forstater, a tax specialist who lost her job at a thinktank after tweeting that transgender women could not change their biological sex. Then, in June 2020, Rowling posted a link to an article headlined 'Creating a more equal post-Covid-19 world for people who menstruate', to which she commented: ''People who menstruate.' I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?' She said: 'If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of so many to meaningfully discuss their lives.' The furore that followed led her to post an essay on her website outlining her concerns over 'the new trans activism'. She described herself as a 'domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor' who had been 'triggered' by learning the Scottish government was 'proceeding with its controversial gender recognition plans'. She had spoken up about the importance of sex, she added, 'and have been paying the price ever since. I was transphobic, I was a cunt, a bitch, a Terf, I deserved cancelling, punching and death.' The backlash included actors in the Potter movies franchise Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, making public their support for transgender rights. Radcliffe responded by saying 'transgender women are women'. Watson tweeted: 'Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren't who they say they are.' Eddie Redmayne, the star of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, based on Rowling's book, said: 'I disagree with Jo [Rowling]'s comments. Trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary identities are valid.' There were reports of book-burnings. Rowling returned her Ripple of Hope award given to her by the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights organisation after its president, Kerry Kennedy, criticised her views on transgender issues. Quidditch, a sport created for the fictional world of Harry Potter, announced in 2022 it was changing its name to Quadball, with one of several reasons being that Rowling had 'increasingly come under scrutiny for her anti-trans positions', the International Quidditch Association said. Rowling is a serious philanthropist. She supports a wide range of humanitarian causes through her charitable trust Volant, including charities working with women and children, and donated £10m to set up a world-leading research and treatment centre for multiple sclerosis in Scotland founded in the name of her mother, Anne Rowling, who died from the disease. In 2022, she funded and co-founded Beria's Place, a sexual violence support service for women in Edinburgh. She is immensely wealthy. The Harry Potter franchise is global. HBO is producing a Harry Potter TV series, of which Rowling is executive producer. Her Robert Galbraith crime novels in the Cormoran Strike series have been adapted by the BBC. If she has had concerns of any commercial impact, she has not expressed them. She bats off any suggestions from fans that she has ruined her legacy, telling one podcast they 'could not have misunderstood me more profoundly'. Rowling said: 'I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy. What a pompous way to live your life, walking around thinking: 'What will my legacy be?' Whatever, I'll be dead. I care about now. I care about the living.'
The Guardian
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
JK Rowling's journey from Harry Potter creator to gender-critical campaigner
Cocktail in hand and puffing on a celebratory cigar aboard her super-yacht, reportedly somewhere in the Bahamas, JK Rowling celebrated on social media after this week's supreme court ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. 'I love it when a plan comes together,' she posted on X, borrowing the catchphrase from popular 80s TV series The A-Team. She added, referencing the bitter and polarised gender identification debate: 'To those celebrating the fact that I'm smoking a blunt [a type of joint]: it's a cigar. Even if it decided to identify as a blunt for the purposes of this celebration, it would remain objectively, provably and demonstratively a cigar.' It was a typical response from the 59-year-old multimillionaire creator of the Harry Potter franchise, who has over recent years regularly utilised social media in her support of women-only spaces, and who has been a vocal and financial supporter of For Women Scotland, having donated £70,000 to the group's crowdfunding for the legal challenge that culminated in Wednesday's ruling. The writer has evolved from celebrated laureate of children's literature to a fearless figurehead for gender-critical campaigners: someone willing to have battles on X in particular, where she is something of a lightning rod, who fights fire with fire, and seemingly cannot be cowed. Supporters will say Rowling's financial contribution has been important, though point out the lesser sums donated by hundreds of other women to the crowdfunding were equally so. Her vocal support, however, has been of even greater consequence. They admire her doggedness, her clear-sightedness as an uncompromising feminist. She is, they believe, strategic. Detractors are highly vocal in accusing her of transphobia, of using provocative language. They question her claims about transitioning, and detransitioning. She has been labelled a Terf (trans–exclusionary radical feminist). She denies she is transphobic, having said she respects 'every trans person's right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them'. Rowling's first public foray into this space came in December 2019 when she tweeted support for Maya Forstater, a tax specialist who lost her job at a thinktank after tweeting that transgender women could not change their biological sex. Then, in June 2020, Rowling posted a link to an article headlined 'Creating a more equal post-Covid-19 world for people who menstruate', to which she commented: ''People who menstruate.' I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?' She said: 'If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of so many to meaningfully discuss their lives.' The furore that followed led her to post an essay on her website outlining her concerns over 'the new trans activism'. She described herself as a 'domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor' who had been 'triggered' by learning the Scottish government was 'proceeding with its controversial gender recognition plans'. She had spoken up about the importance of sex, she added, 'and have been paying the price ever since. I was transphobic, I was a cunt, a bitch, a Terf, I deserved cancelling, punching and death.' The backlash included actors in the Potter movies franchise Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, making public their support for transgender rights. Radcliffe responded declaring 'transgender women are women'. Watson tweeted: 'Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren't who they say they are.' Eddie Redmayne, star of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, based on Rowling's book, said: 'I disagree with Jo [Rowling]'s comments. Trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary identities are valid.' There were reports of book-burnings. Rowling returned her Ripple of Hope award given to her by the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights organisation after its president, Kerry Kennedy, criticised her views on transgender issues. Quidditch, a sport created for the fictional world of Harry Potter, announced in 2022 it was changing its name to Quadball, with one of several reasons being that Rowling had 'increasingly come under scrutiny for her anti-trans positions,' the International Quidditch Association said. Rowling is a serious philanthropist. She supports a wide range of humanitarian causes through her charitable trust Volant, including charities working with women and children, and donated £10m to set up a world-leading research and treatment centre for multiple sclerosis in Scotland founded in the name of her mother, Anne Rowling, who died from the disease. In 2022, she funded and co-founded Beria's Place, a sexual violence support service for women in Edinburgh. She is immensely wealthy. The Harry Potter franchise is global. HBO is producing a Harry Potter TV series, of which Rowling is executive producer. Her Robert Galbraith crime novels in the Cormoran Strike series have been adapted by the BBC. If she has had concerns of any commercial impact, she has not expressed them. She bats off any suggestions from fans that she has ruined her legacy, telling one podcast they 'could not have misunderstood me more profoundly'. Rowling said: 'I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy. What a pompous way to live your life, walking around thinking: 'What will my legacy be?' Whatever, I'll be dead. I care about now. I care about the living.'
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
This is the year of JK Rowling's triumph and it is such a joy to watch
By 2018, when the trans movement hotted up, J K Rowling was already used to unbelievable levels of abuse and threat for the crime of believing in the primacy of biological sex over social declarations of gender – and for liking the tweets of others who shared this view. She later gave her support to Maya Forstater, a researcher who had been sacked for posting her belief that someone cannot change biological sex. Writing on her website, Rowling wrote: 'I knew perfectly well what was going to happen when I supported Maya. I must have been on my fourth or fifth cancellation by then. I expected the threats of violence, to be told I was literally killing trans people with my hate, to be called c--- and b---- and, of course, for my books to be burned, although one particularly abusive man told me he'd composted them.' Since then, Rowling has endured many more threats and insults. She is the queen 'Terf' (trans exclusionary radical feminist) – the insult the trans lobby coined for people who don't accept that men can be women just by saying so. (Terf has become a badge of pride among those with the label; and Britain, for a time, was known among fans as Terf Island). As the mass drubbing in public really took off after 2020, she found that even the young actors whose careers she made – the stars of the Harry Potter franchise – had turned against her,coming out with sanctimonious statements about how 'trans women are women' and how 'Jo' had got it wrong. Emma Watson, who played Hermione in the films, sniped that trans people 'are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned'. Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter himself, said that he was 'really sad' at the rupture caused by Rowling's stance. Eddie Redmayne – who starred in Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts – was the most sanctimonious. 'I disagree with Jo's comments. Trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary identities are valid.' But the great Rowling has won: she bravely hoisted the mad world on her shoulders and shifted it to saner ground. The Cass Report drew a line in the sand about puberty-blockers and the clinics that prescribe them: they are no longer routinely offered in Britain. And as the hailstorm of adolescent girls transitioning to boys and seeking body-altering surgery to that effect has slowed, some of them are 'detransitioning', realising that their apparent gender dysphoria was more to do with other issues from undiagnosed autism to lesbianism. In the US, the new administration has declared war on the trans lobby. Without her bravery in speaking the truth bluntly, to politicians, Twitter terrorists and journalists – as well as that of her coterie of close friends, including the Telegraph writers Julie Bindel and Suzanne Moore – the right of biological women to spaces reserved for them would never have been recaptured. Biological men can no longer compete in most women's sport. Most people would have surrendered to the sustained assault on their mental health and basic safety. But she endured. In refusing to kowtow to the trans lobby, she has made it OK, and less dangerous, to say true things of vital importance. And now, despite the original cast's intolerable ingratitude, despite a whole generation of trans activists pretending she is the devil incarnate, there is now a new Harry Potter series – made for HBO this time – scheduled to hit screens in 2027 and set to air over the course of a decade. More than 31,000 children sent in audition tapes. It wasn't quite the case that she was ostracised. Rowling has written about the outpouring of letters from people who were grateful to her for speaking up about what they also recognised was a terrifying and pervasive trend: the denial of women's sex-based rights, and all that that entailed. It meant allowing self-identifying 'women' into women's changing rooms, prisons, and hospital wards. Rosie Duffield, the Canterbury MP who quit Labour in part over its stance on trans rights, was and is one of Rowling's most steadfast supporters. And there's her tight knit buddies – Bindel, Moore, also ex-Sussex philosophy professor Kathleen Stock and Maya Forstater – known to the world after they posted pictures of themselves having a Terf-themed lunch at the River Cafe in 2022. Their loyalty to Rowling is legendary: all are tight-lipped about the friendship. But it's obvious from her sauciness that 'Jo' is good fun. I enjoyed her response to the prospect of a two-year jail term for misgendering a trans person, imagined under the (then) forthcoming Labour government. 'Bring on the court case, I say. It'll be more fun than I've ever had on a red carpet.' As for her preferred prison job: 'Hoping for the library, obviously, but I think I could do OK in the kitchens. Laundry might be a problem. I have a tendency to shrink stuff/turn it pink accidentally. Guessing that won't be a major issue if it's mostly scrubs and sheets, though.' The Harry Potter books came out while I was an undergraduate, and a recent attempt to read one backfired: I hated it. No matter: Rowling is one of the greats, whether you think it's for her world of wizards, or the way she forced a bit of sanity back on a culture that is distinctly short on it. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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Telegraph
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
This is the year of JK Rowling's triumph and it is such a joy to watch
By 2018, when the trans movement hotted up, J K Rowling was already used to unbelievable levels of abuse and threat for the crime of believing in the primacy of biological sex over social declarations of gender – and for liking the tweets of others who shared this view. She later gave her support to Maya Forstater, a researcher who had been sacked for posting her belief that someone cannot change biological sex. Writing on her website, Rowling wrote: 'I knew perfectly well what was going to happen when I supported Maya. I must have been on my fourth or fifth cancellation by then. I expected the threats of violence, to be told I was literally killing trans people with my hate, to be called c--- and b---- and, of course, for my books to be burned, although one particularly abusive man told me he'd composted them.' Since then, Rowling has endured many more threats and insults. She is the queen 'Terf' (trans exclusionary radical feminist) – the insult the trans lobby coined for people who don't accept that men can be women just by saying so. (Terf has become a badge of pride among those with the label; and Britain, for a time, was known among fans as Terf Island). As the mass drubbing in public really took off after 2020, she found that even the young actors whose careers she made – the stars of the Harry Potter franchise – had turned against her, coming out with sanctimonious statements about how 'trans women are women' and how 'Jo' had got it wrong. Emma Watson, who played Hermione in the films, sniped that trans people 'are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned'. Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter himself, said that he was 'really sad' at the rupture caused by Rowling's stance. Eddie Redmayne – who starred in Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts – was the most sanctimonious. 'I disagree with Jo's comments. Trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary identities are valid.' But the great Rowling has won: she bravely hoisted the mad world on her shoulders and shifted it to saner ground. The Cass Report drew a line in the sand about puberty-blockers and the clinics that prescribe them: they are no longer routinely offered in Britain. And as the hailstorm of adolescent girls transitioning to boys and seeking body-altering surgery to that effect has slowed, some of them are 'detransitioning', realising that their apparent gender dysphoria was more to do with other issues from undiagnosed autism to lesbianism. In the US, the new administration has declared war on the trans lobby. Without her bravery in speaking the truth bluntly, to politicians, Twitter terrorists and journalists – as well as that of her coterie of close friends, including the Telegraph writers Julie Bindel and Suzanne Moore – the right of biological women to spaces reserved for them would never have been recaptured. Biological men can no longer compete in most women's sport. Most people would have surrendered to the sustained assault on their mental health and basic safety. But she endured. In refusing to kowtow to the trans lobby, she has made it OK, and less dangerous, to say true things of vital importance. And now, despite the original cast's intolerable ingratitude, despite a whole generation of trans activists pretending she is the devil incarnate, there is now a new Harry Potter series – made for HBO this time – scheduled to hit screens in 2027 and set to air over the course of a decade. More than 31,000 children sent in audition tapes. It wasn't quite the case that she was ostracised. Rowling has written about the outpouring of letters from people who were grateful to her for speaking up about what they also recognised was a terrifying and pervasive trend: the denial of women's sex-based rights, and all that that entailed. It meant allowing self-identifying 'women' into women's changing rooms, prisons, and hospital wards. Rosie Duffield, the Canterbury MP who quit Labour in part over its stance on trans rights, was and is one of Rowling's most steadfast supporters. And there's her tight knit buddies – Bindel, Moore, also ex-Sussex philosophy professor Kathleen Stock and Maya Forstater – known to the world after they posted pictures of themselves having a Terf-themed lunch at the River Cafe in 2022. Their loyalty to Rowling is legendary: all are tight-lipped about the friendship. But it's obvious from her sauciness that 'Jo' is good fun. I enjoyed her response to the prospect of a two-year jail term for misgendering a trans person, imagined under the (then) forthcoming Labour government. 'Bring on the court case, I say. It'll be more fun than I've ever had on a red carpet.' As for her preferred prison job: 'Hoping for the library, obviously, but I think I could do OK in the kitchens. Laundry might be a problem. I have a tendency to shrink stuff/turn it pink accidentally. Guessing that won't be a major issue if it's mostly scrubs and sheets, though.' The Harry Potter books came out while I was an undergraduate, and a recent attempt to read one backfired: I hated it. No matter: Rowling is one of the greats, whether you think it's for her world of wizards, or the way she forced a bit of sanity back on a culture that is distinctly short on it.
