JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books and self-described radical feminist, has been the object of harassment and attack for her defense of female-only spaces in society.
She has been attacked, shunned by HBO and the cast of her movies, and the object of a near-constant cancellation campaign. Her crime? Supporting gay and transgender rights while insisting that trans-women are not actual females and don’t belong in female-only spaces.
Rowling is the original TERF, or “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.” Until recently she was not particularly beloved by conservatives. She is actually very liberal in her views, including her views on social issues. The Venn diagram between Rowling’s views and the average conservative’s shows very little overlap.
Yet on one big issue we overlap, and that makes all the difference. She opposes significant parts of the transgender ideology.
A lesbian reporter for Pride magazine and Huffington Post was given an assignment: write up a story about “20 Transphobic JK Rowling Quotes We’re Done With.” Just the sort of listicle story that are easy to write, easy to read, and popular with all. Many of the clickbait stories out there are listicles because they are just the right bite-sized content we love to enjoy. The snack of writing, as it were.
But the writer, E J Rosetta found she had a problem: there are no such quotes to find. For all the attacks on Rowling as a transphobe, it was impossible to find any statements by Rowling that fit the bill. Forget 20 quotes; she couldn’t find one.
In the process, I peaked.
JK Rowling is not an “intolerable transphobe”, she’s a (talented) woman who could have sat back & been beloved forever, but looked around & paid attention as the intersection of trans rights and women’s rights has had understandable growing pains.🧵
— E J Rosetta (@ejrosetta) November 22, 2022
JK saw the loopholes being created & knew that women needed a voice. So instead of sitting back & wishing everyone well, said “It’s got to be me, hasn’t it?”. She did something terrifying & amazing & used her voice, I suspect knowing damn well what was to come.
That’s bravery.🧵
— E J Rosetta (@ejrosetta) November 22, 2022
Rosetta’s Twitter thread goes on much longer, but you get the point. Rowling has been the object of one of the most massive attempted cancellation campaigns on Twitter. Any author other than she and a few mega-stars would have been forced to fold in order to survive the firestorm.
And yet when a lesbian writer is assigned–and happily took up the assignment and pursued it with apparent vigor–a story intended to out Rowling as the transphobe she is constantly accused of being, she cannot. The content for which Rowling is being vilified does not exist.
Group think, brainwashing & listening unquestioningly to the voices of my LGBT peers over critical thought & doing my own research/thinking.
5 years I have spent nodding along while JK was buried, and for that I apologise.
I’m glad to report I’m thinking for myself again now. https://t.co/2lCljvPsvO
— E J Rosetta (@ejrosetta) November 22, 2022
“Transphobia” means nothing more than disagreeing with 100% of the transgender ideology. And, as we know, that ideology isn’t stable; it changes moment by moment, seeking out new variants of “bigots” to attack. Two genders turn into 4, 4 into 8, 8 into 16…and so on. San Francisco at last count has over 100 genders and sexual orientations listed in their application for getting free money for transgenders.
Oh my. You may have heard that San Francisco is giving a guaranteed monthly income to transgender residents. Applicants can check one or more of 97 different genders and 17 sexual orientations.
– I had a computer read them all for you – pic.twitter.com/RhcFY5qgzz
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) November 19, 2022
How many genders next year? Who knows? The ideology is a tool to destroy others. And Rowling is merely its most prominent target.
Rowling obviously can take care of herself. Her talent and her billion dollars gives her an insulation that few can afford. Despite all the vitriol aimed at her she gets to live in a mansion, sell as many books as she likes, and say what she wants.
Few others can.
Rosetta’s confession on Twitter that the whole “transphobe” meme is simply false is a good example of how cancel mobs are indifferent to any kind of facts or reasoning that inhibit their hatred. The hate is the point.
Gay marriage won the day because in the end most people saw the demand for marriage equality as being based upon a compelling moral argument. The decades of hurled accusations of homophobia didn’t move the public opinion needle, but the appeal to love and family did. Buy the argument or not, appeals to love are appeals to our compassion, not fear or hatred.
Transgender activists have chosen a different path: they seem invested in hatred, and unless that changes they will earn every opponent they inspire.
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