"Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver ignited a fiery rebuke from author J. K. Rowling after the liberal comedian doubled down on defending transgender athletes in female sports on his Sunday night HBO show.
"I understand why men like Oliver, who’ve consistently mocked anti-science people on the right, sold out initially," Rowling posted to X, along with a clip from the show.
"They didn’t want to blow up their careers. Taking fashionable anti-women’s rights positions was the cost of doing business. But it’s time to read the f---ing room," she wrote.
The famed "Harry Potter" author is one of the most well-known critics of the transgender movement on the left. She has faced immense backlash for her views on gender and activism to protect women's spaces and sports.
Rowling fired back at John Oliver after he defended transgender athletes in women's sports again on "Last Week Tonight." (Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
Oliver spent over 40 minutes of the show analyzing the hot-button issue, starting with bashing the Republicans' "obsession" with banning transgender athletes.
Early on in the segment, Oliver referenced how Rowling came after him last November, calling him, "an undoubtedly intelligent person who spouts absolute bulls---."
"It feels a bit weird to catch that much heat from the creator of ‘Harry Potter,’ especially when I clearly look like what would have happened to him if they left him in that cupboard for the rest of his life," Oliver joked on Sunday.
The comedian said he stood by his past comments which angered Rowling when he said, "There are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high schools anywhere, even if there were more, trans kids, like all kids, vary in terms of athletic ability, and there is no evidence they pose any threat to safety or fairness."
J. K. Rowling arrives for the Guinness Six Nations match at the Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh. Picture date: Saturday February 24, 2024. (Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)
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On the Sunday show, Oliver tackled different arguments questioning the safety and fairness of trans athletes in female sports, arguing the issue wasn't as black and white as the right portrayed it to be.
He called it "absurd" to believe that male athletes transition in order to gain a competitive advantage over biological females.
According to Oliver, his show spoke to scientists "on all sides of the issue" who agreed that there currently is not enough scientific research testing the impact that medical gender transition has on athletic performance.
Whether transgender athletes have any physical advantage over female athletes is dependent on the specific sport or event, he argued.
Women's fencer Stephanie Turner kneels in protest in front of transgender athlete Redmond Sullivan. (Courtesy of ICONS)
"In general, there's a lot of overlap in the average performance ranges of men and women. Basically, it's not the case that any man is going to be stronger or more athletic than every woman, which is sometimes what gets implied here," he argued.
Oliver concluded the lengthy segment by conceding the issue was "meaningfully complicated" but that there should be policies that "balance competition and inclusion" instead of "blanket bans" at the elementary school level.
He also urged those who disagree with him to acknowledge there is a religious-based anti-transgender element fueling the debate.
"The one thing I ask of you is to recognize the ugliness of how this issue gets discussed and how it gets cynically used by some to advance the eradication of trans people generally to get back to what they know from scripture, that trans people are a myth," he said mockingly.
A representative for Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment.