JK Rowling has responded to recent criticism from actors and public figures by doubling down on her position regarding biological sex and transgender issues, following a UK Supreme Court decision affirming that the legal definitions of “woman” and “sex” apply specifically to biological females.
The ruling trigged a wave of backlash from artists from different mediums, including several who are working on the upcoming Harry Potter series and the previous films. Actors Eddie Redmayne, Paapa Essiedu, and Katie Leung, and many others all signed an open letter to show their support for those who feel the ruling is discriminatory against men who say they are women.
In a post on X on Saturday, Rowling defended the Supreme Court’s interpretation of bioligical sex as elucidated in the Equality Act and pushed back against her critics, including some former colleagues.
“In light of recent open letters from academia and the arts criticising the UK’s Supreme Court ruling on sex-based rights, it’s possibly worth remembering that nobody sane believes, or has ever believed, that humans can change sex, or that binary sex isn’t a material fact,” Rowling wrote.
“These letters do nothing but remind us of what we know only too well: that pretending to believe these things has become an elitist badge of virtue.”
Rowling also took aim at those within her professional circles who have distanced themselves from her and her views calling them “back-stabbing” colleagues who are “motivated by fear.”
“Some argue that signatories of these sorts of letters are motivated by fear: fear for their careers, of course, but also fear of their co-religionists, who include angry, narcissistic men who threaten and sometimes enact violence on non-believers; back-stabbing colleagues ever ready to report wrongthink; the online shamers and doxxers and rape threateners, and, of course, the influential zealots in the upper echelons of liberal professions.”
Rowling also wrote that “court losses are starting to stack up” against trans people and “women are fighting back and winning significant victories.”
“I wonder if they ever ask themselves how they got here, and I wonder whether any of them will ever feel shame,” she wrote.
In a separate post published on Monday, Rowling responded to a story by the Scottish daily Express with the headline ‘JK Rowling won’t have new Harry Potter TV star sacked despite defiance.’”
In her post, Rowling stated: “I don’t have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn’t exercise it if I did. I don’t believe in taking away people’s jobs or livelihoods because they hold legally protected beliefs that differ from mine.”
Other actors who signed the letter include “The Last of Us” actor Bella Ramsey, “The Brutalist” actor Joe Alwyn and “Bridgerton” actor Nicola Coughlan, according to the New York Post.