Why on earth is JK Rowling damaging her own image? Week after week, the Scottish author of Harry Potter has intensified what her critics call an anti-trans crusade. There is no other globally successful artist so engaged in a battle that could lead to being rejected by their own fans. She was back at it recently, even as filming begins on a high-stakes Harry Potter TV series.

At the beginning of June, the 59-year-old writer announced on her X account the creation of a fund aimed at supporting people and organizations that "fight to retain women's sex-based rights." She has nothing against trans people, she says, she just wants to keep them at a distance. Yet over the past seven years, she has multiplied similar initiatives, seemingly shifting from pro-women projects to anti-trans ones – often provocatively.

Just look at the photo she posted on April 17 on X after the UK Supreme Court decided that the legal definition of a woman is based solely on biological sex – meaning a trans woman would be barred from women's restrooms and competitive women's sports. The photo shows the author celebrating her victory on a yacht in the Bahamas, cigarillo in one hand and whisky in the other, with the caption: "I love it when a plan comes together." The issue has become such an obsession that even Elon Musk, before Trump's election, gently advised her to move on.

Uneven literary career

She swears she hasn't changed, but many fans no longer recognize the Rowling who once harmoniously embodied both woman and artist. In Harry Potter, the author championed inclusion, tolerance, equality and anti-racism; as a woman, she was a struggling single mother, defended migrants, the public health system, abortion rights and respect for gay people. She opposed Brexit and gave £1 million to the Labour Party in 2008 and 2010. In 2015, when a Black actress was cast as Hermione in a stage production of Harry Potter, she applauded the choice.

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