J.K. Rowling on Her Controversial Comments About Transgender Women: ‘A Ton of Potter Fans Were Grateful That I’d Said What I Said’
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital Editor J.K. Rowling said she knew her comments about trans women nearly three years ago would land like a “hand grenade” on Twitter but claimed that despite the backlash, “a ton of Potter fans were grateful that I’d said what I said.” “I absolutely knew that if I spoke out many people who would love my books would be deeply unhappy with me,” the best-selling author said in the latest episode of podcast “The Witch Trials of J.K.
Rowling,” released Tuesday. “Personally, it has not been fun and I have been scared at times for my own safety and, overwhelmingly, for my family’s safety.
Time will tell whether I’ve got this wrong. I can only say that I’ve thought about it deeply and hard and long and I’ve listened, I promise, to the other side.” In Episode 5 of “The Witch Trials of J.K.
Rowling,” the author recalled what ignited the firestorm in 2020 — an article at the top of her Twitter feed that said, “Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate,” which had made her “really angry.” “I’m coming to that article on the background of what I see as huge injustice and people trying to shut women down… So I was angry, and I was flippant,” Rowling said.
