J.K. Rowling Says John Oliver ‘Spouts Absolute Bulls—’ About Trans Athletes Not Posing ‘Any Threat to Safety and Fairness’ in Women’s Sports
variety.comEllise Shafer J.K. Rowling has slammed John Oliver on X over his support for transgender athletes in women’s sports, calling him an “undoubtedly intelligent person” who “spouts absolute bullshit.” The “Harry Potter” author — who has come under fire in recent years for her views on trans women that many perceive as being anti-trans — is making headlines for her response to a recent segment of Oliver’s HBO talk show “Last Week Tonight.” “There are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high schools anywhere,” Oliver said in the segment. “Even if there were more, trans kids — like all kids — vary in athletic ability and there is no evidence they pose any threat to safety or fairness.” He added, “Finally, if you genuinely want to address the biggest concern for most girls who play high school sports, you’d be less worried about this and more about the creepy assistant volleyball coach who keeps liking their posts on fucking Instagram.” Rowling responded to this in a long post on X, beginning with: “Nothing about this feels good, because John Oliver generously gave his time for my charity Lumos and I liked him very much when I met him, but God knows, if you ever need an example of motivated reasoning and confirmation bias, this video’s for you.” She continued to call Oliver “an undoubtedly intelligent person spouts absolute bullshit to support something he wants to be true, but isn’t.” “Again and again I’ve come up against men who argue exactly what Oliver does here, using the very same talking points,” she wrote. “With a straight face, the ‘believe the science’ guys will say ‘actually, we don’t yet have enough data to say whether men and boys are stronger and faster than women and girls’.
