Harry Potter saga author JK Rowling has shared some detail about her decision to wade into the debates on transgender matters.
Speaking on a podcast titled “The Witch Trials of JK Rowling," the author said she decided to join the “public conversation” on the subject after seeing women being “shut down,” adding that she felt a “moral obligation” to do so as it became apparent that “people are terrified of speaking up.”
“I wanted to speak up and join the conversation earlier than I did. I was not held back, but there were people close to me who were begging me not to do it,” Rowling said. “I think it was out of concern about what that would mean, they had watched what had happened to other public figures and there was certainly a feeling of ‘This is not a wise thing to do, don't do it’.”
She also lamented that “there are a ton of women who are being forced not to speak because they literally won't make rent,” and admitted that her own wealth did afford her a modicum of protection in that regard.
“There came a point where I felt obligated because the climate of fear was scaring me more than speaking out,” Rowling explained. “I reached a point where I thought ‘I can't keep living with myself if I don't say something,’ so it was personal as well, I have to speak.”
Previously on her podcast, Rowling also suggested that the threats against her were actually used to cow other women into silence.
JK Rowling has been branded a transphobe by members of the LGBTQ community and found herself bombarded with death and rape threats after weighing in on the subject of transgender people.
Back in 2020, she mocked the headline of an opinion piece that contained the phrase “people who menstruate,” while in 2019 she displayed support for a policy researcher who lost her job for tweeting that one cannot change their biological sex.