The mention of the Harry Potter author is enough to make all eyes land on the speaker and a tense silence fall over the room. Everyone has heard about her reputation, but when you ask any of these people to quote any of this violent bigotry she supposedly spews day in and day out, they can’t. At most, they’ll say she thinks trans women are predators, and she wants them to die. What happened? Why has the world indulged in a collective lack of finding their own sources? 

Most recently, the author has been criticized for funding a women’s rape shelter that supposedly ‘explicitly excludes trans women.’ Beira’s Place was set up because, in Rowling’s words, she “know[s] how important it is that survivors have the option of women-[centered] and women-delivered care at such a vulnerable time.”  

This makes sense – rape is an overwhelmingly gendered crime, with 99% of sexual offenders being male, and it’s only natural for female rape victims to not want to be around the sex that abused them. This isn’t to say that all male people, trans or not, are rapists, but if a female rape victim has a fear of a trans woman, that’s not the fault of either of them. It makes sense that the shelters for survivors are also based on sex, perhaps with separate sections for cisgender and transitioned people to avoid transphobic abuse. 

Besides, other rape shelters in Edinburgh (where Beira’s Place is being set up) are inclusive of trans women, and if a trans woman comes to Beira’s Place, she will be referred to an inclusive shelter. Male rape victims simply have other shelters they can go to. 

Rowling herself has made a blog post on her original cancellation and the reasons behind the so-called transphobia she supported. Originally, she was put on the radar for her Twitter activity, liking tweets that were, arguably, transphobic. She claimed these likes were an accident, and in this blog post, says she was doing research for a book she was writing and would screenshot tweets she wanted to research later. Occasionally, though, she would accidentally like these tweets. One could doubt Rowling’s words, but remember that she has no reason to lie about this. She will be considered transphobic by the public either way due to her sex-based activism, so why lie about liking tweets?  

Since this point, Rowling’s twitter has mainly consisted of feminist content. Whether or not you still believe she’s a transphobe, at least you know her true beliefs now.