LGBT advocates have condemned “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling for her latest novel, a story about a cross-dressing serial killer.
The review: After The Telegraph on Sunday published a review of “Troubled Blood” — written by Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith and released on Tuesday — transgender activists denounced the book as another expression of her “transphobia.”
- The 900-page novel, the sixth entry in Rowling’s “Cormoran Strike” series, centers on the fictional disappearance of a woman in 1974 believed to have been killed by a man who dresses as a woman to stalk his victims.
- According to Jake Kerridge, who reviewed “Troubled Blood” for The Telegraph, the “moral seems to be: never trust a man in a dress.”
- “One wonders what critics of Rowling’s stance on trans issues will make of [the] book,” Kerridge wrote.
Rowling has been labeled a trans-exclusionary radical feminist, or a TERF, for repeatedly speaking out against some aspects of transgender ideology, including by asserting that biological sex is “real” and citing studies that show “60-90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria.”
The reaction: Commenters and critics this week once again lambasted the billionaire English author for her alleged bigotry.
“You can’t separate the art from the artist. Not anymore, not when the tone of both author and novel is the same. Rowling maintains she supports trans people, but we can only judge her by her actions and words,” wrote TV critic Kelly Lawler in a scathing review of “Troubled Blood” published Tuesday by USA Today.
“J.K. Rowling Proves Her Commitment to Transphobia in Her New Novel,” read the headline of Vanity Fair’s report on the controversy on Monday.
On Twitter on Tuesday, Irish singing duo Jedward suggested Rowling’s book should be burned.
Shon Faye, a transgender British writer, dubbed her the “transphobe-in-chief.”
Actor George Takei accused Rowling of targeting “the most vulnerable.”
Titania McGrath, a satirical Twitter account that mocks progressive dogma, documented tweets from various Twitter users urging violence against Rowling.
Indya Moore, a transgender actor who stars in the FX television series “Pose,” slammed Rowling in explicit terms in an Instagram video.
Some people, though, rallied to Rowling’s defense.
Actor Robbie Coltrane, who played “Harry Potter” character Hagrid in the blockbuster film franchise inspired by the bestselling children’s book series, told Radio Times that Rowlings critics were people who “just hang around waiting to be offended.”
English journalist Suzanne Moore said Twitter was allowing “hashtags that legitimise death threats and misogynistic abuse” against Rowling.
