HARRY Potter author JK Rowling has sparked a social media backlash with a controversial tweet about menstruation.
Over the weekend the English-born Scottish resident was accused of being transphobic after she shared a link to an article titled: “Opinion: Creating a more equal post-Covid-19 world for people who menstruate.”
Rowling commented: “‘People who menstruate’. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” The author, who also writes crime novels as Robert Galbraith, went further.
She tweeted: “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.
“The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women – ie, to male violence – ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences — is a nonsense.”
She added: “I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”
The backlash was not long in coming on Twitter.
One person wrote: “Trans men who haven’t transitioned still menstruate.”
Another added: “I know you know this because you have been told over and over and over again, but transgender men can menstruate.
“Non-binary people menstruate. I, a 37-year-old woman with a uterus, have not menstruated in a decade. Women are not defined by their periods.”
Meanwhile, some lucky anonymous person is about to make tens of thousands of pounds when a rare first edition of Rowling’s first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is put up for auction by Lyon & Turnbull of Edinburgh on Wednesday, June 17. Signed by Rowling for “James, Kate and Laura”, it could fetch £120,000.
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