Dear JK Rowling: Please Leave Trans People Alone

Your recent praise of Matt Walsh is a new low, even for you.

At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to write this, as I’m leery of drawing any more attention to JK Rowling than she’s already received due to her increasingly virulent and toxic ant-trans positions. However, her recent activities on Twitter–which have included praising fellow traveler Matt Walsh–convinced me that I had to add my voice to the growing chorus calling out the famous author for her behavior. 

So, let me put it as plainly as I possibly can: JK Rowling, PLEASE JUST FUCKING STOP.

Look, I was willing to give you at least some benefit of the doubt way back at the beginning of this whole fiasco, when you claimed that you had a middle-age moment which led you to like a tweet infamous for its anti-trans animus. After all, we’ve all been there, and as a rule I’m usually willing to give people a little bit of grace. Since then, however, you’ve doubled and tripled down on your repeated attacks on the trans community, clearly reveling in the opportunity to become ever more infamous for choosing this particular hill to die on. Rather than softening your views or listening to any of your many trans fans who have been increasingly alienated by your behavior, you’ve chosen instead to double down. 

Which brings us to the most recent episode in this whole sorry saga. Just when I thought I’d seen it all, I saw that you’d responded positively to his recent film, What is a Woman, I thought to myself, surely not. But, sure enough, there it was plain as day to see on Twitter (where, I’m convinced, everything good goes to die). 

As anyone with any sentience and awareness knows, Matt Walsh is a particularly pernicious sort of public figure. Describing himself as a theocratic fascist in his Twitter profile, he has made a point of being as noxious as possible. A mere perusal of the titles of his books gives you a good sense of what kind of “thinker” he is: The Unholy Trinity: Blocking the Left's Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, Church of Cowards: A Wake-Up Call to Complacent Christians and, of course, What Is a Woman?: One Man's Journey to Answer the Question of a Generation. Very clearly, he is someone who relishes the opportunity to be as inflammatory as possible. Subtlety and nuance, as is so often the case these days, are in short supply.

One must wonder, then, why you, JK Rowling, would go out of your way to reach out to such a person. Even if, granted, his views are in alignment with yours on this particular issue (which, by the way, would be bad enough on its own), do you truly want to associate your brand with a theocratic fascist? Nothing I’ve seen in your writings–whether in Harry Potter lore or elsewhere–has ever suggested you have any right-wing affiliations of this sort. As has been amply documented, you’ve almost always been a left-leaning centrist, so your praise for his film is particularly striking and galling. 

At the risk of oversimplifying matters, it sure does seem as if Matt Walsh is just the sort of person who would become a Death Eater, believing–like so many did–that any sacrifice is worth protecting the sacred values of home and hearth. Now, I’m well aware that authors don’t always align themselves with the value of their works, but even so, it is truly dismaying to see you cross yet another line when it comes to a needless attack on trans people, who are already one of the most vulnerable demographics, both here in the US and in your own home country of the UK. 

All of which leads me to ask: whither now, JK Rowling? Are you really willing to die on this particular hill, knowing the enormous harm that you’ve doing to the many trans people whose very existence is being called into question each and every day? Are you really willing to squander your literary reputation on this particular effort? Do you honestly think that what you’re doing is going to protect women, whether cisgender, trans, or otherwise?

Now some, I’m sure, are wondering why I’ve framed this as a personal letter rather than the more typical essay or opinion piece. The reason is simple. Like many other elder millennials, the works of Harry Potter were a very important part of my young adulthood. I first started reading them while a junior in high school and, starting with Order of the Phoenix, I was usually one of the first in line to buy the new volume or attend the newest film adaptation. And for a long time it sure seemed as if Rowling truly was one of the good ones, so it pains me to see one of the people most responsible for making fantasy a successful genre go so all-in on anti-trans bigotry. For me, this is doubly personal for my best friend in the world is trans–and was once a devout Rowling fan–and so it infuriates me to see his fundamental identity called into question each and every day, particularly by someone he once so admired. Hence, it seemed to me as if a personal letter, a plea if you will, was the most fitting form for my outcry against Rowling. 

Someday, I hope that it is not the case that those who were once allies of the queer community–I’m looking at you too, Bette Midler–don’t use their enormous platforms to take potshots at trans folk. To be quite honest, though, I’ve essentially lost whatever hope I might once have had that you, JK Rowling, would be one of those who would see the light and cease your unprovoked attacks. Clearly, nothing is going to stand in the way of your own sense of moral sanctimony on this issue, let alone the pleading from your own trans fans. 

If I can’t change your mind–and I doubt anyone can do that–I will close with one last plea. Please, JK Rowling, can you just…stop?