JK Rowling launches a furious attack accusing politicians of 'snuggling up' to trans groups

JK Rowling has launched a furious attack on politicians who have 'snuggled up' to trans groups, as the Harry Potter author insists she is 'ready to die on this hill'.

The 58-year-old called for there to be an investigation into why political parties are embracing the opinions of 'privileged' pro-trans groups such as Stonewall and Mermaids.

Her comments come just days after a review, written by leading paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, found that teenagers in Britain have been allowed to change their gender based on 'remarkably weak evidence'.

In her report Dr Cass warned that there was a 'lack of high-quality research' on the effects of giving children puberty blockers and hormones and said that the toxicity in the debate over the issue has become 'exceptional'.

Tweeting her response to the report, Rowling said: 'In 2018, Stonewall literally told schools to shred a research pack saying there were risks to puberty blockers. We, in the strongest possible terms, denounce and condemn this publication. If it lands on your desk, do the right thing: shred it.

JK Rowling has launched a furious attack on politicians who have 'snuggled up' to trans groups 

Rowling's crusade for women's rights has led to the former stars of her hugely successful brainchild, the Harry Potter series, distance themselves from the author

The Harry Potter author called for there to be an investigation into why political parties are embracing the opinions of 'privileged' pro-trans groups

'In 2022 Stonewall told the world that 'research' suggests two year olds can be trans. It advocated for nurseries - NURSERIES - to start teaching kids that there are more genders than boy and girl.

'Politicians have snuggled up to Stonewall and Mermaids, given them privileged places at the table and adopted their talking points, to the detriment of very vulnerable children, young people and women. When are we going to see this fully investigated? When will this end?'

A fellow X user replied to Rowling's thread of tweets, asking: 'I love your books, and I think you mean well, but I can't for the life of me understand why you are dying on this hill.'

The author responded: 'Leo, are you sure they were my books that you read? Because if you'd read them, and understood them, you'd absolutely understand why I'm ready to die on this hill.'

Earlier this week, Rowling said that she won't forgive Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson after slamming celebrities who 'cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights'.

The multi-millionaire author hit out at stars who use their 'platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors' after the release of the long-awaited Cass report into gender treatment in the UK.

The vocal women's rights campaigner said people who supported gender transitioning in children should apologise to 'traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces'.

Rowling has been vocal in her opposition of allowing children to change their gender, while Radcliffe and Watson have been outspoken in their support of the trans community. 

Asked what she thought of Radcliffe and Watson, the writer wrote on X: 'Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.' #

Discussing Dr Cass' report, she also added: 'Over the last four years, Hilary Cass has conducted the most robust review of the medical evidence for transitioning children that's ever been conducted. Mere hours after it was released to the press and public, committed ideologues are doubling down.

Daniel Radcliffe has previously called adults 'condescending' for expressing concerns over children transitioning. Pictured: The Harry Potter actor in New York on March 28, this year

Emma Watson has also spoke out in the past in opposition to JK Rowling's views on trans people. Pictured: Watson at the Soho House Awards in New York in September last year

'These are people who've deemed opponents "far-right" for wanting to know there are proper checks and balances in place before autistic, gay and abused kids - groups that are all overrepresented at gender clinics - are left sterilised, inorgasmic, lifelong patients.

'I understand that the review's conclusions will have come as a seismic shock to those who've hounded and demonised whistleblowers and smeared opponents as bigots and transphobes, but trying to discredit Hilary Cass's work isn't merely misguided. It's actively malign.

'Even if you don't feel ashamed of cheerleading for what now looks like severe medical malpractice, even if you don't want to accept that you might have been wrong, where's your sense of self-preservation? The bandwagon you hopped on so gladly is hurtling towards a cliff.

'And if I sound angry, it's because I'm bloody angry. I read Cass this morning and my anger's been mounting all day. Kids have been irreversibly harmed, and thousands are complicit, not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations.

'The consequences of this scandal will play out for decades. You cheered it on. You did all you could to impede and misrepresent research. You tried to bully people out of their jobs for opposing you. Young people have been experimented on, left infertile and in pain.

'I thought the last tweet was going to be my last, but I just burst into tears. The #CassReview may be a watershed moment, but it comes too late for detransitioners who've written me heartbreaking letters of regret. Today's not a triumph, it's the laying bare of a tragedy.'

The report by Dr Cass, which was commissioned nearly four years ago, made a series of recommendations to overhaul NHS trans services to improve the care that children receive.

Retired consultant paediatrician Dr Cass speaking about the publication of the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People, April 9

She found that there is a 'lack of high-quality research' on the effects of giving children puberty blockers and hormones, and recommended that NHS England establish its own research programme.

The report also called for the creation a separate service for those wanting to 'de-transition', where a gender transition is stopped or reversed, and recommended a 'follow-through service' for 17 to 25-year-olds to protect teenagers 'falling off a cliff edge' in care when they hit 17.

Dr Cass warned that her review had been hampered by how polarised the debate on trans care for children has become. She said medical professionals had been left '[too] afraid to openly discuss their views'.

The report found those who socially transition at an earlier age or before seeing a medical professional were 'more likely to proceed to a medical pathway'.

She said 'the importance of what happens in school' cannot be over-estimated and said parents must not be excluded from conversations over their children's welfare.

Unregulated private clinics were singled out for some of Dr Cass's toughest criticism as she echoed GPs' warnings over prescriptions issued by services based abroad.

The review said family doctors had 'expressed concern about being pressurised to prescribe hormones after these have been initiated by private providers'.