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JK Rowling says women's rights face 'the greatest assault in my lifetime' by trans activists and regrets not speaking out 'far sooner'
JK Rowling has said that women's rights are facing 'the greatest assault in my lifetime' by trans activists and she regrets not speaking out 'far sooner'.
The 58-year-old Harry Potter author has previously been criticised for her staunch views on gender identity, but has always strongly denied accusations of transphobia.
She explained her belief in protecting women's sex-based rights in an essay which features in The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht - a forthcoming book on Scotland's battle for women's rights.
And she said that had she not spoken out against activism she would have felt 'ashamed for the rest of my days'.
'I'd come to believe that the socio-political movement insisting 'trans women are women' was neither kind nor tolerant, but in fact profoundly misogynistic, regressive, dangerous in some of its objectives and nakedly authoritarian in its tactics,' Rowling said, in an extract published in the Times.
JK Rowling has previously been criticised for her staunch views on gender identity, but has always strongly denied accusations of transphobia
The 58-year-old Harry Potter author said that had she not spoken out against activism she would have felt 'ashamed for the rest of my days'. Pictured: Transgender people and their supporters march through central London to protest against a ban on puberty blockers in April
She said she watched women campaign for their rights from the sidelines because 'people around me, including some I love, were begging me not to speak' - but said the guilt caused her 'chronic pain'.
'I believe that what is being done to troubled young people in the name of gender identity ideology is, indeed, a terrible medical scandal,' Rowling said.
'I believe we're witnessing the greatest assault of my lifetime on the rights our foremothers thought they'd guaranteed for all women.
'Ultimately, I spoke up because I'd have felt ashamed for the rest of my days if I hadn't. If I feel any regret at all, it's that I didn't speak far sooner.'
Since December 2019, Scotland-based Rowling has hit the headlines for her views on transgender issues.
She came out in support of Maya Forstater, who worked as a tax expert at the Centre for Global Development, an international think tank, and was sacked after tweeting that transgender people cannot change their biological sex.
Rowling described the backlash against her for supporting Ms Forstater as 'vicious'.
'Nobody who's been through an online monstering or a tsunami of death and rape threats will claim it's fun, and I'm not going to pretend it's anything other than disturbing and frightening,' she said.
Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, as well as Eddie Redmayne, who stars in Rowling's Fantastic Beasts films, have spoken up over the years in their support of trans rights. Pictured: Rupert Grint, JK Rowling, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson at the World Premiere of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' in 2001
Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, as well as Eddie Redmayne, who stars in Rowling's Fantastic Beasts films, have spoken up over the years in their support of trans rights.
'People who'd worked with me rushed to distance themselves from me or to add their public condemnation of my blasphemous views (though I should add that many former and current colleagues have been staunchly supportive),' Rowling said in the extract from her essay.
'The thing is, those appalled by my position often fail to grasp how truly despicable I find theirs.'
The comments come after Rowling appeared to challenge Police Scotland to arrest her if her social media posts break new laws following the introduction of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act.
The force later confirmed it would take no action against the author.
The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht is a collection of more than 30 essays, edited by Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn.
It also features contributions from SNP MP Joanna Cherry and former prison governor Rhona Hotchkiss, who argues that 'trans-identified male prisoners' do not belong in women's prisons.