JK Rowling Returns Kennedy Group Award After Its President Attacks Her Supposedly Transphobic Feminist Views
Kerry Kennedy: Rowling “diminishes the identity of trans and non-binary people” by asserting that biological sex is real. “The science is clear and conclusive: Sex is not binary.”
Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling has returned a Kennedy family award following criticism for her alleged ‘transphobic’ views. The author, who received the 2019 Ripple of Hope award by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR) organisation for her work with a UK children’s charity, was attacked by the media and activists for her ‘anti-trans’ comments where she dared to make a distinction between biological women and transgender.
The outrage began last December when the famed author defended, Maya Forstater, a British woman who lost her job for tweeting that “men cannot change into women.” Rowling was accused of ‘literally killing trans people’ for defending such ‘hateful’ views.
Rowling, an avowed feminist, refused to back down on the issue despite numerous death threats, event cancellations, and Harry Potter book burnings. Given her charitable work with women’s shelters and female prisoners, she has been vocal about the push by Scottish lawmakers and activists to replace the biological sex with fluid gender. The law could allow sexual predators into women prisons, the critics argue.
Rowling’s decision to return the award came as Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and the president of the Robert F. Kennedy organization, denounced her remarks as hateful and wrong. She accused the author of diminishing the “identity of trans and non-binary people” by implying that the biological distinction between the sexes was real.
“The science is clear and conclusive: Sex is not binary,” Kerry Kennedy proclaimed.
British newspaper The Independent reported the ensuing controversy:
JK Rowling is returning an award associated with the Kennedy family, amid the ongoing debate surrounding her views on transgender issues.
Earlier this month, Kerry Kennedy – president of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights organisation – said that the author’s remarks “diminished the identity” of trans people. (…)
“I have spoken with JK Rowling to express my profound disappointment that she has chosen to use her remarkable gifts to create a narrative that diminishes the identity of trans and non-binary people, undermining the validity and integrity of the entire transgender community,” Kennedy said.
“One that disproportionately suffers from violence, discrimination, harassment, and exclusion and, as a result, experiences high rates of suicide, suicide attempts, homelessness, and mental and bodily harm. Black trans women and trans youth in particular are targeted.” (…)
Rowling, who was given the Ripple of Hope Award last year, has now responded in a blog post on her website. She said Kennedy’s implication that she is transphobic is “incorrect”.
She also disagreed that “there is no conflict between the current radical trans rights movement and the rights of women”, claiming “thousands of women” had contacted her to express their support and call for a more nuanced debate.
“Clinicians, academics, therapists, teachers, social workers, and staff at prisons and women’s refuges have also contacted me,” Rowling said.
“These professionals, some at the very top of their organisations, have expressed serious concerns about the impact of gender identity theory on vulnerable adolescents and on women’s rights, and of the dismantling of safeguarding norms which protect the most vulnerable women.
This is a great fall from grace for a known liberal and feminist. Rowling, who was once cheered by the media for trolling President Trump for Twitter spellings errors, is now the focus of their vitriolic wrath.
“‘Harry Potter’ author J.K. Rowling’s trans tweets undermine Potterverse ideals,” NBC commented in June referring to the fictional universe she created. “J.K. Rowling has let us down … It’s enraging to realize that Rowling isn’t the person we long assumed she was.”
In CNN’s verdict: “J.K. Rowling’s bigotry is painful and maddening.” The news channel couldn’t figure out why the author wasn’t doing the expected walk back after making undesired comments. “Despite a swift backlash, she doubled down on her statements three days later in a lengthy post on her website that emphasized her belief that trans women aren’t women,” CNN asked last month.
The criticism has spilled over to her fictional work as well. “[S]he’s frequently come under fire from fans who feel that the author, and the massive magical universe she created, aren’t keeping step with the more progressive times they’re in,” the leftist news website Vox complained. Only in a leftist parallel universe, where most of our media commentators live, works of fiction have to conform to the latest version of their magical worldview.
Enraged over Rowling’s ideological ‘betrayal,’ she is now the latest target of cancel culture. Two of the biggest Harry Potter fan sites distanced themselves from the author for “harmful and disproven” belief that biological sex is real and for using her “privilege to target marginalized people.”
Last month, Rowling joined 150 other writers and academics in an open letter denouncing the cancel culture. “The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away,” the letter said. “As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes.”
‘Harry Potter author JK Rowling responds to criticism over transgender comments
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Hey, it’s great that Rowling is suspect of settled science regarding gender. Now do climate change.
Nothing sweeter than the cancel culture eating itself
Classic Post-Modernism…
At least she’s not saying “sorry.”
Certain people need to do this with their Nobel Peace Prizes.
Thw political left has always put whatever group they’re currently championing ahead of the rights and needs of women. Women on the left bare their behinds and say, “May I have another, sir?” The police were called because Jacob Blake was sexually assaulting his girlfriend and mother of his children. Let’s make him a hero because he tried to evade arrest and got shot. Rowling works with women in shelters and prisons, many of them abused and sexually assaulted in the past. Let’s let any man who calls himself a woman into those shelters and prisons so they can be terrorized again. And call Rowling a bigot for suggesting those women’s needs should come first. I’ve decided women like to be abused.
“The police were called because Jacob Blake was sexually assaulting his girlfriend (…)”
This wasn’t ‘sexual assault’ – he raped her…
“[S]he’s frequently come under fire from fans who feel that the author, and the massive magical universe she created, aren’t keeping step with the more progressive times they’re in,” the leftist news website Vox complained.
She needs to write another book where Harry & Ron Weasly become Harriet & Ronda, two female antifa warriors who like to wave their magic wands to transmogrify cops & right wingers into literal pigs & Nazis. That would be more in step with the progressive agenda.
I don’t know what one can say about people who cling so bitterly to their psychopathic fantasies about biology. Although people who take the “Potterverse” seriously are perhaps naturally inclined to think mere wishing or muttering a spell (“she/hers”) can change one’s sex or species.
And if you don’t know where you’re going
Any road will take you there
But where are they going without ever knowing the way?
sorry, my crocodile tears are interfering with me writing a soulful screed on how she is getting treated.
“Sex is not binary.”
Why, yes it is, Ms. Kennedy.
Would you please name another biological sex for me? Be sure to include not only scientific, but biblical, back up sources.
I assume she’s referring to people with intersex conditions. Hermaphrodites. I think the modern fashion is to claim that their existence proves that sex is a spectrum on which everyone is somewhere between the two extremes. Which as anyone with actual medical knowledge will tell you is BS.
Indeed hermaphrodites are natural. Like a two-headed chicken.
Sex has been around for millions of years. This “science,” less than two decades, and it is just more unfalsifiable “science.”
I think that if there really were more than two genders (modulo the well-known rare congenital malformations) it would have been “science” well before this.
Feminism contends for equal rights with men. Along comes transgenderism which negates many of the gains made by feminism; e.g. men who identify as women competing in women’s sports and collecting scholarships intended for women …
I’m surprised more women don’t regard transgenderism as the enemy of feminism.
They don’t get it or see it or they fear that they’ll be attacked for their white-privileged thinking.
I wonder if John Roberts will fold once again if/when the CT girl runner’s case makes it up to SCOTUS?
Good for Rowling! Having that now embarrassing trophy on her shelf would be like having won the Grand Prize in theTed Kaczynski Creative Writing Contest.
You really have to hand it to the Dhimmi-crats. They manage to unite (in theory, at least) “trans” totalitarianism, socialist/”Progressive” totalitarianism, black nationalist totalitarianism, and, Islamic totalitarianism, all under one banner.
I have a Penis and, I am a Woman. Doesn’t resonate with many people.
You don’t even dare ask, “do you have a sister?”
Also, it’s funny how the Dhimmi-crats’ loudly-professed, self-congratulatory and alleged reverence for “science” magically vanishes into thin air, when it comes to denying basic biological realities in favor of promoting the “trans” totalitarian agenda.
On the contrary. Didn’t you read this article? They are convinced the science is on their side, and that we are deniers of science.
Just like on glowball warmening.
Now there’s a man from the party who understands Science.
When will “liberals” like this woman understand that she can only be a “liberal” in a free society? There are ONLY free societies because of America as a free society.
This November election is not merely an election: it is a plebiscite.
Joe and the Ho’ are poison.
This is a great fall from grace for a known liberal and feminist.
No it’s not.
For what it’s worth, I support JK Rowling in this matter and couldn’t agree more. So what Kerry Kennedy has some Kennedy blood. Big whoop.
Carry on, JK Rowling, you don’t need any silly awards. None of us do. We should get our validation from within ourselves.
I think a lot of these “awards” are not only silly but used to garner publicity for the issuing organization at the expense of the recipient.
One can never be “woke” enough. Even people who kowtow to all the required shibboleths get thrown under the bus for the most minor of transgressions.
This is a feature of leftism, not a bug.
Yup. As soon as you grant the mob moral authority, you’ve stamped yourself as food.
1) Good for her, wonder if it made her see the light
) It must be nice to have fu money
“The science is clear and conclusive: Sex is not binary,” Kerry Kennedy proclaimed.
What science is this? Real science or some phony claims made by psychiatrists that biology is now transformed by thoughts?
Might as well say “The science is clear and conclusive: The sky is purple with pink polka dots.”
Making bald-faced counterfactual statements doesn’t mean you’re “forward-thinking” or “woke”. It means you’re loony.
“The science is clear and conclusive:
Sex is not binary,” Kerry Kennedy proclaimed.
———————————-
Geez, to say this kind of stupid out loud should require immediate hospitalization and quarantine from sane people.
She seems rather unafraid of trans people n their “advocate”, for being “phobic.”
I can say I’m Superman and buy tights and a cape but when I jump off the roof I’m will not fly. I can claim anything but I must be able to back it up with facts that lead to truth.
For thousands of years, man entertained his a priori fantasies about how the world worked by inventing gods, and insisting his god had revealed the operation of some natural or spiritual truth to him; and since different men’s gods revealed conflicting things to each, great wars continued to be fought over these differences.
Then man invented science, a hopefully objective way that men could agree on what was and wasn’t true about the operation of at least the natural world.
Then the left abandoned gods for science, and immediately began to claim that science revealed different things to each of them, which was perfectly plausible because objective truth did not exist.
And the wars began again.
I like that
Pro-trannie activists may be very active and loud but I suspect their base support could probably fit in one omnigendered public restroom. Seriously. Besides, other than the reptilian asexual extraterrestrials who have apparently taken over our government, universities and Hollywood, who actually believes this crap?