London - Author J.K. Rowling defended her
right to speak about trans issues without fear of abuse in an
intensely personal essay in which she explained the complex
reasons for her interest in the subject, revealing painful
details from her past.
The Harry Potter creator has long been a target of criticism
by trans activists who have taken issue with some of her social
media posts. At times, the criticism has taken the form of
abusive language and threats of violence.
"I know it's time to explain myself on an issue surrounded
by toxicity," she wrote at the start of her essay, published on
her website on Wednesday. She said she had no desire to add to
that toxicity.
In the latest of several controversies, a post by Rowling in
which she criticised the use of the phrase "people who
menstruate" drew negative responses, including from Daniel
Radcliffe, who played Potter in a series of films.
Rowling, 54, explained in detail her research and beliefs on
trans issues, and the concerns she has about how women's rights
and some young people's lives were being impacted by some forms
of trans activism.
Some of the reasons for her interest were professional, but
some were rooted in personal experience.
"I've wondered whether, if I'd been born 30 years later, I
too might have tried to transition," she wrote. "The allure of
escaping womanhood would have been huge."
She said that as a teenager she had struggled with severe
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and that she now believes
that had she found community and sympathy online, she could have
been persuaded to turn herself into the boy her father said he
would have preferred.
Rowling also revealed that she was a survivor of domestic
abuse and sexual assault, and that the trauma of those
experiences informed some of her beliefs and feelings about
women's rights, and her fears that they were being eroded.
"The scars left by violence and sexual assault don’t
disappear, no matter how loved you are, and no matter how much
money you’ve made," she said, offering solidarity and kinship to
trans women who had died at the hands of violent men.
"I have a visceral sense of the terror in which those trans
women will have spent their last seconds on earth, because I too
have known moments of blind fear when I realised that the only
thing keeping me alive was the shaky self-restraint of my
attacker."
Rowling said that she believed most trans people not only
posed zero threat to others but were vulnerable, and that they
deserved protection.
At the same time, she said, she did not want girls and women
to be less safe, and she gave some examples of where she thought
demands by trans people were dangerous to women.
"When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing
rooms to any man who believes or feels he's a woman ... then you
open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside."
Describing some of the abuse she had received -- including
being told she was "literally killing people with your hate" and
being compared with Voldemort, the villain of the Potter series,
Rowling said many women were terrified by trans activists.
"I refuse to bow down to a movement that I believe is doing
demonstrable harm in seeking to erode 'woman' as a political and
biological class and offering cover to predators like few before
it," she said.
Addressing the specific issue of the use of phrases like
"people who menstruate" as a way of including trans women,
Rowling said such language was demeaning to many women.
"I understand why trans activists consider this language to
be appropriate and kind, but for those of us who’ve had
degrading slurs spat at us by violent men, it’s not neutral,
it’s hostile and alienating."
Rowling said she had not written the essay in the hope that
anyone would get out a violin for her, and that she considered
herself extraordinarily fortunate.
"I’ve only mentioned my past because, like every other human
being on this planet, I have a complex back-story, which shapes
my fears, my interests and my opinions. I never forget that
inner complexity when I’m creating a fictional character and I
certainly never forget it when it comes to trans people.
"All I’m asking – all I want – is for similar empathy,
similar understanding, to be extended to the many millions of
women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard
without receiving threats and abuse."