Over the last few years, J.K. Rowling has time and time again been in the news, not for her popular Harry Potter books, but due to her controversial stance regarding transgender women.
This discussion was stirred once again this week when Rowling took to Twitter to express her views on Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill.
The author feuded with Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, opposing the reform and wrote about how “well-sourced evidence about the likely negative consequences of this legislation for women and girls, especially the most vulnerable” have been ignored.
The bill in question has been proposed to simplify trans people’s experience when applying for legal recognition and gender certificate. A gender recognition certificate allows a trans person to receive a new birth certificate with their correct gender.
The current process for this certificate requires the applicants to be medically diagnosed for “gender dysphoria, go through a minimum two-year process, and be aged over 18.”
If passed, according to the reform bill, trans people will no longer have to offer medical records or other evidence of a transition, with the age requirement being lowered to 16.
It also states that the applicants need to live in their gender for at least three months before applying for a certificate, followed by another three months of “reflection period.”
Applicants are required to swear their intention of living as their gender for life, with false claims resulting in a criminal offense carrying a prison sentence of up to two years.
Rowling countered this and, in another tweet, added that the proposed law “will harm the most vulnerable women in society: those seeking help after male violence/rape and incarcerated women. Statistics show that imprisoned women are already far more likely to have been previously abused.”
When Sturgeon appeared on BBC Radio 4’s The World at One radio program on Monday, she stated that she “fundamentally disagreed” with Rowling’s opposition to the bill.
Sturgeon insisted that the bill will not pose a threat to women or change safe spaces for women but simply make an already existing process easier.
“This is about a process, an existing process, by which people can legally change their gender, and it’s about making that process less traumatic and inhumane for trans people, one of the most stigmatized minorities in our society. It doesn’t give trans people any more rights, doesn’t give trans people one single additional right that they don’t have right now. Nor does it take away from women any of the current existing rights that women have under the Equalities Act.”
Rowling has constantly received backlash on her view on the matter, and even some super fans have also sworn off the Harry Potter franchise in protest, including the upcoming Fantastic Beasts movie.
About Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is an upcoming fantasy film directed by David Yates, with a screenplay by J. K. Rowling and Steve Kloves, from an original story by Rowling. It is the third installment in the Fantastic Beasts film series and the eleventh overall in the Wizarding World franchise.
The film stars an ensemble cast including Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Callum Turner, William Nadylam, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Jessica Williams, Jude Law, and Mads Mikkelsen.
Set several years after The Crimes of Grindelwald, it follows Albus Dumbledore tasking Newt Scamander and his allies with a mission that takes them into the heart of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald’s army. Set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and partly in Berlin, Germany, and leads up to the Wizarding World’s involvement in World War II.
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