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JK Rowling Reported to the Police for Misgendering a Trans Woman – HotAir

On Sunday, author JK Rowling offered a lengthy response to an argument she saw on X. The argument was basically saying there was no point in trying to keep trans women out of women’s spaces because they would just go in anyway.

The rest of her tweet reads:

When men – all men, however they identify – are banned from women’s spaces, those who disregard the ban can be challenged, inside the space and out. They mark themselves out as suspicious by breaking a rule decent men respect. Nobody claims the rule has successfully kept out every single man who wants to commit voyeurism or sexual assault. What we’re saying is that allowing males into female only spaces on the basis of their claim to be a women removes an obstacle that has hitherto been *proven* to increase women and girls’ safety. 

88% of sexual crimes committed in changing/locker rooms happen in those that are unisex. Why? Because malign men don’t have to justify their presence near unclothed women and girls. They can’t be challenged. They don’t stand out. This is obvious to all but the terminally naive. 

It is too seldom noted that every single man arguing for the removal of single sex spaces is arguing for his *own* right to enter those spaces. I know from experience that they feign outrage when this point is put to them, gibbering that they’re just being good, virtuous progressives who’re standing up for trans women, that they *personally* won’t be availing themselves of the new opportunities afforded them. The fact remains that instead of calling out male violence against trans women, and working to make male spaces safer, these men have thrown their energy into the fight to remove women’s and girls’ rights to safety, privacy and dignity.

 And if anyone genuinely believes none of these enthusiastic heterosexual, non-trans-identified male ‘allies’ aren’t personally enthralled by the idea of women and girls losing basic protections, I have several bridges to sell you.

Someone responded to this by pointing to TV presenter India Willoughby as an example.

And that was followed by this:

Willoughby responded to the tweet:

But Rowling pushed back on the idea that calling a trans woman a man was discrimination.

At this point a British news site called Byline TV got involved by inviting both Rowling and Willoughby to be interviewed about their disagreement and trans issues in general. Willoughby agreed and during the interview revealed that she had reported Rowling to the police.

In an interview with Byline TV on Wednesday night, Willoughby — a former “Celebrity Big Brother” contestant and “Loose Women” co-host — claimed that she reported Rowling to Northumbria Police for repeatedly misgendering her online as part of an ongoing feud.

“J.K. Rowling has definitely committed a crime. I’m legally a woman. She knows I’m a woman, and she called me a man,” Willoughby said in the interview. “It’s a protected characteristic, and that is a breach of both the Equalities Act and the Gender Recognition Act. She’s tweeted that out to 14 million followers.”

Willoughby continued, “I have reported J.K. Rowling to the police for what she said, which I don’t know if that’s going to be treated as a hate crime, malicious communications — but it’s a cut-and-dry offense, as far as I’m concerned.”

Here’s the clip:

Is it a cut-and-dry offense? Not according to JK Rowling who responded to Willoughby on X by highlighting some of Willoughby’s own transphobia.

And here’s the meat of her response. Apparently gender critical views are also protected by law.

I’m not an attorney and I have no idea if Rowling’s interpretation of British law is correct, but I think it would be a surprise to a lot of people to learn that misgendering a trans woman was now considered a police matter absent any underlying crime. I guess we’ll see how the Northumbria Police respond. Meanwhile…



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