JK Rowling

I personally never called JKR a homophobe.

I have no doubt she is a transphobe as she has made it abundantly clear that she does not accept trans women as women. No more evidence is needed. I am taking her word as to her beliefs.

On the homophobe thing she reminds of the time a lot of nice upper middle class men and women attended a play in a small theatre attached to a pub in Islington in the mid 80s. The pub was unofficially a gay pub. Wouldn't have been found in any guide books but was name checked in a lot of novels etc. During intermission the cliental was a mixture of the usual queer end of the spectrum regulars, the old Irish men who had been going there 50 years, and a huzzah of Sarah Ferguson clones and their Hurrah Henry partners there to watch Beckett.

You could see the moment the penny dropped with the visitors. A mass exodus resulted as they went to other nearby pubs to use the toilets (pubs phoned to tell us - there was much laughter). No doubt every single one of them would have denied being homophobic... they just didn't want to use the same loos as gay people for....reasons.

This was the climate the produced Section 28. They weren't 'homophobic', but bet if pressed they would say they were 'concerned about children and grooming'.

JKR has used her influence and social media reach to spread her belief that gender is immutable, it is, in her sincere belief, inextricably linked to biological sex .

She has allied herself with people determined to detach the T from the LGB. She is also on the 'same side' as right-wing and religious fundamentalists who are openly homophobic. Her presence lends them respectability and credibility. Her voice amplifies theirs - albeit possibly unintentionally - the result is the same. Rowling is now, ironically, taking a stance that would align her with Trump and his base.

We see in the U.S where States with a track record of transphobic legislation are now emboldened to enact openly homophobic legislation. Florida, where just a few short years ago a mass murder was carried out in a gay bar, now has laws in place that would make Putin happy.

Did Rowling do this? No.

Has she openly supported it? No

Is she helping to create an environment where this is becoming possible? Yes

Have LGBT activists been warning about the upsurge in hate propaganda/anti LGBT laws/hate crime for years? Yes.

How did we know? Because we have been here before. We recognise the build up, the language, the dog whistles.

We knew what it meant when in 2019 a Drag Storytime event was cancelled in the most socially liberal area of Ireland - Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown - by the local council due to the level of homophobic abuse received. Being able to get married didn't make us safe.

Rowling is not a stupid woman by any means. She is media savvy, and protective of her image. This begs the questions why she continues spreading an ideology beloved of the right-wing U.S Republicans she spent the Trump years disparaging. She cannot have failed to notice the parallels between transphobia and homophobia in the rhetoric of the far right. Nevertheless she persists..

She may be a swan, but she's still in the duck pond making quacking noises along with the mallards.

In terms of Ireland - to the surprise of myself and other old hands - we are are becoming an outlier in a good way. It is currently safer to be gay in Ireland than in the UK or large parts of the U.S. - no-one back in the 80s/90s would ever have though that would happen.

But it is under threat - and the toe in the door is the likes of UK based GCs trying to export transphobia to Ireland. So far they have failed but, I'll give them this, they are determined.

Why is this personal to some of us here in this thread and this forum?

Because this is our lives, and that of our friends. This is us.

Even in this forum designated that LGBT 'Safe space' on Boards has seen not only scant regard for trans people - despite mod warnings about the charter - it has also seen more than one appallingly homophobic post. And a notable lack of condemnation, or distancing, from visitors to the forum.

We fought damn hard to get where we are, and we did it together. We know who stood alongside us in the 80s during the AIDS epidemic, the 90s when gay men were being beaten to death and their killers walked free - Declan Flynn wasn't the only one. We know the history because we lived it. Gay men are again being beaten to death in Ireland - and yes. Us activists do see this as part of the rising tide in global hate for LGBTQ people. The reason for the phobia is immaterial - the issue is it's increasingly open existence.

Now, we are being told by people who weren't there that the fight for our civil rights didn't happen the way we say. Even well known activists like Panti, Tonie Walsh, Izzy Kamikaze are being told their memories (and the photos!) are wrong. Now that is gaslighting.

As is claiming butch women are never mistaken for men because 'science/statistics'. Izzy actually started a thread on twitter where she posts every time it happens to her, quite a few women have posted their experiences. It's turning into a fairly long thread. But - so I have been told here - that never happens because one can ALWAYS tell. I am being told that couldn't possibly have happened to me. That is also gaslighting.

*awaiting being told that the real victims of gaslighting are the gaslighters*

Ireland has had gender recognition legislation for 7 years.

Where are all the reports of women being attacked by sexual predators 'pretending' to be women in the toilets of Ireland?

Where are the floodgates of young people being 'forced' to transition?

All that is happened in 7 years is around 500 people aged over 18 have had their gender identity officially recognised. That is trans men and trans women. 500 out of a population of c5 million.

0.01% of the population.

Wonder what the percentage of threads about trans people in CA is? Certainly more than 0.01%.

Right.

JK hanging out with transphobes doesn't mean she is a transphobe, but one out of many butch biological females who reported being harassed in women's toilets is a trans activist therefore all the women who have reported this across the world, including myself, are telling untruths. Even the ones in Florida. Have you found their links to Stonewall yet?

Gotta love the people who come into the LGBT forum to call members of the community liars when we discuss our lived experience.

When I say love I actually mean roll my eyes at and sigh.