(The Lion) — A man wearing a “Support Black Trans Lives” T-shirt broke every Harry Potter-themed chocolate frog in a British store Tuesday to protest author J.K. Rowling.
Rowling responded to the video on X with her typical irony.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she said. “I personally hand pour every single one AND deliver them to shops on my push bike.”
The vandalism joins hundreds of condemnations, boycotts and threats against Rowling since she publicly expressed her concern with modern culture’s “erasing the concept of sex.” In that initial post, Rowling addressed the transgender inclusion language that avoids using the term women.
“‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” she posted on X.
Violent comments flooded her post, with many telling her to kill herself or threatening to murder her themselves.
Less than an hour after her initial post, Rowling departed from her irony and offered her argument in a defense of womanhood in another post.
“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased,” she wrote. “I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.”
A few days later, Rowling published a commentary on the response – both positive and negative – to her views and contextualized her reasons for holding them. She shared her own history of sexual abuse and explained how her tragic memories come flooding back at the news of another woman harmed in such a way.
“I couldn’t shut out those memories and I was finding it hard to contain my anger and disappointment about the way I believe my government is playing fast and loose with women’s and girls’ safety,” she wrote.
She said she knows and loves many trans-identifying people and that her position doesn’t come from hate but from a desire to protect women.
“When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside,” she wrote. “That is the simple truth.”
Following her public comments, “death, rape and torture threats” against her ensued, and she heightened personal security measures, fearing for her “family’s safety,” she recently detailed in a post on X.
Actors and actresses from the legendary Harry Potter movie series – including the two leads, Daniel Radcliff and Emma Watson – openly denounced Rowling’s stance.
Other once-loyal fans burned Rowling’s books. The Free Press documented the over-the-top attacks on Rowling and her response in the 2023 podcast “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling.”
While most of the flak has died out, protestors are evidently still hounding Rowling, as the recent vandalism indicates. But Rowling continues to defend her beliefs.
“A woman is someone who doesn’t need to put in any work to become a woman, because she’s already a woman,” she posted Wednesday.
Rowling celebrated the April ruling from the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom that defined “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act as “a biological woman and biological sex,” not “the social definition of gender.”
“It took three extraordinary, tenacious Scottish women with an army behind them to get this case heard by the Supreme Court and, in winning, they’ve protected the rights of women and girls across the UK,” Rowling wrote. “I’m so proud to know you.”
