On Sunday, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union issued a Twitter thread targeting Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling for her stance on transgender issues, calling her “dangerous” and accusing her of “feeding a genocidal impulse that already exists in government and within individuals.”
Chase Strangio, who served as a lead counsel for transgender U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning, tweeted:
It would be nice to ignore the Harry Potter person but the rhetoric being used on her massive platform is feeding a genocidal impulse that already exists in government and within individuals. She is dangerous. Situating the trans subject and the trans body in the contested discursive space the way she does pulls the conversation around transness into the posture of working to locate the legitimate trans subject.
The idea being that we must defend against the allegation that too many trans people in the world reflects a problem (that is after all her point). And in so doing we cede the conversation to cis people and institutions. And perhaps most insidiously, in so doing, we give the false impression that sexed bodies are things only trans people have. By obscuring the larger structural impulses behind bodily policing and the violence of the sex binary, we ensure the continuation of these structures.
The fear that a trans person – of any age – might actually love and embrace their body is what drives JK and others. They don’t want to just make it harder for us to survive, they want to destroy any joy we might feel in our journeys.
It would be nice to ignore the Harry Potter person but the rhetoric being used on her massive platform is feeding a genocidal impulse that already exists in government and within individuals. She is dangerous.
— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) July 26, 2020
The idea being that we must defend against the allegation that too many trans people in the world reflects a problem (that is after all her point). And in so doing we cede the conversation to cis people and institutions.
— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) July 26, 2020
The fear that a trans person – of any age – might actually love and embrace their body is what drives JK and others. They don’t want to just make it harder for us to survive, they want to destroy any joy we might feel in our journeys.
— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) July 26, 2020
Rowling has been pilloried for her views on transgenderism for over a year; in June 2019 the feminist site The Mary Sue noted that Rowling followed “trans-exclusionary radical feminists” on Twitter and complained, “If we buy the new books, see the new movies, play the new games, or buy the new merch, we’re not just giving money to a TERF (although we are doing that too). We’re giving money to someone with a gigantic platform who is serving to normalize transphobia for her audience, many of whom are young people.”
In December 2019, Rowling was attacked again after tweeting, “Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?”
Dress however you please.
Call yourself whatever you like.
Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you.
Live your best life in peace and security.
But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 19, 2019
In June 2020, after the incessant attacks on her, Rowling published an essay on her website in which she argued:
It isn’t enough for women to be trans allies. Women must accept and admit that there is no material difference between trans women and themselves. But, as many women have said before me, “woman” is not a costume. “Woman” is not an idea in a man’s head. “Woman” is not a pink brain, a liking for Jimmy Choos or any of the other sexist ideas now somehow touted as progressive.
She concluded, “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 … ”
Strangio was taken to task for espousing views that would seem antithetical to the original perspective of the ACLU, which was to “defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person … ”
Social media targeted Strangio’s remarks:
ACLU 1977: yes, their views may be disgusting and repulsive, but even Neo-Nazis have the right to march in a town that is home to hundreds of Holocaust survivors
ACLU 2020: the Harry Potter person hurt my feelings, and must be stopped before it turns into genocide
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) July 27, 2020
She who must not be named. 😂😭 https://t.co/wWjhgyxfLJ
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) July 27, 2020
Genocidal. Just think about that for a minute. This person is claiming @jk_rowling is feeding genocide.
What kind of fucking lunatics are people listening to these days? https://t.co/0h9kUL0xw7— Hayden Hewitt (@HaydenHewitt) July 26, 2020
Where is this genocide against trans people happening exactly and how do basic biological facts contribute to this alleged genocide? https://t.co/TXBeoVBGOg
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 27, 2020
"Genocidal"
I have never – not a single time – seen or heard a person in any political circle I have frequented even IMPLY anything CLOSE to genocide re trans people.
Almost everyone I know on the right feels, if anything, some level of sympathy for trans people. https://t.co/wKymmhsTpO
— Heimish Conservative (@HeimishCon) July 27, 2020
This big brained thinking from Chase is a prime example of why the ACLU is no longer an institution that should merit your respect. https://t.co/uTbvraUclj
— Alex VanNess (@thealexvanness) July 27, 2020