JK Rowling Torches Liberals For Sacrificing Free Speech For ‘Approval Of Their Tribe’

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling unloaded on liberals for failing to uphold the principle of free speech, arguing they’d largely done it out of fear that they’d no longer be accepted by “their tribe.”

Rowling shared her thoughts in a post on X, explaining that free speech had to encompass the freedom to offend people with speech, and decried the liberals who could not get past “this most basic hurdle.”

“Freedom of speech means freedom to cause offence. The number of supposed liberals who’ve fallen at this most basic hurdle, because for the first time in their lives they risked losing the approval of their tribe, has been staggering,” she wrote.

Freedom of speech means freedom to cause offence. The number of supposed liberals who’ve fallen at this most basic hurdle, because for the first time in their lives they risked losing the approval of their tribe, has been staggering.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 6, 2025

Rowling, a self-described liberal and advocate for women, has routinely angered radical trans activists by insisting that men cannot become women and that women deserve to have their sex-based rights and single-sex spaces protected from the men who argue otherwise.

The “Harry Potter” creator has also railed against the notion of compelled speech — specifically when it’s applied to the transgender issue and people publicly pressured or even directed by law to say that a man is a woman if he claims to be so.

Rowling addressed that topic in a post from one day prior, saying that she did not believe anyone actually thought men could be women — only that some were willing to say something they knew not to be true for political reasons.

“Western society is currently divided between people who know this is a man and are prepared to say so and those who know this is a man but lie out of obedience to an ideology. There is no third option. Literally nobody on earth thinks ‘Roxanne Tickle’ is actually a woman,” she said, sharing a photo of the man she’d mentioned.

Western society is currently divided between people who know this is a man and are prepared to say so and those who know this is a man but lie out of obedience to an ideology. There is no third option. Literally nobody on earth thinks “Roxanne Tickle” is actually a woman. pic.twitter.com/xLbzcOfKmJ

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 6, 2025