Best-selling “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling refused to apologize or change her wording after a transgender activist called the police for the “hate crime” of referring to the individual as a man.
India Willoughby, a man who identifies as a woman, explained the situation during an interview with Byline News.
“She knows I’m a woman and she calls me a man,” Willoughby complained. “It’s a protected characteristic and that is a breach of both the Equalities Act and the Gender Recognition Act,” the activist continued, referring to United Kingdom standards.
A Community Note was added on Twitter under the interview clip, stating that it is not a crime to refer to a trans-identifying person by their sex, as such speech is recognized as a belief and protected under the Equality Act.
“I’ve been to the police and I’ve reported it as an issue,” the former “Big Brother” contestant continued. “I don’t know if that’s going to be treated as a hate crime or malicious communications, but it’s a cut-and-dried offense as far as I’m concerned, and at the end of the day it is a hate crime.”
“Calling a trans person a man, deliberately, knowing that person is a woman… is grossly offensive,” Willoughby insisted.
Rowling clapped back with a series of tweets.
Surprisingly for such an eminent legal authority, he appears to have forgotten that the Forstater ruling established that gender critical views can be protected in law as a philosophical belief. No law compels anyone to pretend to believe that India is a woman. 4/5
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 6, 2024
“Some time ago, lawyers advised me that not only did I have a clearly winnable case against India Willoughby for defamation, but that India’s obsessive targeting of me over the past few years may meet the legal threshold for harassment,” she shared with her 14 million followers.
“I ignored this advice because I couldn’t be bothered giving India the publicity he so clearly craves. Nevertheless, we must all do our bit to combat hate, so India will be glad to know I’ve taken note of his homophobia, racism, and humane stance on immigration,” Rowling added in the thread.
“Nor have I forgotten India’s shocking transphobia. It appears to have slipped what passes for India’s mind that he’s previously called a fellow trans woman a man on this very site,” she wrote, sharing a series of screenshots to prove her point.
“Surprisingly for such an eminent legal authority, he appears to have forgotten that the Forstater ruling established that gender critical views can be protected in law as a philosophical belief. No law compels anyone to pretend to believe that India is a woman,” Rowling wrote.
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“Aware as I am that it’s an offence to lie to law enforcement, I’ll simply have to explain to the police that, in my view, India is a classic example of the male narcissist who lives in a state of perpetual rage that he can’t compel women to take him at his own valuation.”
Rowling has become a vocal dissenter of radical transgender activism ever since being attacked for tweets she wrote in 2020 mocking the phrase “people who menstruate.” Critics have dubbed her a TERF, or trans-exclusive radical feminist, due to her having leftist views but refusing to go along with the narrative that a trans-identifying man is a woman.