This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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In a hundred years&#8217; time, people will still remember the name J. K. Rowling — and not only for writing one of the most beloved and best-selling fantasy book series of all time. She will be remembered for the role she played in saving civilization from the harms of gender ideology.
Rowling is an internationally beloved icon, known for bringing joy to millions through the Harry Potter book series. Harry Potter was, and still is, a cultural behemoth that has been retold through movies, video games, and theme parks, and is now being turned into an HBO<a href="https://people.com/harry-potter-series-cast-side-by-side-original-movie-actors-11934425"> television series</a>.
But in 2020, almost overnight, Rowling went from being the queen of popular culture to becoming an internationally hated villain. Her crime? Defending women&#8217;s rights and publicly acknowledging you can&#8217;t change your sex.
In late 2019, Rowling was already receiving backlash for hinting she disagreed with the transgender agenda in social media posts. However, she fully outed herself as &#8220;transphobic&#8221; in June 2020 by publishing a powerful and highly controversial <a href="https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/">essay</a> that defended women&#8217;s rights and biological reality.
Rowling explained in the essay how &#8220;trans activism&#8221; was threatening the rights of women across the globe and expressed concerns over women losing their fertility from medical transitions and the dangers of allowing men into female private spaces.
&#8220;It’s been clear to me for a while that the new trans activism is having (or is likely to have, if all its demands are met) a significant impact on many of the causes I support, because it’s pushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender,&#8221; Rowling wrote.
&#8220;I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe. 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. That is the simple truth.&#8221;
It&#8217;s incredible to read this essay today and see how ahead of the curve Rowling was in understanding the many ways gender ideology harms women and society. 
As one of the earliest and boldest celebrity figures to speak clearly on these issues, Rowling earned brutal backlash from nearly every corner of the internet, from fans removing their Harry Potter tattoos because they now represented &#8220;<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/fans-tell-us-why-they-want-to-cover-up-their-harry-potter-tattoos/#:~:text=Some%20people%20have%20covered%20up%20their%20Harry,assume%20she%20has%20similar%20views%20to%20Rowling.">transphobia</a>&#8221; to harsh<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/may/01/daniel-radcliffe-says-rupture-with-jk-rowling-over-trans-rights-is-really-sad"> criticism</a> from Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who played Harry Potter in the movies.
Rowling has been called derogatory names and had her physical safety<a href="https://www.ncregister.com/blog/jk-rowling-opens-up-about-threats"> threatened</a> thousands of times over her opposition of gender ideology. And almost six years after publishing her initial essay, she&#8217;s still being criticized for supporting biological reality and women&#8217;s rights.
Just last week, Andrew Garfield, a B-list actor best known for being Emma Stone&#8217;s<a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a65796803/emma-stone-andrew-garfield-spider-man-experience/"> ex-boyfriend</a>, went viral for taking a dig at Rowling in an interview. Garfield called watching the Harry Potter movies &#8220;<a href="https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/news/andrew-garfield-harry-potter-daniel-radcliffe-jk-rowling-b2948074.html">controversial</a>&#8221; and said, &#8220;We shouldn’t be, you know, putting money in the pocket of inhumane legislation right now through she that shall remain nameless.&#8221;
Rowling has a <a href="https://jkrwf.org/">fund</a> that supports individuals and organizations &#8220;fighting to retain women’s and girls’ sex-based rights in all aspects of life.&#8221; Rowlings financially <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/16/critics-of-trans-rights-win-uk-supreme-court-case-over-definition-of-woman">supported</a> a group that won a U.K. Supreme Court case in 2025 that clarified the definition of &#8220;woman&#8221; should be based on biological sex in the U.K.&#8217;s Equality Act 2010.
In response to that win, Rowling tweeted a photo of herself, holding a drink and smoking a cigar, with the simple caption, &#8220;I love it when a plan comes together.&#8221;
Tuesday is Transgender Day of Visibility, a fake holiday<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/the-history-behind-international-transgender-day-of-visibility"> created by a man</a> pretending to be a woman, and I think it&#8217;s a perfect day to celebrate J.K. Rowling. Rowling is a real woman who has held the line on biological reality for us all. She has given the issue of gender ideology visibility in a way that only a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattcraig/2025/05/30/jk-rowling-is-a-billionaire-again/">billionaire</a> cultural icon could.
She&#8217;s chosen to make herself visible, putting a target on her back, and has taken many arrows from angry transgender activists who have threatened her safety and tried to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64729304">destroy her legacy</a>. In spite of it all, she&#8217;s carried on with a smile and a sharp sense of humor and has helped other women fighting similar battles.
One of her first acts of defiance against gender ideology happened in 2019 when Rowling defended <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/01/maya-forstater-woman-who-lost-job-after-tweeting-view-on-biological-sex-awarded-100000-by-tribunal">Maya Forstater</a>, a British researcher who lost her job for tweeting that a man cannot change his biological sex. She continues to face headwinds for women fighting for biological rights on the ground through the<a href="https://jkrwf.org/"> J.K. Rowling Women&#8217;s Fund</a>.
Rowling could have just chosen to stay quiet and enjoy life in her private Scottish castle. Instead, she chose to fight for and support those who don&#8217;t have the means or voice to fight alone. Those who give up their own comfort for the betterment of others are the kinds of historical figures that save civilizations. History will remember J. K. Rowling for doing her part.

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She Spoke Out On Gender Ideology And Became A Global Target

J.K. Rowling

Transgender

Upstream

Women's Rights

J.K. Rowling celebrated a detransitioner&#8217;s recent $2 million malpractice victory as proof that the narrative promoted by trans activists for years has begun to unravel under legal and medical scrutiny.
Rowling highlighted the case of Fox Varian in a <a href="https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/2018850475429302684">post to X</a>. &#8220;A young detransitioner, Fox Varian, has won $2 million damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit, in which she sued the psychologist and surgeon who approved her for a double mastectomy, aged 16,&#8221; she wrote. 
The Harry Potter author did not hold back her criticism of the trans movement in its entirety. &#8220;As the floodgates open, and more and more detransitioners sue the clinicians who subjected them to an unregulated medical experiment, gender identity activists will almost certainly continue to ignore any evidence that fails to support their preferred narrative,&#8221; she continued.
According to court testimony, Varian’s mother opposed the surgery but was warned that refusing transition would place her daughter at serious risk of suicide. The lawsuit is one of a growing number brought by detransitioners who say they were rushed into irreversible medical procedures while clinicians ignored or minimized dissent, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/detransitioner-awarded-millions-in-first-malpractice-verdict-this-is-how-it-all-ends">reported</a> by The Daily Wire.
Rowling argued that the Varian verdict exposes what she described as a broader failure of medical oversight in pediatric gender care. Rowling described the practice as “barbarous” and said of the broader activism around trans ideology, “This will go down in history as one of the worst medical scandals of all time. Adults inside and outside the medical profession sold troubled young people like Varian the idea that all of their complex trauma would be resolved by removing healthy body parts.” The lawsuit, she said, shows what happens when those assurances collapse under legal scrutiny.
For Rowling, the case is not an anomaly but confirmation of what critics have argued all along: that pediatric gender medicine advanced at breakneck speed without the evidentiary foundation normally required for experimental treatments, let alone life-altering surgeries on minors.
Those concerns have been echoed by figures within the medical establishment itself. Speaking at a World Professional Association for Transgender Health conference in 2021, British endocrinologist Dr. Leighton Seal acknowledged that clinicians were performing procedures “where we don’t have outcome data.” In another widely circulated exchange, a patient described the process more bluntly, saying gender clinicians appeared to be “winging it” as they went.
Despite these admissions, trans activists have continued to insist that regret is rare, that clinicians know exactly what they are doing, and that denying medical transition to minors could lead to suicide. 
On Tuesday, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons released new guidelines recommending that gender-related surgeries should no longer be performed on patients “at least until age 19.” The updated guidance represents a notable shift from previous practices and challenges claims that such procedures are settled, routine, and unquestionably beneficial for minors.
Rowling is hardly a newcomer to this fight. Since late 2019, when she first publicly challenged gender ideology — particularly as it intersects with women’s rights, safeguarding for minors, and the medicalization of gender distress — she has been smeared as a bigot, subjected to cancelling, denounced by activists and celebrities, and effectively blacklisted in the cultural and publishing world. Despite the pressure, Rowling has continued to engage the issue directly.
Meanwhile, lawsuits brought by detransitioners are increasingly shifting the issue from cultural and political argument into courtrooms, where claims are evaluated through medical records, expert testimony, and established standards of care.
As additional cases proceed and medical institutions reassess prior assumptions, the debate over gender treatment for minors is likely to grow more contentious, with significant implications for clinicians, families, and policymakers alike. Rowling’s latest intervention signals her involvement with the legal and medical reckoning surrounding the issue is far from over.

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Chloe Cole

detransitioner

Fox Varian

&#8220;Harry Potter&#8221; film director Chris Columbus cast doubt on the possibility of ever having a cast reunion — and suggested that author J.K. Rowling&#8217;s stance on the transgender issue was the primary reason such an event could never happen.
Columbus, who directed the first two films in the franchise and produced the third, said that differences of opinion on certain political issues would prevent the whole group from ever working together again — and clearly hinted that Rowling was the odd one out on that score.
The question came up during a recent interview with The Sunday Times, when Columbus said that he&#8217;d initially hoped to be able to bring the original cast back together for a film adaptation of the stage show &#8220;Harry Porter and the Cursed Child,&#8221; but that he&#8217;d ruled out such a project for &#8220;political&#8221; reasons.
&#8220;It’s never going to happen. It’s gotten so complicated with all the political stuff. Everyone in the cast has their own opinion, which is different from her opinion, which makes it impossible,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;I haven’t spoken to Miss Rowling in a decade or so, so I have no idea what’s going on with her, but I keep very close contact with Daniel Radcliffe and I just spoke to him a few days ago. I still have a great relationship with all the kids in the cast.&#8221;
Shortly after news of the interview and Columbus&#8217; comments began circulating on social media, Rowling posted a vague response via X.
&#8220;As another man who once worked with me declares himself saddened by my beliefs on gender and sex, I thought it might be useful to compile a list for handy reference,&#8221; Rowling began, asking, &#8220;Which of the following do you imagine makes actors and directors who aren’t involved with the HBO reboot of Harry Potter so miserable?&#8221;
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&#8220;Is it my belief that women and girls should have their own public changing rooms and bathrooms? That women should retain female-only rape crisis centres? That men don’t belong in women’s sport?&#8221; she continued. &#8220;That female prisoners shouldn’t be incarcerated with violent men and male sex offenders? That women should remain a protected class in law, because they have sex-specific needs and issues?&#8221;
Rowling&#8217;s list of questions went on at length as she added, &#8220;That language should reflect reality rather than ideological jargon, especially in a medical context? That women shouldn’t be harassed, persecuted or fired for refusing to pretend humans can change sex? That women should not be threatened with violence and rape when they assert their rights? That freedom of speech and belief are essential to a pluralistic democratic society? That troubled minors, especially those who are gay, autistic and trauma-experienced, should be given mental health support instead of irreversible surgeries and drug treatments on non-existent evidence of benefit? That gay people shouldn’t be pressured to include the opposite sex in their dating pools, nor should they be smeared as ‘genital fetishists’ when they don’t? That cross-dressing heterosexual male fetishists aren’t actually oppressed, but having the time of their lives piggybacking off gender identity ideology? That said ideology, and the privileged, blinkered fools pushing it because they suffer zero consequences themselves, have done more damage to the political left’s credibility than Trump and Farage could have achieved in a century? Let me have your thoughts.&#8221;
Rowling has often found herself at odds with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jk-rowling-flags-harmful-message-trans-activists-are-sending-to-women-you-are-a-costume">radical trans activists</a> for her views on keeping private single sex spaces and protecting the sex-based rights of women, and has been labeled a Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) on a number of occasions. Several members of the &#8220;Harry Potter&#8221; original cast, including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, have spoken out against her views as well.

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‘Harry Potter’ Director Nixes Cast Reunion Over Rowling’s Trans Stance

Celebrities

Emma Watson

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Woke is on the run.
The cultural scourge has stifled free thought, promoted hard Left extremism and corrupted the arts. Now, the pendulum is finally starting to swing in the opposite direction.
As Justine Bateman eloquently <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/justine-bateman-feels-she-breathe-135914542.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAL59qaEAl5oQrn9Sbhjt_qu8fKo-iKLly0Qx1-59i0ZovkUgRNIkxBmkeb-90BXJs3RGFTKYXYPTw_0PpiYQZ4TC2vvcuf68E0zkXRjgeC_GgEgtbOqvca4Zg9u6iEw0q-H7gvODkFclXkVCbMI5yfWMT2bU8ni8NIdlhYRwH5Zd">put it</a>, it’s like we can all breathe again.
Woke may have been destined to crash and burn on its own. It’s antithetical to the American spirit and goes against basic biology. Plus, it’s often meted out in a cruel, hypocritical two-tier fashion.
Hunter Biden <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/06/08/hunter-biden-repeatedly-called-his-white-lawyer-the-n-word-texts-show/">repeatedly texts</a>  the &#8220;n-word&#8221; — zero punishment. Morgan Wallen calls a white friend the “n-word” in a private moment caught on tape – his career implodes overnight. 
Yet, over the past decade we&#8217;ve witnessed a number of brave souls stand up to the woke onslaught. While there are many on team sanity who deserve a shout out — including the voices at The Daily Wire — here are seven culture warriors who hastened woke’s demise and deserve a curtain call.
<h3>Robby Starbuck</h3>
<div id="attachment_901451" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-901451" class="size-large wp-image-901451" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Untitled-design-32-1024x576.jpg" alt="Conservative influencer Robby Starbuck prior to an interview in New York, US, on Wednesday, March 5, 2025." width="1024" height="576" />Bess Adler/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
The filmmaker/activist became the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-robby-starbuck-joins-heritage-foundation-to-continue-fight-against-woke-corporations?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE%3A+Robby+Starbuck+Joins+Heritage+Foundation+To+Continue+Fight+Against+Woke+Corporations">one person</a> woke companies fear more than anyone else. Starbuck’s crusade to expose corporate shenanigans, like excessive DEI policies, proved shockingly effective in recent years.
Just ask <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/11/27/robby-starbuck-influencer-dei-walmart">Walmart, Target, John Deere, Harley Davidson</a> and more.
A single social media post from Starbuck could send company executives into damage control mode. Sunlight remains the best disinfectant.
Starbuck brings the receipts, too. His recent <a href="https://x.com/robbystarbuck/status/1958868634287161604">exposé on Cracker Barrel</a>, coming on the heels of the brand’s calamitous logo “update,” proved he isn’t done spotlighting woke on steroids.
<h3>Jennifer Sey</h3>
<div id="attachment_457893" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-457893" class="size-large wp-image-457893" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/seyspring2022-0562-2-384x576.jpg" alt="" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/seyspring2022-0562-2-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/seyspring2022-0562-2-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/seyspring2022-0562-2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/seyspring2022-0562-2-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/seyspring2022-0562-2-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/seyspring2022-0562-2-1360x2040.jpg 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/seyspring2022-0562-2-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Courtesy of Jennifer Sey</div>
The former gymnast defied her woke overlords at Levi’s and lost, if only on the surface. Sey left her job as Global Brand President after speaking out against pandemic school closures. The woke company demanded she toe the line and not share her opinion publicly. She refused.
She could have licked her wounds or stayed silent. Not Sey. The Colorado resident rolled up her sleeves and kept fighting. She assembled a team to create a documentary detailing just how punishing lockdowns proved for millions of kids, even as we weren’t always allowed to admit it aloud. That upcoming documentary, “Generation-Covid,” is just part of her anti-woke agenda.
She also created XX-XY Athletics, a clothing brand designed for women, not biological men living as women. Her company speaks out against trans women in women’s sports, helping strike a blow against a movement that often shames citizens into silence.
Now, the tide is turning on the subject, with more Americans allowed to speak their minds. Sey helped make that happen.
<h3>Elon Musk</h3>
<div id="attachment_902957" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-902957" class="size-large wp-image-902957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2180240111-864x576.jpg" alt="A portrait picture of Elon Musk photographed in Krakow, Poland on January 22nd, 2024 and X, former Twitter, logo are screened for illustration photo in Krakow, Poland on October 25, 2024." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2180240111-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2180240111-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2180240111-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2180240111.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images</div>
He may be “frenemies” with a certain world leader these days, but Musk struck a mighty blow against woke by buying Twitter. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-bought-twitter-over-free-speech-concerns-media-groupthink-2022-12">Partly inspired</a> by the platform’s attack on The Babylon Bee and other free speech punishments, Musk took over and restored many censored accounts. His new, streamlined X let free speech reign anew. Suddenly, users didn’t have to self-censor for fear their unwoke opinions could cost them their digital voice.
The platform is far from perfect, but under Musk’s control, it’s a vastly superior product and a woke-free zone.
<h3>Christopher Rufo</h3>
<div id="attachment_877257" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-877257" class="size-large wp-image-877257" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Untitled-design-33-1024x576.jpg" alt="Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist and New College of Florida trustee, walks through protestors on his way out of a bill signing event featuring Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed three education bills on the campus of New College of Florida in Sarasota, Fla. on Monday, May 15, 2023." width="1024" height="576" />Photo by Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post via Getty Images</div>
Starbuck may be corporate America’s worst nightmare, but Rufo offers a similar service for academics gone wild. Rufo’s relentless pressure campaigns, and fact-based measures, proved highly effective in recent years.
Rufo helped expose former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/claudine-gay-who-resigned-due-to-plagiarism-allegations-to-teach-reading-and-research-class-at-harvard-in-fall">plagiarism scandal</a>, but that’s just a fraction of his recent activism. Here, he describes why he <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/conservative-activist-christopher-rufo-on-his-push-to-scrutinize-higher-education">focuses his attention</a> on Ivy League institutions.
“They&#8217;re promoting from their central administrations racial discrimination, scapegoating and even segregation.”
In some cases, they “were” promoting all of the above. Rufo gets results.
<h3>J.K. Rowling</h3>
<div id="attachment_913089" style="width: 828px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-913089" class="size-large wp-image-913089" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/JK-Rowling-818x576.jpg" alt="JK Rowling" width="818" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/JK-Rowling-818x576.jpg 818w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/JK-Rowling-300x211.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/JK-Rowling-768x541.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/JK-Rowling.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" />Samir Hussein/WireImage via Getty Images</div>
Many celebrities, even the biggest stars in the galaxy, stand down under intense woke pressure. Remember how <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/07/rub-and-tug-tv-show-our-lady-j?srsltid=AfmBOooqto0TGS1QBSZKn_jSJCQPHkCoAhh3bv_wnxbTxhD4YsIThjEW">Scarlett Johansson buckled</a> rather than accept a role playing a trans character?
Not Rowling. The “Harry Potter” author, an old-school progressive, began <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/j-k-rowling-hilariously-shreds-transgender-activist-over-bra-fitting-boast">questioning</a> elements of the trans agenda in 2020. That put her squarely in the Left’s cross-hairs, and she’s remained there ever since.
Death threats. Endless cultural cancelations. Serial attacks from the same Legacy Media outlets that once praised her ability to inspire young readers.
And Rowling refused to back down. That posture, combined with the work Sey has done on trans matters, allowed others to speak out against biological men in women’s sports.
<h3>Joe Rogan</h3>
<div id="attachment_909823" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-909823" class="size-large wp-image-909823" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-18-Apr-2025-04-07-PM-2073-1024x576.jpg" alt="Screenshot: Joe Rogan Experience #2303. Dave Smith and Douglas Murray. PowerfulJRE. YouTube.com" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-18-Apr-2025-04-07-PM-2073-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-18-Apr-2025-04-07-PM-2073-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-18-Apr-2025-04-07-PM-2073-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-18-Apr-2025-04-07-PM-2073-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-18-Apr-2025-04-07-PM-2073-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot: Joe Rogan Experience/YouTube.com</div>
Rogan&#8217;s relentless curiosity, eagerness to let so many voices share his platform, and his dedication to an open, long-form conversation has given free speech a major boost. 
Even more important, Rogan had a change of heart regarding one potential guest. Two years ago, Rogan seemed disinterested in chatting up former President Donald Trump.
Then, as he watched the Democratic Party stifle speech across the culture, he realized his platform could give Trump a boost in the 2024 presidential campaign. It’s likely why other rebel comics did the same with the Trump-Vance ticket, from Andrew Schulz to Tim Dillon.
<h3>President Donald Trump</h3>
<div id="attachment_942191" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-942191" class="size-large wp-image-942191" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2222437639-865x576.jpg" alt="President Donald Trump speaks to the media before boarding Marine One outside the White House on July 1, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2222437639-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2222437639-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2222437639-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2222437639.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images</div>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIF2rdXnpMo">“Everything woke turns to s***,”</a> The 45th and 47th president once said, slicing through the noise to make perfect sense. He’s right, of course, and he helped make woke retreat to its current, cornered state.
The president’s frank talk, blustery persona and eagerness to speak sans filter did more than burnish his brand. He gave us permission to do the same, to shoot straight and take the consequences.
Plus, he used his executive orders to protect female athletes against biological male competitors and doubled down on Rufo’s efforts to rein in woke colleges. His anti-DEI initiatives will be part of his legacy, no doubt.
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Woke is far from gone, despite the work of these culture warriors. Some companies and schools are using sleight-of-hand techniques to keep on discriminating on the basis of race and gender.
The disgraced Gay is still teaching students at Harvard.
Hollywood will keep making movies about five-foot-nothing women beating up men double their size. Gender and race-swapped stories won’t fade to black like 3D movies and found footage shockers.
Still, woke has taken body blow after body blow. And these powerful figures threw some of the heaviest punches.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Robby Starbuck

Seven Culture Warriors Who Put Woke On The Run

Christopher Rufo

Donald Trump

Elon Musk

Joe Rogan

Twitter

Woke Culture

&#8220;Harry Potter&#8221; author J.K. Rowling unloaded on liberals for failing to uphold the principle of free speech, arguing they&#8217;d largely done it out of fear that they&#8217;d no longer be accepted by &#8220;their tribe.&#8221;
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 &#8220;this most basic hurdle.&#8221;
&#8220;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,&#8221; she wrote.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1952958963424870608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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 &#8220;Harry Potter&#8221; creator has also railed against the notion of compelled speech — specifically when it&#8217;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.
&#8220;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 &#8216;Roxanne Tickle&#8217; is actually a woman,&#8221; she said, sharing a photo of the man she&#8217;d mentioned.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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 &#8220;Roxanne Tickle&#8221; is actually a woman. <a href="https://t.co/xLbzcOfKmJ">pic.twitter.com/xLbzcOfKmJ</a>
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1952939136349798421?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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

Free Speech

Media

A Leftist California bookstore is banning J.K. Rowling&#8217;s &#8220;Harry Potter&#8221; series but remains committed to sending &#8220;queer, affirmative&#8221; titles all over the country through an anti-book banning nonprofit.
Booksmith is located in San Francisco&#8217;s renowned Haight-Ashbury neighborhood — the epicenter of the 1960s hippie counterculture and the Summer of Love. It stopped selling &#8220;Harry Potter&#8221; books after Rowling announced the creation of the J.K. Rowling Women&#8217;s Fund. The fund <a href="https://jkrwf.org/?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwKdvNljbGNrAp26GGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAGJyaWQRMVhFYkVUMVlETmNnb3NRM2YBHpCylZCyqT-dSAcjqzcghgBSrl8tIO_sNX3dgcFvY5leoMkcTzlQEUHionpy_aem_HyMGvqrZM5nRn93ZKNrRMg">says</a> it &#8220;offers legal funding support to individuals and organizations fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.&#8221;
Its website never mentions transgender-identifying individuals, but Booksmith <a href="https://www.booksmith.com/NotHP">claims</a> the fund is &#8220;dedicated to removing transgender rights.&#8221;
&#8220;With this announcement, we&#8217;ve decided to stop carrying her books. We don&#8217;t know exactly what her &#8216;women&#8217;s fund&#8217; will entail, but we know that we aren&#8217;t going to be a part of it,&#8221; a sign in the bookstore reads.
But ironically, Booksmith — a self-described &#8220;group of queer booksellers&#8221; — participates in the Books Not Bans program, which is dedicated to <a href="https://www.booksmith.com/BnB">mailing</a> &#8220;crates of queer, affirmative, necessary books all over the country,&#8221; it says, that are actively being banned.
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&#8220;These are going to people who desperately need them but who live in book deserts and communities where new book bans are rolling out daily,&#8221; the store&#8217;s announcement said. &#8220;We don&#8217;t need to tell you things are serious out there: this is a lifeline for people whose lives and wellbeing are in danger. &#8221;
Books Not Bans, now a separate nonprofit, started at a different San Francisco <a href="https://www.fabulosabooks.com/#/">bookstore</a>, Fabulosa Books, that &#8220;[specializes] in LGBTQ+ books.&#8221;
Fabulosa Books also stopped selling Rowling&#8217;s work, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DLV4dvcyXYY/?hl=en">saying</a> on social media that the author &#8220;is devoting her life to nastiness.&#8221;
Books Not Bans has sent more than &#8220;2200 books to community groups around America,&#8221; according to a social media <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DJvD5hUzNhs/?igsh=aGduY25yYWM4NDl5">post</a>.
One popular shipment is &#8220;All Boys Aren&#8217;t Blue,&#8221; which has been at the center of fights to keep sexually explicit books away from children, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-the-fight-to-shield-kids-from-graphic-material-in-a-deep-red-state">reported</a>. The book includes <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/its-time-to-unite-against-the-real-enemy">graphic descriptions</a> of anal rape and incest.
&#8220;[&#8216;All Boys Aren&#8217;t Blue&#8217;] was recently named the most banned book in America,&#8221; Books Not Bans said in a social media post. &#8220;We’ve sent &#8216;All Boys Aren’t Blue&#8217; to 20 different organizations all over America.&#8221;
Rowling has drawn criticism for her commitment to protecting women and women&#8217;s spaces, but the bestselling author has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/5-years-ago-j-k-rowling-took-a-stand-against-trans-activists-she-hasnt-backed-down">refused</a> to back down or apologize. In December, she celebrated the social media post that resulted in her becoming a global icon for women&#8217;s rights.
&#8220;Five years ago today and my only regret is that I didn&#8217;t speak out sooner,&#8221; Rowling <a href="https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1869544832370344245?s=43&amp;t=BDz6oekueqrSVJ50bM62xw">said</a> on social media. &#8220;To every girl and woman who&#8217;s paid a heavy price for fighting to retain their rights and boundaries, to every person striving to halt an appalling medical experiment on minors, I salute you. We will win.&#8221;

Assam Book Fair 2023-24

Liberals In California Are Banning Books Again

Books

California

Censorship

San Francisco

Social Issues

U.S.

Several actors cast in the highly anticipated “Harry Potter” television series coming to HBO have just been announced.
Confirmed stars so far <a href="https://press.wbd.com/us/media-release/hbo-0/hbo-original-harry-potter-series-casts-john-lithgow-janet-mcteer-paapa-essiedu-nick">include</a> John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, and Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid. Luke Thallon will also take on the recurring role of Quirinus Quirrell, while Paul Whitehouse is set to play the recurring role of Argus Filch.
“We are happy to announce the casting of John Lithgow, Janet McTeer, Paapa Essiedu, Nick Frost, Luke Thallon and Paul Whitehouse to play Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Hagrid, Quirrell and Filch,” showrunner and executive producer Francesca Gardiner and executive producer Mark Mylod said in a statement. “We’re delighted to have such extraordinary talent onboard, and we can’t wait to see them bring these beloved characters to new life.”
The main roles of Harry, Ron, and Hermione have yet to be announced. Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/harry-potter-hbo-series-dumbledore-snape-mcgonagall-hagrid-1236368778/">noted</a> that HBO hosted open auditions for the part and received more than 30,000 submissions. 
According to the show&#8217;s logline, the series will be “a faithful adaptation of the beloved ‘Harry Potter’ book series by author and executive producer J.K. Rowling.”
“The series will feature a new cast to lead a new generation of fandom, full of the fantastic detail and much-loved characters ‘Harry Potter’ fans have loved for over twenty-five years,” it says. “Each season will bring ‘Harry Potter’ and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and cherished films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.”
HBO execs previously voiced support for “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling and defended their decision to keep her on as executive producer despite the backlash she’s gotten from leftists. The billionaire author has been labeled a “TERF” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) for rejecting radical gender theory.
“J.K. is an executive producer, and her insights will be helpful,” Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content said in 2023, as The Daily Wire previously reported. “We are in the Harry Potter business.”
“J.K. is a very online conversation … It’s very nuanced and complicated and not something we’re going to get into,” said Bloys. “Our priority is what’s onscreen. The Harry Potter story is incredibly affirmative and positive about love and acceptance, and that’s our priority, what’s on the screen.”
Filming on the TV series is slated to begin this summer.

John Lithgow

HBO Confirms ‘Harry Potter’ TV Series Casting For Dumbledore, Snape, And Hagrid

HBO Confirms 'Harry Potter' TV Series Casting For Dumbledore, Snape, And Hagrid

Entertainment

Television

World

Hollywood star John Lithgow has confirmed reports that he scored the coveted role of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the upcoming HBO “Harry Potter” TV series.
Speaking to <a href="https://screenrant.com/harry-potter-show-john-lithgow-dumbledore-casting-confirmed/">ScreenRant</a>, the 79-year-old actor said he’d accepted the leading role, previously held by the late actors Michael Gambon and Richard Harris in the hugely successful “Harry Potter” movie franchise based on the books by J.K. Rowling. It comes after reports surfaced last week that the actor was nearing a deal for the role.
“Well, it came as a total surprise to me. I just got the phone call up at the Sundance Film Festival for yet another film, and it was not an easy decision because it&#8217;s going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I&#8217;m afraid,” Lithgow said, noting the lengthy time commitment for the part.
“But I&#8217;m very excited,” he added. “Some wonderful people are turning their attention back to ‘Harry Potter.’ That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s been such a hard decision. I&#8217;ll be about 87 years old at the wrap party, but I&#8217;ve said yes.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
John Lithgow confirms he will play Dumbledore in the ‘HARRY POTTER’ series.
“It&#8217;s going to define me for the last chapter of my life&#8230; I&#8217;ll be about 87 years old at the wrap party, but I&#8217;ve said yes”
(Source: <a href="https://t.co/xXLExs4niV">https://t.co/xXLExs4niV</a>) <a href="https://t.co/AQWc0kiryp">pic.twitter.com/AQWc0kiryp</a>
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) <a href="https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1894462917174542558?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2025</a></blockquote>
Few details have been released about the rest of the cast of the highly-anticipated series, which follows the success of the films and books.
HBO previously confirmed that filming for the series would start in the U.K. in summer of 2025, with a possible release in 2026, the outlet noted.
In December, reports surfaced that British star Paapa Essiedu was reportedly being looked at to play the role of Professor Severus Snape in the HBO adaptation.
At the time, several sources confirmed to <a href="https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/harry-potter-tv-series-paapa-essiedu-severus-snape-1236235548/">Variety</a> that the 34-year-old actor could land the role of Snape in the upcoming <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hbo-stands-by-j-k-rowling-despite-pressure-to-denounce-her-transgender-comments">series</a>, a role previously held by the late Alan Rickman in the “Harry Potter” movie franchise.
There’s still no word if Essiedu has accepted the part, and HBO has only issued a statement to the outlet that read, “We appreciate that such a high-profile series will draw a lot of rumor and speculation. As we make our way through pre-production, we will only confirm details as we finalize deals.”
According to the logline, the series will be “a faithful adaptation of the beloved ‘Harry Potter’ book series by author and executive producer J.K. Rowling.”
“The series will feature a new cast to lead a new generation of fandom, full of the fantastic detail and much-loved characters ‘Harry Potter’ fans have loved for over twenty-five years,” it added. “Each season will bring ‘Harry Potter’ and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and cherished films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/british-actor-being-looked-at-for-major-role-in-new-harry-potter-and-fans-arent-happy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">British Actor Being Looked At For Major Role In New ‘Harry Potter,’ And Fans Aren’t Happy</a>

John Lithgow Confirms Leading Role In HBO ‘Harry Potter’ Series

Movies

“Harry Potter” author <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/j-k-rowling">J.K. Rowling</a>, who has become an outspoken critic of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/transgender">trans-identifying</a> men participating in women’s sports in recent years, posted a lengthy reaction on Thursday to President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump">Donald Trump&#8217;s</a> signing of an executive order banning the practice.
“Congratulations to every single person on the left who’s been campaigning to destroy women’s and girls’ rights. Without you, there’d be no images like this,” she said in a post to X that included an image of President Trump holding up the EO with his signature as he’s surrounded by young female athletes who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/surrounded-by-young-female-athletes-donald-trump-bans-men-from-womens-sports">witnessed the signing</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Congratulations to every single person on the left who’s been campaigning to destroy women’s and girls’ rights. Without you, there’d be no images like this. <a href="https://t.co/mzR7l5k1OW">pic.twitter.com/mzR7l5k1OW</a>
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1887432914989654163?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“This &#8216;why do you care about a tiny fraction of the population?&#8217; line is, and always was, utterly ridiculous,” Rowling <a href="https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1887472120541679690">continued</a> in a follow-up. 
“Gender ideology has undermined freedom of speech, scientific truth, gay rights, and women&#8217;s and girls&#8217; safety, privacy and dignity. It&#8217;s also caused irreparable physical damage to vulnerable kids,” she wrote. “Nobody voted for it, the vast majority of people disagree with it, yet it has been imposed, top down, by politicians, healthcare bodies, academia, sections of the media, celebrities and even the police. Its activists have threatened and enacted violence on those who&#8217;ve dared oppose it.”
Rowling said eventually, it will become clear that &#8220;the actual victims in this mess have been women and children.”  
“This movement has impacted society in disastrous ways, and if you had any sense, you&#8217;d be quietly deleting every trace of activist mantras, ad hominem attacks, false equivalence and circular arguments from your X feeds, because the day is fast approaching when you&#8217;ll want to pretend you always saw through the craziness and never believed it for a second,” the British author wrote.
Rowling has been a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/5-years-ago-j-k-rowling-took-a-stand-against-trans-activists-she-hasnt-backed-down">staunch advocate</a> for women’s sex-based rights and private spaces after tweeting her support for Maya Forstater, a tax specialist who lost her job for sharing “transphobic” tweets in 2019. She went viral again in 2020 after posting a sarcastic response to an article on menstrual health which refrained from using the word “woman.”
The “Harry Potter” author” has often found herself the target of radical transgender activists — who have, in addition to labeling her a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF), threatened her life on numerous occasions.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/surrounded-by-young-female-athletes-donald-trump-bans-men-from-womens-sports">Surrounded By Young Female Athletes, Donald Trump Bans Men From Women&#8217;s Sports</a>

J.K. Rowling Reacts To Trump’s ‘No Men in Women’s Sports’ Executive Order

J.K. Rowling Reacts To President Trump's No Men in Women's Sports Executive Order

Transgender Athletes

Famed author and women&#8217;s rights advocate J.K. Rowling shared a powerful ad on social media on Monday morning promoting the protection of female sports.
The ad Rowling posted comes from a <a href="https://www.xx-xyathletics.com/pages/our-founder?gad_source=1&amp;gbraid=0AAAAA9U_9lvnmtPx928X2qibdwRF4SutE&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiA74G9BhAEEiwA8kNfpalocfJ73HNO0UTZmsElh7Fk2Ch1KyCEeQKXINBG8qOUfXGzJwdxSRoCr74QAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pro-woman athletics brand called XX-XY Athletics</a>, which was founded by a former top Levi&#8217;s executive named <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/levis-pushed-her-out-when-she-spoke-up-against-covid-madness-but-jennifer-sey-isnt-done-talking-part-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jennifer Sey</a> who was pushed out of her job for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/levis-pushed-her-out-when-she-spoke-up-against-covid-madness-but-jennifer-sey-isnt-done-talking-part-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disagreeing with the company&#8217;s leftist orthodoxy</a>.
Additionally, the ad features <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/take-your-mark-a-practical-guide-for-defending-women-girls-and-biological-truth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">real stories of female athletes</a> who&#8217;ve lost out on opportunities because of male trans-identifying athletes and received hatred and vitriol for standing up for themselves and other girls.
<div id="attachment_870513" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-870513" class="wp-image-870513 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/IMG_0725-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/IMG_0725-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/IMG_0725-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/IMG_0725-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/IMG_0725-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/IMG_0725-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/IMG_0725-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/IMG_0725-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Courtesy of XX-XY Athletics</div>
&#8220;This is the first and likely the last time I’ll retweet an ad, but I love it,&#8221; Rowling posted on X, captioning the video from XX-XY Athletics.
The ad showcases the cost females have been paying for the inclusion of male trans-identifying athletes in their spaces. Riley Gaines, for example, is called a &#8220;bigot&#8221; in the ad for daring to speak up. In 2022, the swimmer-turned-advocate was forced to swim against Lia Thomas, a male, during the women&#8217;s NCAA championships. Gaines tied Thomas but was booted from the medal podium to make way for Thomas.
The XX-XY Athletics ad also features <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-finally-scraps-match-after-womens-team-refuses-to-play-team-whose-star-player-is-male" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sia LiiLii</a>, a senior co-captain of the University of Nevada Reno Volleyball team. Liilii and her team chose to forfeit a volleyball match against an opposing team that had a man on the roster.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is the first and likely the last time I’ll retweet an ad, but I love it. <a href="https://t.co/oALpr5c10v">pic.twitter.com/oALpr5c10v</a>
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1886348443745976525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
&#8220;I woke up this morning to JK Rowling tweeting our ad. To say this was an honor and a surprise would be the understatement of my career,&#8221; Sey told The Daily Wire on Monday.
Sey noted that Rowling showed &#8220;some hesitancy&#8221; in sharing the ad but said the brand&#8217;s &#8220;whole intention&#8221; is to &#8220;influence the movement and popular culture.&#8221;
&#8220;It’s more than a t-shirt or a pair of leggings,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Legislation is downstream from culture and we’ve failed on the culture front. And we need to wrest back the culture with the full force that it was taken from us and taken over by the uninformed, propaganda-spewing people and institutions who think you can change your sex.&#8221;
&#8220;The brand is a way to wear your values and to say: this is what I believe,&#8221; Sey added. &#8220;And it provides the permission structure for others to do the same. We need to normalize standing up for women’s sports and spaces. We cannot let the bullying unhinged minority have the mic because we are afraid of being called names.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_457887" style="width: 892px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-457887" class="wp-image-457887 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/10/seyspring2022-0792-1-882x576.jpg" alt="Jennifer Sey" width="882" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/10/seyspring2022-0792-1-882x576.jpg 882w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/10/seyspring2022-0792-1-300x196.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/10/seyspring2022-0792-1-768x502.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/10/seyspring2022-0792-1-1536x1003.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/10/seyspring2022-0792-1-2048x1338.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 882px) 100vw, 882px" />Courtesy of Jennifer Sey</div>
Sey told The Daily Wire that in less than 24 hours of its release, the XX-XY Athletics ad had received about 4.5 million impressions on X and another 610,000 on Instagram.
&#8220;We’re right. We are grounded in truth. We must continue to fight,&#8221; Sey said. &#8220;Because it isn’t over despite Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a>, that only impacts federally-funded programs.&#8221;
Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/">signed</a> an EO last week that seeks to end &#8220;radical indoctrination&#8221; in public schools, including the &#8220;inclusion&#8221; of male trans-identifying students in female spaces and sports.
&#8220;Approximately 70% of sports take place outside of federal-funded schools and are not impacted,&#8221; Sey noted. &#8220;And you can bet on the fact that they are going to double down on their madness. They will never admit they were wrong.&#8221;
&#8220;Trump made the first move,&#8221; Sey added. &#8220;We the people need to take the baton and change the culture.&#8221;

Riley Gaines

J.K. Rowling Shares Powerful Ad About Protecting Female Sports — But There’s More To The Story

JK Rowling Shares Powerful Ad About Protecting Female Sports — But There’s More To The Story

transgender athlete

Transgenders

&#8220;Harry Potter&#8221; author and outspoken feminist J.K. Rowling has had quite a time of it on X over the last five years — and while she&#8217;s often sparked ire among the radical transgender activist crowd, many on the social media platform find her giving voice to their own thoughts, particularly when it comes to gender ideology and its strictest adherents.
Here are just a few of her best from 2024.
<h4>That time she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/you-are-not-kind-you-are-not-righteous-jk-rowling-unloads-on-trans-activists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called out critics</a> who think biological males should go to women&#8217;s prisons based on self-identification.</h4>
&#8220;The trans activist outrage that ensues on here whenever I share my belief that jailed women shouldn&#8217;t be used as validation tools or emotional support props for trans-identified male sex offenders is as revealing as it&#8217;s predictable,&#8221; Rowling wrote.
&#8220;Such activists can&#8217;t bring themselves to concede that a man who was convicted of harming women/girls ought not to be incarcerated with the demographic to whom he is a proven danger, because if they do, all their stock arguments (&#8216;no sexual predator would bother to pretend to be trans&#8217;, &#8216;no trans woman has ever harmed a woman in a women&#8217;s only space&#8217;, &#8216;there is no danger in making all single sex spaces unisex&#8217;) are exposed as the lies they are,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;If they admit that even a single man isn&#8217;t a woman because he says he is, the entire edifice of gender identity ideology crumbles. This leaves activists who rely on bullying and slogans with nowhere to go but &#8216;you hate all trans people&#8217;, &#8216;so you&#8217;re saying all trans people are rapists&#8217; and, of course, &#8216;you are causing a trans genocide.'&#8221;
&#8220;You are not kind. You are not righteous. Women have the basic human right not to suffer cruel and unusual punishment,&#8221; she concluded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The trans activist outrage that ensues on here whenever I share my belief that jailed women shouldn&#39;t be used as validation tools or emotional support props for trans-identified male sex offenders is as revealing as it&#39;s predictable.
Such activists can&#39;t bring themselves to…
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1759940576340770987?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>The time she explained why it&#8217;s important to attribute crimes based on biological sex rather than ideological fantasy.</h4>
Responding to a critic who complained that it didn&#8217;t matter if a crime committed by a trans-identifying man was cataloged in the press as a crime committed by a &#8220;woman,&#8221; Rowling laid out three concise points:
<ol>
<li>Crime statistics are rendered useless if violent and sexual attacks committed by men are recorded as female crimes.</li>
<li>Activists are already clamouring for this sadistic killer to be incarcerated in a women&#8217;s prison.</li>
<li>Ideologically-driven misinformation is not journalism.</li>
</ol>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
1. Crime statistics are rendered useless if violent and sexual attacks committed by men are recorded as female crimes. 2. Activists are already clamouring for this sadistic killer to be incarcerated in a women&#39;s prison. 3. Ideologically-driven misinformation is not journalism. <a href="https://t.co/9hnBBAY6eH">pic.twitter.com/9hnBBAY6eH</a>
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1762247093433803024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>This pitch-perfect response to the person who accused her of discrimination based solely on her ability to tell a biological man from a biological woman.</h4>
&#8220;Well this is awkward. How exactly will you be marching against yourself for this blatant discrimination,&#8221; the critical post read.
&#8220;Accurately sexing trans-identified men who send misogynistic abuse to women is not discrimination. &#8216;Man&#8217; is not a slur. I know a lot of you think the UN should intervene whenever women bruise your egos, but there is no human right to universal validation,&#8221; she replied.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Accurately sexing trans-identified men who send misogynistic abuse to women is not discrimination. &#39;Man&#39; is not a slur. I know a lot of you think the UN should intervene whenever women bruise your egos, but there is no human right to universal validation. <a href="https://t.co/xmQfeBEdlR">pic.twitter.com/xmQfeBEdlR</a>
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1764661385357652394?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>And then there was the &#8220;Birthing Parent Day&#8221; post that triggered all the right people &#8230;</h4>
&#8220;Happy Birthing Parent Day to all whose large gametes were fertilised resulting in small humans whose sex was assigned by doctors making mostly lucky guesses,&#8221; Rowling quipped.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
❤️💐Happy Birthing Parent Day to all whose large gametes were fertilised resulting in small humans whose sex was assigned by doctors making mostly lucky guesses ❤️💐
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1766799493771469286?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>And who could forget Rowling&#8217;s spot-on take when she was told that Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) like herself were reducing &#8220;all women solely to their reproductive organs&#8221;?</h4>
&#8220;I don&#8217;t &#8216;reduce myself&#8217; to my womb when I say I&#8217;m a woman any more than I reduce myself to my ears when I say I&#8217;m not deaf,&#8221; she posted in response. &#8220;These are facts. There is no liberation for women in pretending their sex class isn&#8217;t definable. If men can be women, there is no such thing as a woman.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I don&#39;t &#39;reduce myself&#39; to my womb when I say I&#39;m a woman any more than I reduce myself to my ears when I say I&#39;m not deaf. These are facts. There is no liberation for women in pretending their sex class isn&#39;t definable. If men can be women, there is no such thing as a woman. <a href="https://t.co/ziqinxaAYA">pic.twitter.com/ziqinxaAYA</a>
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1783430461848518819?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>And then there was the time she schooled the critic who tried to shame her by suggesting her family didn&#8217;t want her defending women publicly.</h4>
&#8220;Loved ones urged JK Rowling to not come out with her transphobic views,&#8221; the accusation read. &#8220;She&#8217;s completely disregarded their voices and doubled down on her anti-trans posts.&#8221;
Rowling pointed out that her family members were more afraid — and rightly so — that her views would make her a target.
&#8220;They didn&#8217;t want me to put my head above the parapet because they were afraid for my safety. Sure enough, they haven&#8217;t enjoyed me being threatened with torture and rape. They&#8217;d rather I hadn&#8217;t needed to sit through police interviews about credible death and bomb threats,&#8221; she said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
They didn&#39;t want me to put my head above the parapet because they were afraid for my safety. Sure enough, they haven&#39;t enjoyed me being threatened with torture and rape. They&#39;d rather I hadn&#39;t needed to sit through police interviews about credible death and bomb threats. <a href="https://t.co/VixVfS01Ql">pic.twitter.com/VixVfS01Ql</a>
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1796272918453686277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>What about the time she torched British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of the election for his abject failure to deliver a &#8220;yes&#8221; or &#8220;no&#8221; answer to the question about trans-identifying men and women&#8217;s bathrooms?</h4>
&#8220;&#8216;So, to clarify, a transgender woman with a penis would have to use the men&#8217;s bathroom?&#8217; FFS, is there a Labour embargo on the words &#8216;yes&#8217; and &#8216;no&#8217;? This isn&#8217;t complicated. Just tell us whether you believe women have the right to single sex spaces,&#8221; Rowling said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&#39;So, to clarify, a transgender woman with a penis would have to use the men&#39;s bathroom?&#39;
FFS, is there a Labour embargo on the words &#39;yes&#39; and &#39;no&#39;? This isn&#39;t complicated. Just tell us whether you believe women have the right to single sex spaces. <a href="https://t.co/C2IoDLlkfn">https://t.co/C2IoDLlkfn</a>
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1807116271672016915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>Rowling quickly dropped the hammer on a trans activist&#8217;s definition of misogyny.</h4>
&#8220;The misogyny is in defining women through the things that have oppressed them for millennia,&#8221; the activist wrote.
Rowling pushed back, saying, &#8220;Women haven&#8217;t been oppressed for millennia by their own menstrual cycles and capacity to give birth, they&#8217;ve been oppressed by men on the basis of their biological functions. This will not be fixed by pretending some women have d*cks.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Women haven&#39;t been oppressed for millennia by their own menstrual cycles and capacity to give birth, they&#39;ve been oppressed by men on the basis of their biological functions. This will not be fixed by pretending some women have dicks. <a href="https://t.co/onWpePJd7I">pic.twitter.com/onWpePJd7I</a>
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1815698330040635901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>Amid the Olympic controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, Rowling was apparently flooded with photos of female athletes who appeared to be less feminine as activists tried to prove their point. She didn&#8217;t buy it.</h4>
&#8220;For the record, bombarding me with pictures of athletic women to ‘teach’ me that women don’t all look like Barbie is like spamming me with pics of differently-shaped potatoes to prove rocks are edible. I can still see the difference and you look frankly bonkers,&#8221; she said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
For the record, bombarding me with pictures of athletic women to ‘teach’ me that women don’t all look like Barbie is like spamming me with pics of differently-shaped potatoes to prove rocks are edible. I can still see the difference and you look frankly bonkers.
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1821167422721630473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>Rowling delivered the perfect &#8220;I told you so&#8221; after a trans activist critic of hers was convicted of rape.</h4>
&#8220;The important thing to remember is, he&#8217;s a total one off*, none of the other men arguing against women-only spaces are predators** and we won&#8217;t find out down the line there are more rapists hiding in plain sight***,&#8221; she posted, adding, &#8220;*He really isn&#8217;t. **They totally are. ***We definitely will.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The important thing to remember is, he&#39;s a total one off*, none of the other men arguing against women-only spaces are predators** and we won&#39;t find out down the line there are more rapists hiding in plain sight.***
*He really isn&#39;t. **They totally are. ***We definitely will. <a href="https://t.co/VW7jYb92zW">pic.twitter.com/VW7jYb92zW</a>
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1840497507530674519?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>Rowling&#8217;s assessment of the men who champion radical gender ideology — almost exclusively at the expense of biological women — will go down in history.</h4>
&#8220;It will never stop being extraordinary to me that men who think of themselves as good guys stampeded to support males invading women&#8217;s reserved spaces and sports, then threw hissy fits when women didn&#8217;t eulogize them as progressive superheroes,&#8221; she said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It will never stop being extraordinary to me that men who think of themselves as good guys stampeded to support males invading women’s reserved spaces and sports, then threw hissy fits when women didn’t eulogise them as progressive superheroes.
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1851570307506614405?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<h4>And it&#8217;s only fitting to end with her response to a biological male being named Women&#8217;s Footballer of the Year by the BBC — despite the fact that said player had been withdrawn from the 2022 Women&#8217;s Africa Cup of Nations for failing sex eligibility.</h4>
&#8220;Presumably the BBC decided this was more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women&#8217;s faces,&#8221; she observed.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Presumably the BBC decided this was more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women&#39;s faces. <a href="https://t.co/JGGdIVxYNB">https://t.co/JGGdIVxYNB</a>
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1861449157564592425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
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JK Rowling Says What Everyone Is Thinking: A Year In Review

Crime

British star Paapa Essiedu is reportedly being looked at to play the role of Professor Severus Snape in a new HBO adaptation of &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/harry-potter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Harry Potter</a>,&#8221; and fans have made it clear they aren’t happy about it.
On Thursday, several sources confirmed to <a href="https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/harry-potter-tv-series-paapa-essiedu-severus-snape-1236235548/">Variety</a> that the 34-year-old actor could land the role of Snape in the upcoming <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hbo-stands-by-j-k-rowling-despite-pressure-to-denounce-her-transgender-comments">series</a>, a role previously held by the late Alan Rickman in the “Harry Potter” movie franchise.
There’s no word yet if Essiedu has accepted the part and HBO would only release a statement to that outlet that read, “We appreciate that such a high-profile series will draw a lot of rumor and speculation. As we make our way through pre-production, we will only confirm details as we finalize deals.”
According to the logline, the series will be “a faithful adaptation of the beloved ‘Harry Potter’ book series by author and executive producer J.K. Rowling.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
No. Please, no. Severus Snape should follow the character described in the book. 
It&#8217;ll be awry seeing a black man play Snape (and I&#8217;m black so it&#8217;s not a race thing)
These cultural swaps would become the main focus of the series instead of what it actually is<a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jk_rowling</a> <a href="https://t.co/Qy6DcZgkpo">https://t.co/Qy6DcZgkpo</a>
— Ogbe Precious (@ogbeprecious_) <a href="https://twitter.com/ogbeprecious_/status/1864610370612027533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2024</a></blockquote>
“The series will feature a new cast to lead a new generation of fandom, full of the fantastic detail and much-loved characters ‘Harry Potter’ fans have loved for over twenty-five years,” it added. “Each season will bring ‘Harry Potter’ and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and cherished films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.”
It was the line about a “faithful adaptation” of the book that many fans who criticized the British star’s possible part pointed out in their comments online.
“No. Please, no,” one person wrote on <a href="https://x.com/ogbeprecious_/status/1864610370612027533">X</a>. “Severus Snape should follow the character described in the book. It&#8217;ll be awry seeing a black man play Snape (and I&#8217;m black so it&#8217;s not a race thing) These cultural swaps would become the main focus of the series instead of what it actually is @jk_rowling.”
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a>
A “Harry Potter” fan account <a href="https://x.com/HPotterUniverse/status/1864477091586101554">wrote</a>, “The creators of the show, including J.K. Rowling, said that the TV series would be a faithful adaptation of the books. Snape is described in the books as being a ‘thin man with greasy, shoulder-length black hair, a large hooked nose, sallow skin, and cold, black eyes.’”
“The drawing below was drawn by J.K. Rowling herself, which correlates with how she described Snape’s appearance in the books,” the post added. “They haven’t even started filming this TV series and they are already deviating from the books. Personally, I am disappointed…”
While a third person <a href="https://x.com/neganokkotsu/status/1864619689080422685">wrote</a>, “Why is my timeline full with this s*** ??? Cancel the whole show I bet he&#8217;s an amazing actor but he&#8217;s NOT Severus Snape f*** this woke s***.”
The “Harry Potter” series is slated to be released on HBO in 2026.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/warner-bros-discovery-announces-release-date-for-harry-potter-tv-series" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Warner Bros. Discovery Announces Release Date For ‘Harry Potter’ TV Series</a>

Paapa Essiedu

British Actor Being Looked At For Major Role In New ‘Harry Potter,’ And Fans Aren’t Happy

Alan Rickman

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