Rowling has angered fans with her latest tweet (Picture: Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic)

JK Rowling has been accused of being a TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist) after defending a researcher who was sacked for tweeting that transgender women can’t change their biological sex.

The Harry Potter author hasn’t personally tweeted since September, but returned to Twitter today to ‘stand with’ Maya Forstater, in a post that has disappointed many fans.

The 54-year-old tweeted: ‘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?’




Rowling added the hashtags: ‘#IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill.’

Many followers and Harry Potter fans criticised the tweet and branded Rowling a ‘TERF’ for her defence of Forstater, who lost a test case after she didn’t have her contract renewed at the Centre for Global Development (CGD), an international thinktank that campaigns against poverty and inequality for tweeting ‘men cannot change into women’.

In September 2018, a reply tweet from Forstater read: ‘What I am so surprised at is that smart people I admire, who are absolutely pro-science in other areas, and champion human rights & womens rights are tying themselves in knots to avoid saying the truth that men cannot change into women (because that might hurt mens feelings).’

One person wrote: ‘Woowwww JK Rowling gone full TERF’, with another tweet reading: ‘JK Rowling is a full-blown TERF and she’s saying it with her chest.’

Rowling wrote the hugely successful Harry Potter series, which went on to be a movie franchise (Picture: WARNER BROS)

A reply to Rowling’s original tweet read: ‘Good job on using your huge platform to further marginalise one of the most marginalised groups in society’, while another person wrote: ‘How does one live their best life with peace and security if their coworker is not held accountable for hate speech?’

And a former fan, who is trans, wrote: ‘I grew up as a trans child reading your books as an escape. I would often pick out names from characters to give to myself, before I ever felt comfortable in who I was. This decision, to support people that hate me, and want to do me harm. It brings me to tears… Why. Why?’

And one woman who is mother to a trans daughter replied: ‘My daughter, who is trans, is a big fan of yours. It breaks my heart to see you post something indicating that discrimination against her is perfectly fine behaviour for an employee. The world’s most credible medical orgs affirm trans people. Please catch up.’

Forstater tweeted that men can’t change into women (Picture: Paul Davey/SWNS)

However, many others replied with ‘thank you’ messages to the author, with one reply reading: ‘Thank you so much for speaking the truth on behalf of women #adulthumanfemale.’

Forstater quote-tweeted Rowling’s post and wrote: ‘OMG! We are all crying. This is all I wanted for Christmas.’

Back in March 2018, Rowling – believed to be worth $500 million – came under fire for liking a tweet calling trans women ‘men in dresses’.



The tweet, from a Twitter account whose bio reads: ‘Call me bigot, terf, transphobe: I defend women’s sex-based rights. Respect political significance of women’s biology!’, read: ‘I was shouted at by men at my first Labour Party meeting aged 18 because I asked them to remove a Page 3 calendar. I’ve been told to toughen up, be louder, stronger, independent.

Rowling previously liked a tweet referring to ‘men in dresses’ (Picture: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

‘I’ve often not felt supported. Men in dresses get brocialist solidarity I never had. That’s misogyny!’

However, Rowling’s rep told Metro.co.uk: ‘I’m afraid J.K. Rowling had a clumsy and middle-aged moment and this is not the first time she has favourited by holding her phone incorrectly.’

Forstater’s legal dispute against the Centre of Global Development, who sacked her in March, was a test case on whether ‘gender critical’ views – a belief that there are two biological sexes which cannot be changed – is a protected philosophical belief under the 2010 Equality Act.

However, employment Judge Tayler ruled that Forstater’s view ‘is incompatible with human dignity and fundamental rights of others’.

A rep for Rowling declined to comment.

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