J.K. Rowling makes five points in her essay, meant to explain her views and base them on something. There’s very clear selectiveness in the information she chose to pick and provide when she quotes people, and a lot of arguments that while very valid in themselves, have absolutely nothing to do with trans women:
First part of the essay dissection | Link to essay
- Author states she has charitable trusts that focus on alleviating social deprivation, focusing on women and children, projects for female prisoners, survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, and so on.

That is absolutely wonderful. Nobody wants her to stop, be sure, not us, not trans women, not you, I’m sure. It’s just that no one is really trying to erode sex. Trans people know the reality of sex better than anyone. If there was no reality of sex – we’d not need to change ours to match our gender. We’d simply live by socially transitioning, done deal. Biological sex though is indeed very different to gender. What author speaks of is the legal definition where your biological sex – has no meaning. A chance to be yourself at your work place, school. Her mention of MS is very valid here, because in case of it, the birth sex would absolutely need to be considered, something medics would do despite the definition of gender. No one’s trying to erode the definition of sex.
I mean, think about it. If medical sense of sex would be eroded, why would we need to transition? By changing our gender legally, what we’d even transition into??
- Author then claims she has “deep concerns about the effect the trans rights movement has on children’s education and safeguarding”.

Author didn’t elaborate, just passed on her opinion as an ex-teacher. Not going to lie to you here, I have no damn clue what’s this supposed to mean. How will a trans woman getting to be legally called by her chosen name will affect a child’s education, or safety? Or is the issue in the very fact that kids might learn there’s people whose biological sex is not always the same as their gender?
I’m currently reading a very interesting book called “The Gang’s All Queer” by Vanessa R. Panfil, and, sorry for not precise quote, as I have not marked it, but one of the fellas there said a thing any and all LGBT+ kids have very likely felt at some point: “we learn to hide it before we even know what it is.” Imagine a situation where you grow up assuming there is something fundamentally wrong with you, and you’re even too afraid to ask about it, lest the consequences are negative. That’s how I grew up too.
I’d also really like to add that kids are taught hate, and even then they don’t always take to it. I studied with a boy who had two moms. We didn’t care, not an ounce, all of us just littlest toddlers with nothing but games on our minds. What we cared about was the red hair one of his mom’s had, as it was this unnatural fire-engine red, and it was absolutely awesome. All the hate we witnessed about it being “different” came from other parents, who’d begin whispering the moment these two women were out of earshot. And even then we didn’t care, no one bullied him for it. You know what we did care about, what was weird? One classmate was always accompanied by her grandmother, not her parents. And that felt strange: where are her parents? (only far later in life one understands that sometimes out of that same love you have to work so much that you might indeed not have the time to take your kid to school, and yet that’s what we felt, the absence of love, not the presence of same-sex love)
- Third point JKR makes is that “as a much-banned author, I’m interested in freedom of speech and have publicly defended it.”

Great! She, you, and I have the right to freedom of speech, and in the face of what’s happening today – it makes me appreciate it even more that we live in a free, democratic country, where I can say that I am transgender man, and have law on my side if someone chooses to harass me over it. Same way Rowling has the right to spread misinformation about trans women, I and we as a whole, can call her out on the misleading fearmongering she’s spreading.
Someone smarter than I once said that in the age of information – ignorance is a choice.
- Fourth point author makes is “I’m concerned about the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition, among whom autistic girls are overly-represented”.

Please hear me here, if nowhere else: trans people do not wish to transition. We need it to survive. Science confirms it, it’s not our ideology, not our opinion. Gender dysphoria is a real thing and it has been proven that in most cases if not all, transitioning, social, hormonal, and medical / surgical, is the best way to deal with it. The surgeries are gruesome on a good day, let alone when they have complications, why would ANYONE on this Earth choose that to be their reality? And those who tried to prove it otherwise – have been discredited, a fact in no way affected by Rowling quoting said people.
Author points at people detransitioning, the amount. But the truth is, the percentage is somewhere between half, and three. In compare to two digits of people who regret their easily available, as long as you have a wish and money, plastic surgeries. People who have been misdiagnosed have medics not doing their jobs right to blame, not other trans people, who have nothing to do with it.
Rowling then claims that among those detransitioning many people were gay. I have no information on this, but if that’s the case, then those people have been highly misinformed of twice the amount of harassment trans people get. And if in the second point author did somehow mean kids should not be taught about trans people, and the possibility of transitioning, then here she is, arguing herself. Only through educating people on this we’ll avoid instances like JKR, spreading transphobic misinformation, and fearing actual education on the topic. Additionally I’d like to inquire about sex education people are receiving, if gender is out of the equation: are people not aware sex with different genitals is going to be also different? Some gay woman might have no desire to eternally have a penis, no matter how much she loves other women. Same way this gay woman might not enjoy a trans man in her bed either, despite the possibility that the genitals could be of a biological female. I refuse to believe it’s only the trans folks who think of people as more than their genitals. For if that was true, then all attraction is purely physical, and we’re nothing but a set of our reproductive organs, forget personality, forget the color of their eyes, and, additionally, directly contradict Rowling – forget about same sex attraction too. (JKR claimed trans people, by allegedly denying reality of sex, deny same sex attraction, but then, according to her, gay people might wish to transition to avoid bullying)
Next statement on autistic girls being overrepresented seemingly implies that autistic people don’t have autonomy enough to know their own identities. She refers to a research by discredited physician, Lisa Littman, whose work has been rejected by the scientific community, highly criticized, and even her own colleagues claimed her methods to be flawed, below scientific standards.
Lisa Littman has artificially increased autistic traits in trans people, and only looked at autism in trans people, not autistic people as a whole. She passed her forms in transphobic forums and boards, asking parents of trans kids to fill them out, not the trans kids themselves. Kids whose parents show clear homophobia or transphobia will more likely hide their LGBT+ identities, so, naturally, once they come out – to parents it seems rapid, sudden. Thus creating what Littman called Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, a condition that doesn’t exist outside her echo chamber. The term itself is not recognized by any major professional association.
Trans people are not contagious.
- And the final, fifth reason JKR states is that she too is a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor. She claims she must say this out of solidarity with women who have same histories, and are now called bigots for having concerns around single-sex spaces. She claims that assault happened at a time and in a space where she was vulnerable, and a man capitalized on the opportunity. Adding, that she does sympathize with trans women on this, at least.

Assault is already illegal. A man, a trans man, a woman, a trans woman, a nonbinary person – it doesn’t matter who commits it, they’ll commit a crime and will hopefully pay dearly for it. Author herself states that she was in a vulnerable time and space, so not likely a women only space either. A man capitalized on it. Please tell me how a trans woman enters this narrative in anything else than the role of a victim?
Nobody on this earth deserves such treatment, nobody should ever be assaulted, not verbally, not physically, not sexually. The laws exist for it. And this said law doesn’t give a damn about what your gender is in the face of illegal activity, assault. In fact, having watched news for a while, I say being a white man is very much preferable to get away with it, than suddenly claiming you’re a trans woman. Haven’t seen trans women being released for rape as of yet. Have seen quite a few cis men though.
As nasty as this sounds, violent men do not need to go through the trouble of getting recognized as women. If they have the intent to enter a women-only space to assault someone – they will do so or they will try so. And if its not a nonguarded women’s bathroom, then at most it’d be enough to wear the work vest. Enter as a janitor, as repairman, electrician, counselor, lawyer… These are human monsters we’re talking about, you really think they’ll go for a dress to exact their vengeance?
In conclusion, JKR claims that due to being assaulted by a man in a vulnerable time and space, trans women shouldn’t be allowed in women only spaces. They should go piss with the men. Where the risk of them getting assaulted then increases immensely, especially if they don’t pass so well as to be allowed into a trans-exclusionists bathroom.