Harry Potter Author JK Rowling Under Fire For Controversial Tweet

Thursday got off to a bit of a wild start in the United States as scores of Harry Potter fans scrolled through their timeline to see J.K. Rowling had penned a controversial tweet. The author’s tweet begins with a defense of Maya Forstater, a researcher who was fired for tweeting anti-trans rhetoric. The case is pretty complicated and a lot of fans did not appreciate Rowling boiling it down to “sex is real.” Of course, this isn’t the first time that the Harry Potter scribe has found herself in hot water with the Internet over her Twitter habits. Many trans users on the site had noticed that the author was favoriting anti-trans and trans-exclusionary radical feminist talking points. Back then, people were quick to dismiss the likes as user error. But, with today’s revelation, it is clear that she has taken a stand on these issues. People have sought comfort in the stories she’s crafted for years now. For them, the author of a book about an outcast rising up above their circumstances to reach their full potential tweeting these thoughts comes off as a bit of a betrayal.

In Rowling’s own words, “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? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill”

Earlier this year, some of the Harry Potter faithful were upset with the writer again over some comments about Dumbledore’s sexuality. In 2007, Rowling revealed that the Hogwarts headmaster was gay. Since then, she’s had to defend that choice to fans who felt like she was trying to insert representation without earning that type of development. For the Fantastic Beasts franchise, she explained that while Dumbledore and Grindelwald did have sex, she was more interested in the other relationship dynamics presented in such a pairing.

“It was passionate, and it was a love relationship,” Rowling explained. “But as happens in any relationship, gay or straight or whatever label we want to put on it, one never knows really what the other person is feeling. You can’t know, you can believe you know.

She continued, “So I’m less interested in the sexual side — though I believe there is a sexual dimension to this relationship — than I am in the sense of the emotions they felt for each other, which ultimately is the most fascinating thing about all human relationships.”

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