British author J.K. Rowling, known for her beloved “Harry Potter” series, is demanding an end to the “climate of fear” over the transgender debate, noting in a recent interview she’s received “heartbreaking letters” from people who have told her they regret their sex-reassignment surgeries.
Speaking with Good Housekeeping magazine, Rowling said many people “are afraid to speak up because they fear for their jobs and even for their personal safety.” The novelist herself has received death and rape threats as a result of her decision to share the simple truth that one’s sex is unchangeable.
While publicly, Rowling has been ridiculed for her scientifically backed perspective, the 55-year-old author said the vast majority — “more than 90%” — of the correspondence she’s received has “been supportive.”
“My correspondence have included medical staff, social workers, prison workers, workers in women’s refuges, and members of the LGBT community, including trans people,” she explained.
In fact, some of the messages she’s received have been from people who wish they had not taken the irreversible steps of altering their bodies.
“Some of the most heartbreaking letters I’ve received have been from young women who regret the irreversible surgeries they’ve undertaken,” she said. “These stories need to be told.”
Rowling’s comments come as many of the stories about those who wish they had not transitioned are being censored.
For example, in June, YouTube temporarily censored a video featuring Walt Heyer, a man who once identified as a transgender women but has since reverted back to identifying by his biological sex. The website briefly removed the video, categorizing it as “hate speech.” Reddit has likewise taken steps to censor from its platform anyone who disagrees with the transgender agenda.
And, in November, Target briefly removed a book by author and journalist Abigail Shrier, whose work is intended not to be critical of those who identify as transgender but to raise questions about the moral and ethical ramifications of allowing minors to make life-altering decisions about their bodies with little to no oversight. Amazon has continued to bar the publisher of “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” from purchasing ads to promote Shrier’s work.
Rowling is calling for an end to all the censorship and heated rhetoric.
“I believe everybody should be free to live a life that is authentic to them, and that they should be safe to do so,” she said. “I also believe that we need a more nuanced conversation around women’s rights and around the huge increase in numbers of girls and young women who are seeking to transition.”
The latest comments from the well-known writer come after Britain’s high court ruled in favor of 23-year-old Keira Bell, who filed a lawsuit against the National Health Service’s gender identity youth clinic, which prescribed her puberty blockers at the age of 16. She argued the clinic should have done more to “challenge” her decision to transition from female to male.
“It is highly unlikely that a child aged 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers,” the judges stated. “It is doubtful that a child aged 14 or 15 could understand and weigh the long-term risks and consequences of the administration of puberty blockers.”
Like those who have sent letters to Rowling, Bell pursued a transition — even having a double mastectomy at the age of 20 in an effort to “achieve happiness” — and, when it didn’t give her fulfillment, she began to de-transition in 2019.
Bell said it was “heartbreaking to realize I’d gone down the wrong path.”