JK Rowling has said that “no child is born in the wrong body” in her latest intervention on transgender issues.
The Harry Potter author said there were “no trans kids” and only adults believing in “an ideology that will end up wreaking more harm than lobotomies”.
Rowling was responding to a critic who said they wished she would use her “immense power for good” and labelled her “hateful focus” on transgender children as “hurtful and unnecessary”.
In response, the 59-year-old writer posted on X: “There are no trans kids. No child is ‘born in the wrong body’.
“There are only adults like you, prepared to sacrifice the health of minors to bolster your belief in an ideology that will end up wreaking more harm than lobotomies and false memory syndrome combined.”
One user replied in agreement, claiming that parents were the problem.
However, Rowling responded that was “not always” the case, and claimed children were also watching TikTok videos “of surgeons selling the idea that bodies can be modified like Lego”.
“Schools affirm kids’ trans identities behind parents’ backs,” she went on. “Many parents are struggling to protect kids from a Zeitgeist telling them that anxieties about puberty, sexuality and growing up can be fixed by lifelong reliance on Big Pharma and by doctors who make Frankenstein look ethical.”
Trans activists in a protest supporting the Scottish gender reform Bill in 2022 Credit: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP
Rowling has been criticised for her staunch views on gender identity and allowing trans women into women-only spaces and competing in women’s sport – but has previously denied accusations of transphobia.
Her views have put her at the centre of controversy surrounding discussion on women’s rights and transgender issues in the last few years, although this appears to be the furthest she has gone.
Earlier this month, she appeared to criticise a “mad” ruling by Ipso, the press watchdog, against the Spectator magazine over a complaint from a trans author over an article calling her a “man who claims to be a woman”.
Rowling said no publication should be forced to “assert a lie”.
The author has previously claimed she decided to speak about transgender issues because she believed she was witnessing “the greatest assault of my lifetime” on women’s rights.
Rowling was branded transphobic by activists in 2020 and shunned by some actors from the Harry Potter films.
Despite criticism, Warner Bros, the studio that made the films, recently defended her “right to express her personal views” ahead of casting for the planned Harry Potter series which is set to premiere in 2026.
