‘Medical scandal’: JK Rowling again criticizes transgender contagion in new tweetstorm
J.K. Rowling has once again turned to Twitter to warn about the dangers of pushing transgenderism on children, writing, “it feels as though we’re on the brink of a medical scandal.”
On Saturday the liberal Harry Potter author, who has successfully shaken off attempts at “cancellation” for her pro-child, pro-woman stance, returned to Twitter to bring attention to scholarly articles questioning the wisdom of allowing children to proceed immediately to so-called gender transition.
“‘NHS identity clinics have been functioning as if acting outside the ordinary requirement of good medical and psychiatric practice,’” she tweeted, quoting a former associate director of the Tavistock Clinic in London, Marcus Evans.
“Some may dismiss this paper by experienced psychoanalyst @marcusevanspsych, but they do so at their own peril.”
Rowling linked to Evans’ paper, “Freedom to think: the need for thorough assessment and treatment of gender dysphoric children.” In the paper, the psychoanalyst cautions against the “affirmative approach” in treating children with gender confusion.
The author then linked to a second scholarly article, this one by a number of psychiatrists and medical doctors and titled “Sex, gender and gender identity: a re-evaluation of the evidence.” This article likens the swift encouragement for children to “transition” to the opposite sex to so-called conversion therapy for homosexuality.
Both papers were published by “Cambridge Core,” an online journal sponsored by England’s highly respected Cambridge University Press.
“It feels as though we’re on the brink of a medical scandal,” Rowing tweeted and quoted the second paper, posting: “‘Psychiatry sits on this knife-edge: running the risk of being accused of transphobia or, alternatively, remaining silent throughout this uncontrolled experiment.’”
Rowling revealed that since she’s taken a stand on “gender identity theory,” she’s received thousands of emails on the topic, many from medical and education professionals and social workers.
“They are all concerned about the effects on vulnerable young people,” she tweeted.
Rowling then linked to an article by former Tavistock employees very worried about the experimental transgender treatments carried out on children. In the article, the former Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinicians disclose that they had sent their testimony to the U.K.’s left-wing Guardian newspaper in 2017 and been completely ignored. In their letter the authors reveal the inner thoughts of a child “gender” (their scare quotes) specialist when meeting with parents and their child who wants to “transition”:
What I am really thinking is that mostly you are caught in a terrible moment of social contagion. You and your children are swirling in a toxic storm of psychological and emotional distress meeting homophobia, sexism, misogyny against the backdrop of the most appalling ‘bad science’. There is no such thing as a male or female brain and you cannot be ‘born into the wrong body’. The sloppiness of the language of both the internet and the politicians does you no favours with their conflation of sex and gender. This chimes so well in the era of post Truth anti expert hatred.
Rowling revealed that the authors of the letter represented “just two of a growing number of whistleblowers.”
“The bleak truth is that if and when the scandal does erupt, nobody currently cheering this movement on will be able to credibly claim ‘we couldn’t have known,’” she wrote.
Mermaids, a U.K, a charity that advocates for sex hormones and surgery for children in Britain, soon responded to Rowling’s Twitter remarks to invite the world-famous author to “talk about this extremely sensitive issue away from social media.” The founder of Mermaids, Susie Green, took her 12-year-old son to the United States for puberty blockers and female hormones against the recommendations of the U.K.’s National Health Service. When the boy was 15, Green took him to Thailand for genital surgery on his 16th birthday.
This is only the most recent skirmish in J.K. Rowling’s social media battle on behalf of vulnerable people, predominantly women and girls, against the politically correct forces of transgender ideology. In December 2019, the author took up the cudgels on behalf of Maya Forstater, a tax expert who lost her job because she declared on Twitter that men cannot become women. To the dismay of transgender activists, Rowling 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? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill
Despite frenzied demands that she do so, Rowling refused to apologize for supporting Forstater. In June 2020 she entered the social media fray once again when she mocked an online magazine for using the phrase “people who menstruate.”
“I'm sure there used to be a word for those people,” Rowling wrote in what became a viral tweet. “Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
The self-declared pro-LGBT author underscored that biological sex is a reality.
“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction,” she tweeted.
“If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.”
The left-wing author asserted that she respects “every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic to them” but also that her own life had “been shaped by being female.”
“I do not believe it is hateful to say so,” Rowling stated.
After a backlash, which included denunciations of the author’s opinions by actors made rich and famous from the film versions of her children’s books, Rowling wrote a full-length essay explaining why she so strongly opposes transgender ideology: her charitable work for women in prison and women and children in domestic abuse shelters; her charitable work for MS patients, whose treatment is determined by sexual difference; her interest in safeguarding children; her concern for freedom of speech; the “huge explosion” in young women wishing to become men; and her own experience of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
