‘We can’t allow women’s rights to be erased’: JK Rowling branded a ‘national treasure’ in tense row over trans views

‘We can’t allow women’s rights to be erased’: JK Rowling branded a ‘national treasure’ in tense row over trans views

JK Rowling branded a 'national treasure'

GBNews
Gabrielle Wilde

By Gabrielle Wilde


Published: 17/01/2024

- 10:01

Updated: 17/01/2024

- 16:15

JK Rowling has been criticised over her trans views

Stephanie Davies-Arai has leapt to the defence of author JK Rowling after a review was published under the headline: "Britain's nastiest novelist" due to her views on gender identity.

The Harry Potter creator has been outspoken in recent years after issuing several stern defences of women's spaces, resulting in swathes of trans activists condemning her viewpoint.


She has also shown her support for the belief in immutable biological sex, opposing the idea of gender self-identification.

Speaking in a heated debate on GB News, a fan of the Harry Potter writer, author Stephanie Davies-Arai said: "It's incredible, isn't it? Here's a woman who's vilified for writing compassionately about trans people as well as women, and that's all she's done.

"But of course, she gets called nasty. In a reversal, she is vilified and bullied online.

JK Rowling

The author has been very vocal about her views on the transgender community 

Getty/ ANGELA WEISS

"She gets rape threats, death threats, torture threats, and yet she's called the nasty one. I think JK Rowling is the most principled, ethical, honest, and true to her values novelist in England.

"She's a national treasure. We should be very, very proud of her."

However, writer and broadcaster Amy Nickell-Turner disagreed and said that "her gender-critical politics are nasty and they have had real-world effects".

She said: "She will always be a national treasure to an extent because she has contributed so much to literature. No one's taking that away from her. I also would never stand by anyone sending her abuse.

Stephanie Davies-Arai, Amy Nicole Turner, Eamonn Holmes, Isabel Webster

The author was slammed as "Britain's nastiest novelist" ​

GBNews

"Whatever way you interpret it, her gender-critical politics are nasty and they have had real-world effects.

"I just think about the moment a few months ago when I heard somebody I know who's trans is seriously considering leaving the country due to a societal shift in attitudes. The policy changes we're seeing, these gender-critical thoughts, policies, and opinions, have a real-world effect.

"I think you can see them clearly if you think back to 2010 when Nadia Alma won Big Brother, she was celebrated.

"No one cared that she was trans. We certainly didn't start calling her a biological man, which I'm seeing more and more commonly done."

JK Rowling at a press event

JK Rowling came under fire for her views

PA

Davies-Arai hit back: "I don't understand why we're focusing on a small group of trans people when the issue is women's protection of women and children.

"So we're saying we put rapists in women's prisons, is that kind?

Nickell-Turner responded by saying: " You're saying you're a feminist whilst excluding a minority of very vulnerable women.

"It's Feminism 101 to not let your biology be your fate. Yet you're saying for this small, tiny number of women, their biology is their fate and they're not invited."

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