'If Sex Isn't Real': JK Rowling Went on a Transphobic Twitter Rant and Obviously Got Schooled

Harry Potter author JK Rowling was amid another online backlash after social media users called her out for a string of anti-trans tweets on Sunday.

It all started when Rowling quote tweeted a piece titled: "Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate."

"‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?" Rowling tweeted suggesting only women menstruated.

When people on Twitter immediately called Rowling’s comments “anti-trans” and “transphobic” as transgender people, non-binary people and gender-nonconforming people can also menstruate, Rowling went on to add that sex was "real" and criticised the idea of discarding the idea of sex. "If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. 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," she tweeted.

The Harry Potter author continued her transphobic rant and wrote, "The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women - ie, to male violence - ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences - is a nonsense."

In a subsequent tweet, Rowling added that she respected every trans person's right to live but added that her life had been "shaped" by being a female. "I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so."

Rowling's anti-trans Twitter rant did not sit well with the LGBTQ activists and persons of the community who slammed the author for being one-dimensional and tone-deaf. Soon, Rowling became the top trend on Twitter on Sunday with people schooling her opinions.

People found it hard to wrap their heads around the fact that the author could not comprehend that she saw sex and gender in a binary view.

"You're a great writer. This is a good time for you to become a great reader," wrote one Twitter user.

GLAAD, an organization for LGBTQ rights, panned her views and wrote that there was no excuse for targeting trans people in 2020.  

This, however, isn't the first instance of Rowling facing online flak for her views on sex implying that transsexuality isn't real.

Last year in December, a woman in the UK, Maya Forstater, was fired from her job as a tax researcher after she tweeted against the government's Gender Recognition Act, which allowed people to legally change their gender. The woman's tweets were deemed transphobic and she was eventually dismissed.

However, JK Rowling seemed to agree with her and believed that "sex is real"/ Funny, this coming from a woman who made a living out of writing about creatures and events which are not only fictional but also entirely the product of her imagination.