"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling recently published a lengthy essay on her personal website reaffirming her criticism of trans activism. Rowling said her position on women’s rights remains unchanged despite receiving death, rape and torture threats, and described 21st-century trans activism as "elitist to its core."
At the beginning of the essay, Rowling revisited the controversial piece she published in 2020. She said she chose to speak publicly at the time because she was concerned about the risks the movement posed to women’s rights and to everyone’s freedom of speech and belief.
"My views haven’t changed, but the landscape certainly has, and my own involvement in the issue has become practical as well as theoretical, so I thought it was time for an update," she wrote. With her involvement expanding beyond public commentary into legal and charitable action, Rowling said the time had come to restate her position. 
She criticized the argument advanced by some trans activists that a man who identifies as a woman should be treated as a woman in every context, including access to women’s changing rooms, women’s sports, female-only jobs and awards, and women’s prisons:
"Where women go to undress, he, too, should go to undress. If there’s an award or job advertised as exclusively for women, he should be eligible. Should he wish to play sports, he must be on the women’s team."
"No breastfeeding or rape support group should be allowed to exclude him. If he’s attracted to women, lesbians should include him in their dating pool. If convicted of a crime, even rape, he should be locked up with women." 
Rowling argued that such demands disregard women’s rights and safety. However, she also rejected the "anti-trans" label applied to her, stressing that transgender people are equally entitled to fundamental human rights.
"Should trans people be discriminated against when it comes to housing or employment? Of course not. Should trans people be stripped of their human rights, or denied personal safety? Again, of course not," she wrote. Rowling acknowledged that some transgender people are vulnerable and need support, but argued that this does not mean female-only spaces and services must eliminate every restriction based on biological sex.
Rowling also cited the UK Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling that the term "woman" in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex. She accused some activists of treating women’s rights as an outdated concept for years and creating a climate of fear in which a woman could face disciplinary action over a single misplaced pronoun. In her view, that pressure has yet to disappear.
She went on to contrast trans activism with the historic civil rights, gay rights and women’s movements, which she said were organized by grassroots communities with little power to challenge discrimination by governments and other powerful institutions.
"Twenty-first-century trans activism is the very inverse of those movements. It is elitist to its core," Rowling said.
The J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund has supported feminist legal efforts related to the case. Rowling said she would continue providing financial assistance to women who could not otherwise afford to go to court, while ensuring that rape survivors in her community can access female-delivered, female-centered support services.
via： J.K. Rowling