JK Rowling says her family got 'threats' due to her views on gender

March 28, 2023

JK Rowling says her family have received ‘threats’ because of her outspoken views on gender issues – but the Harry Potter author says ‘I still don’t regret standing up’

Rowling said she was disappointed at the lack of support from the literary world
She hit out at trans rights activists who stopped a women’s rights campaign rally

JK Rowling has said her stance on women’s rights has led people who disagree with her to threaten her family.

The Harry Potter author, who has been outspoken in her views on gender and single-sex spaces, said she doesn’t regret vocalising her position despite the abuse she’s received.

However, she added she was disappointed at the lack of support from the literary world including publishers who ‘should stand for the plurality of views’.

Earlier this week Rowling hit out at ‘repellent’ trans rights activists after Let Women Speak organiser Kellie-Jay Keen was hit with tomato sauce, branding them a ‘mob’.

And on Tuesday she warned new SNP leader he would ‘disappear through the ice’ behind his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon if he continued her battle to push through gender reforms.

JK Rowling, pictured here wearing a shirt that reads ‘Nicola Sturgeon – destroyer of women’s rights’, says she has received threats against her family after speaking out on gender issues

Earlier this week Rowling hit out at a ‘mob’ of trans rights activists who stopped a speech by Let Women Speak organiser Kellie-Jay Keen in Auckland, New Zealand

The 57-year-old told the pre-recorded The Witch Trials of JK Rowling podcast that she would continue to speak out and be vocal in her opinions, even if that brought abuse her way.

She said: ‘Although I don’t regret anything, I’ve had concerns for my family’s safety, and some of the threats haven’t been too amusing to me.

‘There has been fall-out in my life, inevitably, but I still don’t regret standing up.’

She added she had ‘lost a degree of faith’ in the publishing industry, which is ‘the industry I know best’.

She said: ‘I’ve been shocked by the positions publishing has taken. I think if publishers don’t stand for anything else they should stand for the plurality of views.

‘If I think about the people I most admire, the writers I admire, when it mattered, they stood up.

‘They didn’t sit at home and worry about their royalties or worry about their public image greatly.

‘I have never wanted to be famous, so if you’re very invested in that, then of course this is going to destroy you.

‘I don’t say this in any self-aggrandising way but, I think it could have destroyed some people if that’s where you’re very invested, what has happened to me in the last few years.

‘I think there’s no hope that you will come out with your mental health intact or that you wouldn’t be offering false apologies.’

Rowling, pictured here with Harry Potter stars Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe at a film premiere in 2009, said she was disappointed with the lack of support she had received from the literary world

Campaigner Posie Parker was covered in tomato sauce by trans rights activists at a rally in Auckland, New Zealand

JK Rowling says her family got 'threats' due to her views on gender

JK Rowling says her family have received ‘threats’ because of her outspoken views on gender issues – but the Harry Potter author says ‘I still don’t regret standing up’

READ MORE HERE: JK Rowling warns new SNP leader he will ‘disappear through the ice’ behind Nicola Sturgeon if he continues her gender rights battle