JK Rowling deletes praise for Stephen King after he declares unequivocally that trans women are women
A tweet from JK Rowling praising Stephen King mysteriously disappeared after he declared “trans women are women”. (Samir Hussein/WireImage and Astrid Stawiarz/Getty)
JK Rowling has removed a tweet praising horror author Stephen King, after he unequivocally declared that trans women are women.
Rowling posted a thread on Twitter on Sunday, June 28, addressing accusations by MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle that she had “used” her experience of domestic abuse to attack trans people.
In the thread, she quoted writer Andrea Dworkin, who said: “Men often react to women’s words – speaking and writing – as if they were acts of violence; sometimes men react to women’s words with violence.”
King retweeted the quote, to which Rowling responded that her love for the The Shining author had reached “new heights”.
She wrote: “It’s so much easier for men to ignore women’s concerns, or to belittle them, but I won’t ever forget the men who stood up when they didn’t need to. Thank you, Stephen.”
Stephen King was pressed to clarify where he stood on trans rights after JK Rowling retweet.
Fans of Stephen King were alarmed by his apparent support of JK Rowling, who has doubled down on her anti-trans rhetoric in recent weeks, using Pride Month to assert that trans women are men.
But, asked by a follower to clarify his stance, King declared: “Trans women are women.”
Yes. Trans women are women.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 28, 2020
Shortly afterwards, Rowling’s tweet expressing her love for King mysteriously disappeared.
Four writers decided to leave the writing agency that represents Rowling last week after it refused to “reaffirm their stance to transgender rights and equality”.
One of the four, non-binary author Fox Fisher, told BBC Radio 4 they thought Rowling had “fallen in with the wrong crowd”.
Fisher added: “She is very scared and fearful of things when she just needs to spend some time with some transgender people who might also have been her fans.
“I think when we are not transgender we get our information from other sources including non-transgender people and I think that information can be very flawed.
“I just think that if she opened her eyes and saw that transgender women are women then we’d be able to move forward.”
