JK Rowling says ‘Avada Kedavra’ to what’s left of her image as she spotlights a felon and known predator

If someone had said a decade ago that by 2025, JK Rowling would be best known for punching down at trans people and posting about Trump online, most of us would have laughed in their face. While Rowling has always masked her bigotry as feminism, it seems that the Harry Potter author is more attached to her hatred than her alleged activism. As if she hadn’t already disappointed millions with her obsessive anti-trans takes, she has now shone a spotlight on the world’s most powerful misogynist. 

JK Rowling shows support for Trump

Donald Trump’s never-ending list of executive orders just grew longer, because as of Wednesday, Feb. 5, he signed an order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. Wednesday was also National Girls and Women in Sports Day, so his latest order was especially notable. This isn’t the first order that Trump has signed targeting transgender people since he entered office in January, and he’s showing no signs of stopping.

But it didn’t end there: an image of him signing it went viral. In the picture, Trump is seen sitting and holding up order amid a group of young girls. The image was supposed to come off as powerful, but ended up more ironic than iconic considering the president’s history of misogyny and reported sexual abuse.

Of course “feminist” Rowling didn’t see any of the irony in this picture, and instead took to her X account to throw stones at the Democrats for, get this, supporting basic human rights. She wrote, “Congratulations to every single person on the left who’s been campaigning to destroy women’s and girl’s rights. Without you, there’d be no images like this.” So while it would, in fact, be a stretch to claim that Rowling is a Trump supporter, it is important to highlight her obsession with trans people, and that she is comfortable putting the President’s disregard of human rights on full display.

Rowling herself has criticized Trump in the past, but it looks like she’s willing to look past her own beliefs if it means painting the target on trans existence even redder. She has even claimed to not be far-right in the past, so it’s interesting to see her inadvertently joining forces with the face of the far-right movement just because he hates trans people too. 

Rowling has no remorse

The title of “writer” in Rowling’s X bio is doing a lot of heavy lifting these days, as all she seems to care about is eradicating transgender people, or as she likes to refer to them, “gender ideology.” It is, of course, easier to be a bigot when you frame your bigotry as activism against an “ideology” instead of real hatred against real people. 

Following her tweet spotlighting Trump, she posted a lengthy message doubling down on her stance, just as she has been doing for the last few years. In her tweet, she specifically addressed the common criticism she gets for her beliefs, which is that trans people make up only a small fraction of the population. In response to this, she said that “gender ideology” has “undermined freedom of speech, scientific truth, gay rights and women and girl’s safety, privacy and dignity.” She also claimed that it has been, “imposed, top-down, by politicians, healthcare bodies, academia, sections of the media, celebrities and even the police.”

The truth is, trans people have had to fight tooth and nail for every right they’ve been handed, the very rights that Rowling supports being simply signed away.

Rowling also claimed that “the loudest voices throughout this entire fiasco have been people insulated from consequences by their wealth and/or status,” which is so false, it borders on delusional. Thousands, if not millions of normal, non-famous, and often otherwise marginalized trans people have spoken up about the effects that the hateful speech of people like Rowling has had on their lives. Rowling, on the other hand ⏤ who is truly one of the loudest anti-trans voices online ⏤ is a cis-gender millionaire who spends all her time punching down at a marginalized group and pushing for legislation that would not affect her daily life, simply to spite them. 

While many anti-trans supporters hailed Rowling’s words, many more people were quick to point out the hypocrisy of Rowling blaming Democrats in favor of one of Trump’s executive orders against trans people, especially as someone who claims to advocate for women’s rights. Sarah Bella said it best when she took to her X account to criticize Rowling, saying, “You’re celebrating an adjudicated rapist being surrounded by the virtue signal of alleged purity in young white girls and their “Christian” trad-moms pointing a finger at a scapegoat like they’re the second coming of Carolyn Bryant. There are literally more girls at risk in this photo than the entire NCAA. There are ten transgender athletes. It’s… on brand.””