Harry Potter Scribe JK Rowling In Another Twitter Tussle Over Hormone Prescriptions

Jill Goldsmith
·3 min read

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JK Rowling took another tossing on Twitter on Sunday as she tweeted that “many health professionals are concerned that young people struggling with their mental health are being shunted towards hormones and surgery when this may not be in their best interests.”

The comment was one of a string as she defended herself after being called out for “liking” a tweet that compared hormone prescriptions to anti-depressants, which were over-prescribed to teenagers in the past with sometimes harmful results. It’s the second social media tussle the Harry Potter scribe has faced in two months after angering the LGBTQ community and supporters in June over remarks some called transphobic.

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“Who had money on JK Rowling pivoting to supporting those who call people who take mental health medication “lazy?” wrote one critic Sunday.

Rowling hit back. “I’ve ignored fake tweets attributed to me and RTed widely. I’ve ignored porn tweeted at children on a thread about their art. I’ve ignored death and rape threats. I’m not going to ignore this,” she tweeted. “Many, myself included, believe we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalisation that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function.” She added, “The long-term health risks of cross-sex hormones have been now been tracked over a lengthy period. These side-effects are often minimised or denied by trans activists.”

Actor and transgender activist Scott Turner Schofield, a Daytime Emmy nominee for Amazon series Studio City, said, “JoKaren Rowling is weaponizing victimization, spreading scientifically debunked theories, making anti-trans hate speech sound reasonable, and participating in a coordinated political campaign against a marginalized and powerless minority.”

The June war of words was launched by a personal essay where Rowling said some demands by transgender activists could be dangerous to women. It resulted in two big Harry Potter fan sites (Leady Caldron and Mugglenet) denouncing her views and declining to provide links to her personal website or use her photos.

Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe and Eddie Redmayne (Fantastic Beasts) criticized her, as did GLAAD.

Rowling’s corporate partners, including Warner Bros, Scholastic and Universal Parks & Resorts, home to Harry Potter rides and attractions, said last month, respectively, that they recognized a responsibility to foster empathy, are opposed to discrimination of any kind, and hold diversity and inclusion as core values. Scholastic supported the author’s “right to express her personal views and beliefs.”

Rowling had been embroiled in a similar controversy last year for supporting Maya Forstater, a researcher who stated that people cannot change their biological sex.

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