Stephen King’s shining plug of JK Rowling novel could signal end of trans row
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Stephen King has appeared to extend an olive branch to JK Rowling with a rave book review following a row between the pair over trans rights.
The horror writer previously claimed to have been snubbed by the Harry Potter author in an online spat over their differing views on whether a transgender woman is a woman.
King said he was “cancelled” by Rowling because of his support for the view that trans women are women. However, he has now praised her latest novel.
Writing on Twitter, which has been rebranded as X, he said:
THE RUNNING GRAVE, by Robert Galbraith: This is J.K. Rowling at her best, recalling the sheer readability of the Harry Potter books, but much darker. This got me through a difficult time.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 26, 2023
His praise for her work, written under a pseudonym, follows a public row over the issue of gender ideology, the idea that self-identified gender takes precedence over biological sex.
The disagreement began when Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the Labour MP, attacked Rowling’s sceptical view of gender ideology, writing in Tribune magazine that she had used her “own sexual assault as justification for discriminating against a group of people who were not responsible for it”.
There was widespread support for Rowling as a survivor of sexual assault, and the MP issued an apology.
Rowling responded with a lengthy post on Twitter, in which she included a quote stating: “Men often react to women’s words – speaking and writing – as if they were acts of violence”.
This post was shared by King, in an apparent show of solidarity with Rowling, to which she responded with a comment thanking him and saying: “I’ve always revered Stephen King”.
However, the horror author quickly came under pressure from online activists to state his own views on the transgender issue, with one fan demanding: “You should address the TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) tweet. By telling us constant readers if you believe trans women are women”.
King responded by stating that “Yes. Trans women are women”, at which point Rowling deleted her message thanking him for his support.
In a later 2021 interview, King described the row saying: “Jo cancelled me.”
He added: “If she thinks that trans women are dangerous, or that trans women are somehow not women, or whatever problem she has with it – the idea that someone ‘masquerading’ as a woman is going to assault a ‘real’ woman in the toilet – if she believes all those things, she has a right to her opinion.
“I just felt that her belief was, in my opinion, wrong. We have differing opinions, but that’s life.”
King’s apparent offering of an olive branch comes three years later amid a different political climate. “Gender critical” belief has become a protected one in the UK, following a 2022 legal case which found that Maya Forstater had been unfairly dismissed from her job over her view that men cannot become women.
In 2023, Rowling’s concern over the demands for trans people to access women’s space again came to the fore when trans rapist Isla Bryson was placed in a women’s prison in Scotland.
On Thursday, King also criticised gun laws in the US following a mass shooting in his home state of Maine.
He wrote on social media: “The shootings occurred less than 50 miles from where I live. I went to high school in Lisbon.
“It’s the rapid-fire killing machines, people. This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder.”
He added in capital letters: “This does not happen in other countries.”
Rowling has not yet responded to King’s most recent comment about her.
