JK Rowling says “Many Potter fans were grateful” for her controversial transgender tweets

In the latest episode of the podcast The Witch Trials by JK Rowlingwhich was released today, the Harry Potter The author spoke about the reactions to her 2019 tweet and expressed her support for Maya Forstater, a British researcher who was fired and convicted by GLAAD for comments that were interpreted as anti-trans.

At that time the Harry Potter The author took to Twitter to support Forstater, saying: “Dress as you want. Call yourself whatever you want. Sleep with any adult who wants you. Live your best life in peace and security Work to assert that sex is real is? #ISStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill”

“I knew it was going to cause a huge storm,” Rowling said on today’s podcast, saying what happened to her was “absolute rage.” The author shared responses to her tweet in which some commenters referred to her as TERF – an acronym that stands for “trans-exclusive radical feminist” – another text, “it’s sure you and Maya share the same beliefs as Hitler and the Nazis…. …they gassed transgender people,” and another, who wrote, “I’m so sorry you turned into the evil you taught us against. You’re on the wrong side of history with this one.”

But, the author said, “There were still a lot of Potter fans with me. And indeed, a lot of Potter fans were grateful for what I said. Rowling said she had thousands of support emails to her personal email address received, but she says on Tuesday’s podcast that the backlash hit her.

“Personally it was not fun and I sometimes feared for my own safety and above all for the safety of my family. Time will tell if I am wrong. All I can say is that I thought deeply, intensely and long about it and listened to the other side, I promise.”

But Rowling also said she has no regrets. “I stand behind every word I wrote there, but the question is what is the truth? And I argue against people who literally say sex is a construct.”

The first two episodes of The Witch Trials by JK Rowling debuts on February 21st, with the remaining five being released every week thereafter. In one of those debut pieces, the Harry Potter author said she doesn’t dwell on thoughts about the legacy or how she will be remembered.

“I don’t go through my house thinking about my legacy,” she said. “You know what a fancy way to live your life thinking, ‘What will my legacy be?’ “I’ll be dead anyway. I take care now. I care for the living.”

The podcast is produced by Bari Weiss-founded media company Free Press and hosted by Megan Phelps-Roper, a former member of the notoriously homophobic Westboro Baptist Church. Phelps-Roper, who has denounced the teachings of the church, explains in the first episode that she was drawn to the subject of Rowling after realizing that the author, once denounced by Westboro’s far right as satanic, was now was sued. from the left.