Within the newest episode of the podcast The Witch Trials of J.Okay. Rowling, which was launched immediately, the Harry Potter writer spoke concerning the reactions to her 2019 tweet, wherein she expressed help for Maya Forstater, a British researcher fired for feedback interpreted as anti-trans, and for which she drew condemnation from GLAAD.
On the time, the Harry Potter writer took to Twitter to talk out in help of Forstater, saying, “Gown nonetheless you please. Name your self no matter you want. Sleep with any consenting grownup who’ll have you ever. Reside your finest life in peace and safety. However drive ladies out of their jobs for stating that intercourse is actual? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill”
“I knew it was going to trigger an enormous storm,” Rowling mentioned in immediately’s podcast, saying that what got here at her was “absolute fury.” The writer associated replies to her tweet wherein some commenters known as her a TERF — an acronym that stands for “trans exclusionary radical feminist” — one other who wrote: “fairly certain that you just and Maya share the identical beliefs as Hitler and the Nazis…they gassed trans individuals” and one more who wrote, “such a disgrace that you just’ve develop into the evil that you just taught us to face as much as. You’re on the mistaken aspect of historical past with this one.”
However, the writer mentioned, “A ton of Potter followers have been nonetheless with me. And, actually, a ton of Potter followers have been grateful for what I mentioned.” Rowling mentioned she obtained hundreds of emails of help to her non-public electronic mail handle. Nonetheless, she says in Tuesday’s podcast that the backlash did affect her.
“Personally, it has not been enjoyable and I’ve been scared at instances for my very own security and, overwhelmingly, for my household’s security. Time will inform whether or not I’ve acquired this mistaken. I can solely say that I’ve thought of it deeply and long and hard and I’ve listened, I promise, to the opposite aspect.”
However Rowling additionally mentioned she has no regrets. “I stand by each phrase that I wrote there, however the query is, What’s the fact? And I’m arguing towards people who find themselves actually saying intercourse is a assemble.”
The primary two episodes of The Witch Trials of J.Okay. Rowling debuted February 21, with the remaining 5 rolling out each week thereafter. In a type of debut items, the Harry Potter writer mentioned she doesn’t concern herself with ideas of legacy or how she’ll be remembered.
“I don’t stroll round my home occupied with my legacy,” she said. “You understand, what a pompous technique to stay your life strolling round pondering, ‘What’s going to my legacy be?’ No matter, I’ll be useless. I care about now. I care concerning the dwelling.”
The podcast is produced by the Free Press media firm based by Bari Weiss and hosted by Megan Phelps-Roper, an ex-member of the infamously homophobic Westboro Baptist Church. Phelps-Roper, who has denounced the teachings of the church, explains within the first episode that she was drawn to the topic of Rowling after realizing that the writer who was as soon as condemned as Satanic by the extremist right-wing Westboro, was now being denounced by the Left.
