210 Comments

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

For whatever reason, this post I wrote in April 2024 is really kicking off in November/December 2024. It seems to have reached some very angry people and I am somewhat overwhelmed by the volume of hateful, scientifically inaccurate, wilfully ignorant, often cruel things people have to say. The comment section is getting away from me a little bit. I stand by what I said in this post! I hope transphobic people take the time to reflect on why someone else’s gender upsets them so much! I send my love and support and solidarity to trans people! xx

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Did you listen to ‘The witch trials of JK Rowling’? What did you think of the different perspectives in here?

https://open.spotify.com/show/2K186zrvRgeE2w0wQjbaw7?si=di87Azy1TuK93ss91DP2uw

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Cis men are not sneaking into anywhere just to hurt cis women. They’re doing it out loud and in front of the Charlton Heston God and everybody.

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EXACTLY!!!!!!!! Exactly. Exactly. ❤️❤️❤️

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And they often don’t need to even leave home to do it

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The whole "trans debate" thing has been one of the most annoying and demoralising things to witness. Trans people could have so much fascinating insight to share on gender, which is an invented thing, and instead this rising tide of hatred that I suspect was invented by the same groups behind the "abortion debate" has led to silencing, shaming and murdering trans people. It has changed my perspective on "debate" overall. I love to hear different perspectives and interrogate everything to an intense degree regardless of what the general mood is. And I've just had to give up and adopt some simple, entrenched positions because there's just so much bad faith in the discourse.

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Yeah yep yep yep. “Debate” has totally lost it. It’s like the breakfast tv model of debate, where you have to pair someone smart with an idiot saying inflammatory things, or manufacture two sides to an argument when one of them is just hate, has leaked into real life. Other topics this happens to a lot are racism and climate change. Like, we shouldn’t be putting Scientist Vs Denier, Person of Colour Vs Racist. They’re not equal or fair sides of a debate and not every opinion is safe or right to be shared.

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Complete nonsense. XY should not be competing against XX in athletics; that is absolutely abhorrent; you are prodigiously ignorant & brainwashed. It is not transphobic to say such things; you are tremendously confused and desperate for a cause.

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This is a wacky comment

Let trans people play sport!!!!!!!!! It doesn’t affect you

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It affects my daughters. If some person who was born with a penis slips on a pair of panties and then seriously inures any of my daughters - IT AFFECTS ME AND MY FAMILY. Brent and JK Rowley are spot on.

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Ok Michael I don’t have a lot of time or energy to deal with you and this comment

But

Just quickly

If you wanna protect your daughters from any demographic of people

I’d start with cis men

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“Cis men” used to describe biological men is unacceptable. As a liberal Democrat, I refuse to adopt such nonsense.

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Why?

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Not a problem - see I teach my daughters to be strong WOMEN. I don’t raise them with BS feminist beliefs. I teach them that there are hard realities to life, and trade-offs. My daughters have no time for pussies, feminine men, indecisive Peter Pans, or any of this other BS that passes as ‘Non-Toxic’ masculinity. Real men, successful men don’t want homely middle-aged losers like you lot. Carry On.

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…your primitive mind can’t pass your ignorance, what exactly do you know about trans, besides your porn narrative ? …you know shit about it and you worry about your daughters ? …what exactly the problem ? …but your bigotry will cause tremendous suffering to my child and maybe even death, but you worried about fictional problems you THINK “your daughters” will have, you are bigot and very gander to my child

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Maybe your combative attitude is what’s putting individual trans people at risk.

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What I described is a very real problem. What do I know about trans people? I know they suffer from gender dysphoria which is a hardship, and if your child is Trans, my heart goes out to you. It is a tremendously confusing and challenging path to navigate, you have my sincere best wishes and I will be sure to say a prayer for you and your child. However if your child was born a boy and he wishes to live a life as a girl, he still needs to respect the spaces of biological girls. This is about respecting their spaces and gender-specific activities. Most schools and businesses are respectful and accommodating in providing a private bathroom. I would hope that your child would always be treated with dignity and respect, but it begins by first respecting the dignity and boundaries of others. My girls shouldn’t be looking at dangling cocks in bathrooms and I hope to never see another woman simply give up and turn to her corner in utter defeat because a MAN just punched her in the face in the Gold Medal Bout at the Olympics. - Great Quote by Joe Strummer BTW. Love the Clash.

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You’re right Michael. This trans nonsense puts girls and women at risk. Where I was once sympathetic to the trans movement, I will not allow them to intimidate me.

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How? How does this put anyone at risk?

Where is your evidence?

Because you know who actually hurts girls? Men. Specifically cis men. Like pastors. The stats are there. Numbers speak for themselves.

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…what exactly do you know about trans ? …your barbaric ignorance is unfuckingbelivable ! …your primitive mind can’t pass your porn imagination, you are cruel, stupid and WRONG !!!

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Get TF out! Who died and left you in charge? You are the typical trans activist: rude, arrogant, argumentative.

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You’re the one who refuses to use language that is accurate.

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What exactly are you trying to accomplish here? If it is to shame people, you failed.

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It’s true: The far-left is a gift to maga. The trans debate is annoying to a lot of people! I can almost understand why so many Americans did not vote for Democrats. Let people live their lives yes, to the fullest extent.

But I don’t want to live under a totalitarian government.

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This makes little sense. No party wants to regulate people more than the conservative one. They want to ban your books, whitewash your history, tell you what faith to practice, control women’s bodies, determine your healthcare, etc. It’s time to check-in with reality, yes? Step away from the carefully crafted narrative you bought into with little thought to the lies you purchased.

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“Carefully crafted narrative”?

Do you understand that Americans have turned over their democracy to totalitarianism? There is no going back. We failed to protect democracy.

Detention camps ostensibly built for illegal immigrants will be used to hold political prisoners and other “undesirables”. Neighbors will send each other to these detention camps.

Read a fucking history book.

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I’ve read many history books; I wonder if you have.

Was there ‘no going back’ for Germany? Was there ‘no going’ back for Italy? You could temper your drama with something else.

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We’ll see how Americans like living under totalitarianism.

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Nov 26
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I think a lot of people make the argument for free speech so hard they cross over into endorsing hate speech

It’s not censorship to wish a very famous woman would stop saying things that legitimise violence against an already vulnerable group of people

Words have power!!! Trans people are losing their rights, trans people are being attacked and murdered - it’s embarrassing and dangerous that we’re squabbling over gender theory while trans people fear for their lives

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So talking about issues that affect women somehow puts trans people at risk? This is dogma. If we don’t all subscribe to the One True Opinion, we are guilty of “Hate Speech.” Rubbish.

If Democrats don’t win elections, then we really are helpless to protect the most vulnerable among us.

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Side note: for a depressing deep dive and understanding of the abortion "debate", check out episode one of the Jon Ronson podcast Things Fell Apart. Or not - mental health is important and depression rates are rising quite nicely on their own without peering more closely at some of these things!

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I strongly suspect the roots of these “debates” can be found in the same organisation.

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We can all look forward to WW III to extricate ourselves from fascism. What a brain trust.

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Do you still feel this way after the publication today of the Cass review? Children have been very seriously let down and part of what has enabled this to happen is the silencing of women with less money and power than Rowling who tried to raise questions. I was one such woman. I am grateful to women like Rowling for standing up and calling out these issues. I don’t see any hate coming from her. Here is what happened to me. https://millihill.substack.com/p/i-will-not-be-silenced

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Hi Milli, yes, I do still feel this way.

I have read the very long post you’ve linked to here about your experience and I still stand by everything I have said in my post.

There is nothing about inclusive language or protecting trans people that threatens your rights as a woman. As for your suggestion that we “remember who the oppressed is here” - it is not helpful to compete for being the most oppressed group, and recognising and fighting the oppression of trans people does not take away from the urgency of fighting against the oppression of women. Trans people and cis women should have each other’s backs, we’re in this fight together, and it’s really sad every time I see someone suggest otherwise.

I doubt I can change your mind in a single comment on Substack, but I really hope you might one day reflect on your experience and think, huh, maybe I had it wrong.

Regards

Kate

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Apr 10
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Hi again Milli,

I agree that women have shocking experiences in childbirth. The recourse you’re looking for there is to ask the government, and medical industry, and society at large to respect women’s safety. A valid request, one I have made many times in my career. We should include trans men and nonbinary people who give birth in that category who need protection. Again, including them does not endanger women.

I too have worked in the Violence Against Women area… and Milli, please, the problem there is overwhelmingly cis men. I prefer to call it male violence because we know who is doing the violence and it’s worth looking at gender socialisation there. Again, Milli!!! Trans people are so so so so much more likely to be our fellow victims and survivors!!! Not perpetrators!!!!!!!

You are putting your energies in the wrong direction. I wish wish wish we could have you and Joanne on our side.

I find your claim to support the protection of trans people is directly undermined by your refusal to include trans women as women and trans men as men.

I’m not available for further discussion with you on this, and I do wish you well, and thank you for not being aggressive in your disagreement with me. I hope one day to have your solidarity in this difficult situation.

Regards

Kate

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Hi Kate, I am very much up for respectful discussion.

Re: women's birth experiences, that's a bit of a tangent, but I am and have been very much involved in that area, I am the author of two bestselling non fiction books about childbirth and for nearly a decade I founded and ran the Positive Birth Movement. Absolutely women who identify as trans or non binary give birth, and services should be mindful of them and their needs.

Re: violence against women (male violence), do you know that many of the leading voices in that field stand firmly with JKR and feel that, for example, women's refuges should be single sex spaces. Karen Ingala Smith is one such voice. The Vancouver Rape Relief shelter has been attacked for stating that their services are female only, and even had a dead rat nailed to their door. There are issues in this area that need discussion, not least the (very male) anger and entitlement that ensues when women say, no, this particular service or area is just for us. And it is ok, you know, for women to have areas of lives and services that exclude male people. We don't have to apologise for this.

When you talk about 'cis' male violence, I think what you are not considering is that there is no biological difference between what you call a cis male and a trans woman? That is NOT saying 'all trans women are violent'. No more than talking about male violence is saying 'all men are violent'. What women are saying is that some men are violent and that we can't tell when we look at them which ones these violent men are. So (and I am sure you are familiar with this as a woman who has perhaps walked home late at night), we have to assume all men are a potential threat to us in order to keep ourselves safe. Putting on a dress or lipstick does not make you a woman. We can respect trans people without lying about biological reality. If a trans woman wants me to call them by a female name and pronouns I may well do this if I'm in a social situation with them. This does not magically make them turn into an actual, literal woman, nor does it remove the possible threat of male violence that they pose to me.

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Ah. Yes. This is what I suspected you thought. And this where we fundamentally disagree. I believe a trans woman is a woman. Trans women are not a threat to cis women like you and me. It’s very sad to me, that you think so.

I do not wish to speak with you about this any further, I don’t see how it will help and I have other things to do with my day.

Regards

Kate

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There are massive biological differences between cis men and trans women, as even a cursory investigation into the science would show you. Your ignorant hypothesis that they are the same is demonstrably false. Reality doesn’t adhere to your bigoted ideology.

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It's no good calling me bigoted, those days are over. The Cass report has set the house of cards falling, and hopefully no more children will be harmed. You know and I know that many trans women take no hormones and have no surgery - they are as male as the next man. Even with hormones and surgery they remain male in every cell (even Prof Robert Winston has confirmed this). You are talking unscientific quasi-religious nonsense.

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Hi Milli,

Please, go away. I do not welcome your point of view here.

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Ahhh, so you gatekeep healthcare for trans people, and then use their lack of healthcare as proof they aren’t valid? And you hold on to your little Cass report like a Bible, hon, because it’s just as scientific. She ignored over a hundred studies just because they didn’t say what she wanted. Every scientist in the field sees it for what it is, including me, a scientist.

And the time for calling people out for bigotry is never over, at least as long as bigots like you are trying to strip women and gender minorities of their bodily autonomy.

You don’t even know what the terms “male” and “female” mean in a scientific context. It’s a collection of traits like external genitals, gonads, internal genitals, neurology, hormones, chromosomes, fat distribution, etc and they often do not all align within a person, and most of them are subject to change either over time naturally or with medical intervention. Your binary concept of sex and gender is about as unscientific as it can get.

I’m blocking you now, but feel free to shout into the void.

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Thanks for taking that one for me x

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Anti-trans people are so dishonest about science, it’s really frustrating to see them using the name of science to promote their hateful viewpoints. As a trans person and a scientist it’s a double insult

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Could you outline what those massive biological differences are, please? I'm taking it we're talking about someone who has announced, say, in their office that they are in fact a trans woman and who hasn't started on any medication or surgery. Or is there an endocrinal line beyond which they are trans, but one before which they are not? I honestly haven't seen this claim of massive biological differences before, so I'd like to understand what's going on.

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I too am grateful to J K Rowling for speaking up for women and children. I don’t see any hate in her either.

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If you do not see the hate, Patricia, you are not paying attention

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I don't see any words of hate coming from J K Rowling's posts. She is a realist, she speaks the truth, the trans ideologues do not like the truth. Being a realist does not make you a bigot or hateful. That's the trans ideologues interpretation of the truth. The trans ideologues set out to stifle debate on the whole issue early on so got a head start before many women realised what was happening until they saw people being cancelled for stating the truth. There' a little of that going on in this thread I see. As for my paying attention, I am a Women's Rights Network activist. I know exactly what's going on.

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There's plenty of documentation by now too around the antisemitism in Rowling's work. (Goblin bankers with physical features coded Jewish! Blood libel! Misuse of the shofar! And other stuff too). Dig in a bit and you'll see how messed up and hateful Rowling is, trotting out antisemitic stereotypes and myths from mediaeval to Nazi. (There's strong overlaps between the neo-Nazi ideologies and supporter groups and the TERF ones too). Please don't buy or support the vile Hogwarts Legacy game and please find better stories for your kids. We don't need FARTs (feminism appropriating radical transphobes) throwing their unprocessed issues around. Sad how often people unmindfully channel personal pain into political crusade.

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Oh my god I’d never heard the term FARTs!! Feminism Appropriating Radical Transphobes! That’s very good.

Yes you’re absolutely right, and it’s frightening how many different types of bigotry one person can cover

That last sentence of your comment is the heart of it: I do believe a lot of this awful awful stuff has to come from personal pain but also!! So, so many of us manage to deal with our own pain without endangering and attacking other people.

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yes, you are so right - it's something we'd hope to learn a bit about by the time we're over 40, really. FART is good, isn't it? I heard it in Worthing, but here's an even better gloss, thankyougoogle.https://translanguageprimer.com/terf/

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Did you hear about her latest book, “Chicks with Dicks” by JK Dowling. Or how about “The Big Book of Trans” by JK Dowling.

You wanna know how we just lost this election? Look in the mirror.

Let’s see how Americans like living under totalitarianism.

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I don’t really understand this comment. Also, I’m not American.

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Far-Leftists are being stupid and are radicalized themselves. JK Dowling is right. And she is not an enemy of trans people. She is not a bigot at all.

Americans have abandoned democracy and have turned to fascism. Full stop. That will soon become the focus of these misguided and delusional people.

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Your comments are utterly wrongheaded and confusing. Yes, the right wing in the U.S. has chosen fascism. That’s what rightwingers do. They are a clear and present danger to cis women, trans men and trans women, and LGBTQ folks. But you’re blaming Dems? Meanwhile, Rowling is an antisemite and a hateful transphobe.

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Yeah it’s one my biggest disappointments in life. Her books were so inclusive. Not as inclusive as they could have been but inclusive by 90s standards. I’m just in shock more than anything. She’s destroyed her own legacy. And it was epic.

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She betrayed her fans, and the bitch needs to go back and read the books. The grief I feel for the need to put all of my collection away is like a piece of my childhood dying.

And Dumbledore would be SO disappointed in her. 🥺

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Bitch is not a word that should be aimed at any woman

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In the words of Taylor Swift- calm down. I didn’t call you a man. I was simply pointing out how the many men who use the foul slur don’t mean us well. If you want to use it to make your self feel empowered-fine. Moreover there is no need to be insulting because someone disagrees with you.

I thought I owed you the courtesy of a (albeit late) reply. Apologies for my tardiness.

Please don’t feel the need to reply.

I don’t think we have anything else useful to say to each other.

Regards Alex

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I find it empowering.

But in this case, I find it more than appropriate.

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No man with any good intent has used it. It’s a slur.

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Wow. I've never been called a man before...I'm not sure if I'm insulted or amazed at your lack of observations.

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So very very true.

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Kate, this is brilliant - both in terms of the reality of the situation (which is obviously the most important thing!), but also in terms of what happens when something you used to love becomes awful. X

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Thank you so much, Ellie! I was hoping to get both those things across x

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The pronouns in the heading (🙂) Thank you for this thoughtful post. I recently moved from an incredibly conservative London borough to Brighton and I can’t tell you what a breath of fresh air (literally!) it’s been living amongst an open-minded community. One of my favourite authors (Juno Dawson) lives down here too which makes it even more special

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Cannot tell you how proud I was of the pronouns at the beginning 😂😂I’ve forced my friends to compliment me on it. Ah, Brighton!!! Beautiful!!! Even when I stayed there a few days I could tell it was full of cute progressive people. And Juno is so fabulous, can’t wait for the next HMRC book xx

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Yes we are nearly all cute and progressive here!

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Haha you are one of the cuties I was thinking of when I said that!!

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So well written. The platform this person is being given beggars belief, but as you rightly said it is a convenient distraction from the politicians that are actively allowing people to suffer through the policies they are implementing. I cannot understand the mindset of someone who would use their public profile to spread so much hate about people who have never done them any harm, and not to raise awareness of the real hard hitting issues facing society at this time. The right wing press reveal in this, which is why platforms like here are so important.

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Hey Claire, thank you so much for reading, oh my god exactly. I have spent some time trying to understand this mindset and I have to give up. It’s so cynical and revolting from politicians. And I do feel like some people have gone so far into lies/transphobia/incorrect info that they’re basically living a separate reality (exhibit a. woman in my comment section here named Kat)

Thank you for sharing my disbelief xx

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You are welcome and I agree there is a separate reality being lived and what people get out of spreading that hate, particularly on platforms like this I am not sure xx

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I loved everything about this, you channel your passion and are able to summarize just how awful she is behaving — all the more poignant given your past-life championing of her franchise. As a fellow former fan, I thank you for writing this.

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Serene, thank you for this extremely kind comment, it really means a lot to me.

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Love every word of this. Sharing far and wide.

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Thank you so much, Kris, I really appreciate the support (and thank you for setting the tone for a good comment section!!!) x

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Beautifully said. I know I have kept thinking “she can’t possibly mean that…” and she will realize how much damage she has done. But then she does something else. I have had to just accept that a literary hero has gone off the rails (if she ever was ON the rails??) and I need to move on from her. I find it shocking that her PR people and publishers haven’t dumped her, but I guess they only care about the money she keeps generating. I wonder if she is friends with Naomi Wolf? 🤔

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Thank you so much Stephenie. It’s a tough one isn’t it. Incredibly sad, for so many people. And yes, I imagine her books may well prop up various businesses, making it very difficult to make an ethics based decision.

And yeah, wow. You know, I bet they know each other, Jo and Naomi.

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I wish I could like this a thousand times. Spot on. 👏👏👏👏

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Thank you so much, Rebecca, I really appreciate you saying so x

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As a mother to a trans son who idolised this woman and her stories growing up, I will forever be disappointed and enraged about her actions. What a vile and hateful woman. Maybe she should change her surname to Lestrange

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Argh I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through that with your son. xxx

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Mermaids is a hugely valuable charity for both trans kids and their parents. Along with Gendered Intelligence. To attack any of these groups is vile and disgusting. She and Elon Musk have absolutely no idea what trans kids go through anyway without adding their vitriol.

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Absolutely ❤️❤️

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And I spent that whole summer before secondary school waiting for my Hogwart's letter 😭

I've been kind of trying to ignore this topic and this has been the first article I've read on the subject. I feel like she really is in need of therapy - all of that rage against groups of people that have done nothing to harm her just makes no sense. Just why? Why?

I will never understand the argument about bathrooms - why would a man present to be a trans woman to sneak into a bathroom when he can simply walk in. Or assault you walking down the street.

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Exactly right! The president of the United States has spoken openly about assaulting people. The most likely place a man commits violence is in his own home. Cis men attack women without consequence every day, all over the world, without needing some sort of disguise. Very upsetting to see so many wilfully misunderstand and go for the wrong group of people. Devastating

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i think they started by meaning locker rooms rather than bathrooms.

if you just build facilities with privacy then it wouldn’t matter. but we have some weird desire to force people to show their body to others and be cool with it. so we traumatize children with open showers in gym and then carry that lazy design to adulthood.

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Locker rooms as in changing rooms at school? Yeah, I guess it'd be easy enough to have individual cubicles like at swimming pools. I don't know how people would make the leap from something being embarrassing/awkward to it being dangerous though. I didn't experience getting changed for sports as being traumatic, personally.

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But maybe that was because my class had perfected the fully clothed shower run!!

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