In an emotional thread on X (formerly Twitter), “Harry Potter” author and feminist activist J.K. Rowling explained her thoughts on a recent report from pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, in which Dr. Cass argued that there is only “remarkably weak evidence” to support the provision of so-called gender-affirming care to minors. Further, in the report, Dr. Cass urged that medical professionals should exercise “extreme caution” before giving hormones to minors.
In a response to a comment on her thread, the writer and activist also indicated that she would be unable to forgive those “Harry Potter” actors, namely Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who have pushed for “transitioning minors.” She said that, even were they to apologize, that would not be enough for the harm that she thinks they have caused.
In her thread on the Cass report and what she thinks it shows, Rowling wrote, “Over the last four years, Hilary Cass has conducted the most robust review of the medical evidence for transitioning children that’s ever been conducted. Mere hours after it was released to the press and public, committed ideologues are doubling down. These are people who’ve deemed opponents ‘far-right’ for wanting to know there are proper checks and balances in place before autistic, gay and abused kids – groups that are all overrepresented at gender clinics – are left sterilised, inorgasmic, lifelong patients.”
She continued, “I understand that the review’s conclusions will have come as a seismic shock to those who’ve hounded and demonised whistleblowers and smeared opponents as bigots and transphobes, but trying to discredit Hilary Cass’s work isn’t merely misguided. It’s actively malign. Even if you don’t feel ashamed of cheerleading for what now looks like severe medical malpractice, even if you don’t want to accept that you might have been wrong, where’s your sense of self-preservation? The bandwagon you hopped on so gladly is hurtling towards a cliff.”
She added that she was angry and emotional in writing about the matter, saying, “And if I sound angry, it’s because I’m bloody angry. I read Cass this morning and my anger’s been mounting all day. Kids have been irreversibly harmed, and thousands are complicit, not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations. The consequences of this scandal will play out for decades. You cheered it on. You did all you could to impede and misrepresent research. You tried to bully people out of their jobs for opposing you. Young people have been experimented on, left infertile and in pain. I thought the last tweet was going to be my last, but I just burst into tears. The #CassReview may be a watershed moment, but it comes too late for detransitioners who’ve written me heartbreaking letters of regret. Today’s not a triumph, it’s the laying bare of a tragedy.”
In response to her first post in the thread, one commenter wrote that he was expecting an apology from the two Harry Potter stars who have taken public stands opposite Rowling’s, and suggested that Rowling should forgive them. He wrote, “Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology … safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them …”
Rowling, in response, wrote that they should not expect forgiveness, saying, “Not safe, I’m afraid. Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.”
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