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The Misrepresentation of Compassion and Solidarity
No, J. K. Rowling’s 2020 blog post wasn’t compassionate to trans people
The day J. K. Rowling published her June 2020 blog post, “Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues,” it was rebutted in a 120-tweet thread. It has been rebutted many more times since.
Yet it keeps coming up. In particular, I have seen it endorsed in Helen Joyce’s September 2021 book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, and so now I, too, finally feel the need to say something specific about it.
Joyce’s reasoning is bogus, and it’s important to understand why. She says that J. K. Rowling “expressed compassion for and solidarity with trans people” in the essay. No, Rowling did not.
I want people to understand what compassion and solidarity are and aren’t. I want people to understand the disinformation that Rowling and Joyce perpetuate when they misrepresent themselves this way.
Rowling’s 2020 Positions, Briefly
In her 2020 essay, Rowling says that the recognition of trans people’s gender is a threat to free speech, education, and medical research. She says that recognizing trans people amounts to welcoming cis men into women’s bathrooms.
For good measure, she concern-trolls trans people, warning that they might regret their transitions. That’s an expression of compassion for people who identify as trans for a while but then change their minds. It is not an expression of concern for people who are ongoingly trans, nor for people whose transitions (whether temporary or permanent) are good for them and not regretted.
Lots of cis women, she says, are “justifiably terrified by the trans activists.” Not “terrified” due to misunderstanding — justifiably terrified, she says.
Compassion for and Solidarity with Herself
In the 2020 essay, Rowling says that “kind, empathetic and intelligent people” have sided with her.
She uses the word “sympathy” twice with reference to herself.
She uses the word “sympathetic” once to describe how a cis person might appropriately feel toward trans people they can…
