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JK Rowling on Trans Activism: I've Listened to the Other Side. It's Dangerous.

Despite fierce criticism, harassment, and death threats for speaking out on transgender issues, author J.K. Rowling has not backed down. 

In a recent podcast episode of “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling,” the author said she has come to the conclusion that the transgender movement is “dangerous.”

“I can only say that I’ve thought about it deeply and hard and long. And I’ve listened, I promise, to the other side,” she said on Tuesday. “And I believe, absolutely, that there is something dangerous about this movement, and it must be challenged.” 

She explained that she knew by speaking out she would turn off many fans. 

“When I first became interested in, and then deeply troubled by, what I saw as a cultural movement that was illiberal in its methods and questionable in its ideas, I absolutely knew that if I spoke out, many people who love my books would be deeply unhappy with me,” she said.

“I’m constantly told that I have betrayed my own books, but my position is that I’m absolutely upholding the positions that I took in ‘Potter,'” she continued. “My position is that this activist movement in the form that it’s currently taking, echoes the very thing that I was warning against in ‘Harry Potter.'”

She did say, however, that “a ton” of “Harry Potter” fans are grateful for the stand she’s taken. 

“I am fighting what I see as a powerful, insidious misogynistic movement that I think has gained huge purchase in very influential areas of society. I do not see this particular movement as either benign or powerless,” she added. “So I’m afraid I stand with the women who are fighting to be heard against threats of loss of livelihood and threats to their safety.”