I ❤ JK Rowling

Transphobic dog whistles and where to find them.

Today is maybe the fifth time #IStandWithJKRowling has been trending on Twitter this year. This time likely as a result of a billboard in Vancouver being taken down after just a few days. A billboard put up with the express purposes of pushing transphobic narratives and capitalising off JK Rowlings name to do so.

Yet even just a year ago, even despite JK Rowling having engaged in transphobia online repeatedly, the phrases “I ❤ JK Rowling” and “#IStandWithJKRowling” were extremely benign. Almost exclusively any post carrying them from pre-2020 is just fans appreciating her work and influence on their childhoods. Nowadays however, from screen names to bios to billboards and everywhere in between they are used as a vehicle to disguise transphobia as being benign.

This is known as a dogwhistle. Where you say something that seems benign and acceptable to say, but actually what you’re doing is signalling to other bigots that you’re bigoted without really letting any one else in on the secret. It also has the knock on effect that anyone pointing out said bigotry is made to look unreasonable by the bigots. “JK Rowling isn’t transphobic just for a different…