Making the Choice Between What is Right and What is Easy: Speaking Out against J.K. Rowling’s Transphobic Remarks
J.K. Rowling has made harmful anti-trans declarations, in varying degrees of overtness, for several months culminating in a formal statement released this morning on her website. This statement is riddled with confirmation bias, circular reasoning, straw man arguments and — perhaps most importantly from a scientific perspective — hasty generalizations. It is damaging to transgender individuals and attempts to present multiple “facts” that are actually grounded in faulty reasoning and a poor understanding of sex, gender, and sexuality.Now more than ever, it is imperative that these false claims are addressed honestly, directly, and scientifically.
As a mental healthcare professional specializing in work with transgender folk, both in therapy and through training other clinicians on affirmative and ethical care, it is my responsibility and obligation to speak up. While there are several lenses through which I could critique this statement, I do not want to obfuscate my points by going in too many directions. I do have a PhD in Human Development and a doctoral certificate in Women and Gender Studies, but for the past two years, I have not been involved in academic scholarly discourse nor have I been contributing to peer-reviewed publications. Where my work focuses is in the mental healthcare and coordination of care to help individuals navigate social and medical transition. Therefore, I am going to center my criticism of JKR’s statement in the ways I understand she is causing harm to transgender individuals through my expertise in this area.
JKR discusses the beginnings of her interest in “the concept of gender identity” and includes a list of resources and experts she supposedly has been following, without including any names or citations. In any scientific, peer-reviewed journal, this would be entirely unacceptable. She is not writing a peer-reviewed article, but she does have a responsibility to include her sources if she is going to rely on research to support her claims. One of the main researchers she does eventually name is Lisa Littman who is an Assistant Professor of the Practice at Brown University School of Public Health. She published an article on what she coined as “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” in a journal known as PLOS ONE. This publication has since been corrected after external reviewers and experts identified issues with the original article. The revised version was published in 2019 by PLOS ONE with every section of the paper being edited to address the concerns. One of the points elaborated on in the revised edition discussed how the point of Littman’s study being hypothesis-generating rather than hypothesis-testing. What this distinction means is that the research is exploratory in nature and the goal is to generate new hypotheses to later be tested by other researchers.
Rowling describes the controversy around this publication as being “subjected to a tsunami of abuse and a concerted campaign to discredit both her and her work.” Succinctly, I want to address a little bit of what happened upon publication of this article. First, Brown University took down a press release discussing the research stating, “given the concerns raised about research design and methods, the most responsible course of action was to stop publicizing the work.” Second, due to how recently it was published, no other scholars doing research in this field of study have empirically tested the Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria hypotheses generated. A central issue in JKR’s argument is that this is just one, purely descriptive study, which she is using as evidence to make some very large claims. Also, as an extraordinarily celebrated writer, it is hard for me to believe the ways in which JKR is crafting her arguments are anything but intentional and based on her confirmation bias approach to this topic. All the criticism Littman has received and will probably continue to receive is standard in academic pursuits. It is not her being subjected to “outrage.” Her methods have been called into question and it is too early to know if her ideas will have any traction in further scholarly pursuits. JKR arguing that Littman’s career “took a similar hit” as Maya Forstater, tells me that she does not understand how the scientific process works, so why should we trust her undisclosed “years of research”?
JKR did present some “evidence” from a psychiatrist, Marcus Evans, who states that claims that children will kill themselves if not permitted to transition do not “align substantially with any robust data or studies in this area.” I am again unsure what studies Evans is referring to, as JKR did not cite her sources, but healthcare professionals do have a guide to work off of when treating transgender individuals.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) has released the Standards of Care ethical manual for trans healthcare professionals. WPATH is based on the best practices, available science, and expert professional consensus. The manual states our existing data should be considered a starting point and more rigorous epidemiologic studies should be conducted worldwide. I will allow you all to draw your own conclusions about whether you would like to support Evans uncited claims or this evidenced-based manual of ethical care.
The Standards of Care as outlined by WPATH discuss the role of mental healthcare professionals and state our duty to “educate and advocate on behalf of gender dysphoric children, adolescents, and their families.” So allow me to perform my ethical obligation and, as a healthcare professional, discuss why I believe JKR’s words are so damaging. In a popular training I run for healthcare professionals, I share a quote I take to heart in my clinical work. The quote states:
“Will we continue to only huddle in our offices waiting for individual families to request treatment, or will we move beyond family therapy to include prevention, community, interventions, and family social policy within our scope of practice?” (Green, 1998, p. 107)
Remember earlier when I discussed the many lenses I could critique this statement? I didn’t just mean scholarly or professional lens.
Since 2006, I have been an avid and active member of the Harry Potter fandom. I have attended annual HP conventions, gone to wizard rock concerts hosted at local libraries, listened to theory/discussion podcasts, and even volunteered for a non-profit seeking social change by turning fans into heroes and (ironically) using the lessons we all learned from Harry Potter to become the real life Dumbledore’s Army.
Since Saturday, I have seen my personal social media feeds flooded with emotions: pain from friends who are transgender and reeling from the statements JKR has made, rage from trans affirmative allies who are angry about the harm JKR has caused to their loved ones and community members. While this has been taking place personally, my professional life also made it clear the harm she, and other transphobic beliefs, cause. I have had a continuous stream of new therapy clients calling me to work through gender dysphoria. I led a four-hour online continuing education training for healthcare professionals. I have been on one podcast already and have been asked to speak on another Harry Potter podcast about JKR’s beliefs.
In her statement, JKR asked for empathy for “millions of women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse.” No one deserves abuse or to receive threats for stating their opinions, but free speech does not spare people from criticism of those beliefs. I have not received any calls from cisgender women who are suffering due to transphobia. I have not seen professional trainings being held to help providers understand how to ethically help cis women through transphobia. I have not seen data on hate crimes killing cis women due to transphobia. All of these things and more exist for transgender individuals. Trans people aren’t a threat to cis people, but we are often a threat to them. So I turn JKR’s closing statement back to her — all trans individuals are asking for is empathy and for their concerns to be heard without receiving abuse.
JKR, and anyone who may not fully understand the extent to which her beliefs have caused harm, I ask you to listen. Here are some pieces written by transgender individuals on their experiences:
https://www.them.us/story/kacen-callender-op-ed-jk-rowling/amp#click=https://t.co/jI6VSwbqOR
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/opinion/jk-rowling-twitter-trans.html
If you want to learn some basics about trans affirmation and allyship, here are some excellent introductory resources:
