Harry Potter and the Transgender Revolution
J.K. Rowling’s tweet sparked accusations of transphobia — but the debate about gender identity raises real and complicated issues
Last week, the bells of cancel culture tolled for J.K. Rowling, the writer whose Harry Potter novels have helped shape the shared culture of two generations of young adults. (Or at least they tried: JKR is too big to cancel even if people are literally burning her books.) Rowling, who generally espouses liberal feminist politics, ran afoul of the progressive community with a tweet deemed “transphobic”:
“Maya” is Maya Forstater, a 45-year-old British tax expert who lost her position as a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, an anti-poverty think tank, because of social media posts on transgender issues expressing such views as “men cannot change their biological sex.” Forstater sued, claiming that the non-renewal of her contract violated British employment law, which, as of 2010, protects people from being fired on the basis of “philosophical belief.” On…
