J.K. Rowling has been branded "transphobic" after tweeting her support for a woman who was fired for stating "men cannot change into women", Yahoo Lifestyle reports.
The 54-year-old Harry Potter author took to Twitter to voice her feelings about what she says is a person's right to "state that sex is real".
"Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?" Rowling wrote yesterday morning to her 14.6 million followers.
She also included the hashtag "I stand with Maya".
For those who are unaware of Maya Forstater, she was fired from her job as a thinktank researcher after an employment tribunal ruled that her opinions on biological sex were "absolutist", the BBC has reported.
Maya Forstater, 45, did not have her contract renewed after she posted a series of tweets calling into question government plans to let people declare their own gender. Forstater stated her belief that trans women holding certificates that recognize their transgender identity cannot legitimately identify as women.
However, her view was "not worthy of respect in a democratic society", a judge said at the resulting employment tribunal.
One Lafayette church sparked outrage when it shunned a transgender woman from one of its events:Responding to the verdict on Wednesday, Forstater tweeted: "I struggle to express the shock and disbelief I feel at reading this judgment."
She also explained, on a CrowdJustice fundraising page, "My belief as I set out in my witness statement is that sex is a biological fact and is immutable. There are two sexes, male and female. Men and boys are male. Women and girls are female. It is impossible to change sex. These were until very recently understood as basic facts of life by almost everyone."
She continued:
“As I said at my tribunal I will as a matter of courtesy use preferred pronouns and I support human rights. Everyone should be free to express themselves, to break free of gender stereotypes and to live free of violence, harassment, and discrimination. But this does not require removing people’s freedom to speak about objective reality, or to discuss proposed changes to law and to government policies clearly.”
In any case, Rowling's tweet in support of Forstater was not received well by a number of her followers, with some branding the beloved children's author a TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist).
"Well its finally happened," one person wrote. "JK Rowling has taken the mask off and shown everyone what trans people have been telling you for years: she's a terf. maybe believe us next time we tell you someone is crypto?"
"This is incredibly disappointing to see, from someone whose writing espouses so much kindness," added another. "Ms. Forstater has the right to think what she pleases, but she does not have the right to expect that employers will always be okay with that. Trans people have to go to work too."
"I grew up as a trans child reading your books as an escape," wrote a third. "I would often pick out names from characters to give to myself, before I ever felt comfortable in who I was. This decision, to support people that hate me, and want to do me harm. It brings me to tears... Why. Why?"
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