British author J.K. Rowling says women should be free to recognize and say that men are males, even when the men declare themselves to be transgender women.
A Tweet by the influential author of the Harry Potter stories affirming her position was posted after a U.K. employment judge allowed an employer to fire a woman for saying a man’s claim to have an opposite-sex “gender” does not actually change his biological sex.
The U.K. judge declared the fired woman, Maya Forstater, “is absolutist in her view of sex and it is a core component of her belief that she will refer to a person by the sex she considered appropriate even if it violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.”
“The approach is not worthy of respect in a democratic society,” the judge declared.
The judge’s moral claim prompted much pushback among women who say women’s rights depend on a clear recognition that women’s sex and biology are different from men’s sex and biology — even though both sexes are different complementary and equal.
Rowling tweeted her support for Forstater’s free speech:
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? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill
Forstater also slammed the verdict, declaring “I struggle to express the shock and disbelief of reading this judgment.”
The judgment was largely ignored by Americans journalists and progressives, mainly because few progressives disagree with the transgender ideology or pro-transgender groups, such as the Human Rights Council.
The HRC responded to Rowling’s Tweet by restating their claim that each person’s biological sex can be changed by a claim to be transgender:
The transgender ideology says the government should force Americans to accept the notion each person’s claim of their “gender” trumps the reality of biological sex. This media silence has encouraged transgender activists to declare the existence of a “female penis,” and it allows companies to command their women employees to share their sexual identity with men who want to be identified with female pronouns, such as “her” or “she.”
Many U.K. activists and experts tweeted in defense of Rowling’s decision to support women’s right to recognize men are not women, even when they wear dresses.
In the United States, left-wing feminist activists, and conservatives jumped to support Forstator:
Free-speech activists noted the many pro-transgender activists who lashed out at Rowling:
The transgender backlash claimed Rowling backed ‘TERFs”- which a Twitter-approved slur for people who say a person cannot change their sex:
Breitbart News has extensively covered the transgender ideology, amid silence from journalists at establishment sites.