Determined to ruin Harry Potter for us all, J.K. Rowling continues to tweet
J.K. Rowling seems unable to stop commenting on the lives of transgender people. After multiple tweets and a full-on essay spreading dangerous misinformation about trans people over the past few weeks, the Harry Potter author was back on Twitter Sunday morning to defend her thoughts yet again—this time bringing anyone with mental health issues into the picture.
Sunday’s tweetstorm was instigated after a Twitter user noticed that Rowling had liked a tweet that stated, “Hormone prescriptions are the new antidepressants. Yes they are sometimes necessary and lifesaving, but they should be a last resort – not the first option. Pure laziness for those who would rather medicate than put in the time and effort to heal people’s minds.”
“oh cool so it’s not just trans people getting to benefit from JK’s reactionary anti-healthcare activism,” the user tweeted along with a screengrab of the liked tweet. “she’ll no doubt be helpfully helping people with depression overcome their ‘pure laziness’ too!”
Noticing the backlash, Rowling decided it was time to play victim. “I’ve ignored fake tweets attributed to me and RTed widely. I’ve ignored porn tweeted at children on a thread about their art. I’ve ignored death and rape threats. I’m not going to ignore this,” she wrote, totally glossing over the fact that she completely should not have ignored those other horrific uses of social media (and it’s perhaps telling that this makes her more upset?). Rowling—whose own fan sites have stopped acknowledging her existence—goes on to say that the tweet she liked was written by “a trans woman for whom I feel nothing but admiration and solidarity.” This despite the fact that Rowling has literally said that trans women are just men who want to get into the women’s restrooms for nefarious purposes. “I’ve written and spoken about my own mental health challenges, which include OCD, depression and anxiety,” Rowling continued in a series of 13 tweets, going on to call allowing someone to transition a “new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people.”
As for the original post, that user tried to explain themselves as well on Sunday: “I take hormones. I take antidepressants. I would never shame their use. Once again extremists leave no space for nuanced conversations. One size does not fit all, and patients are failed every day by doctors who take the easy way out,” they wrote. “We have many tools, some more proven than others, to address mental health. My point was talk and behavioral therapy should not be skipped over. Experimenting with brain and body chemistry should not be the first avenue we explore. That is all I meant.”
If you want to support LGBTQ youth, consider donating to GLSEN, which promotes anti-bullying initiatives and gay-straight alliances in schools nationwide, and The Trevor Project, which operates a confidential hotline staffed by trained counselors who provide crisis-intervention and suicide-prevention services.