JK Rowling & the biological definition of sex: Author backs Communist Party over trans rights stance

Rowling, a former Labour donor, accused party leader Keir Starmer of ‘abandoning women’ who are concerned about trans rights & said she does not trust his judgment.

File photo of JK Rowling | Courtesy: jkrowling.com

New Delhi: Acclaimed author of the Harry Potter series J.K. Rowling Sunday appeared to nudge Britons towards voting for Communist Party of Britain candidates during next month’s general election, in which the Tories led by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak seem headed for defeat at the hands of the Labour party.

A former Labour donor, Rowling, in a post on X, asked her followers to check out a list of Communist Party of Britain candidates if they were planning to ‘spoil’ their ballot paper.

The author, whose views on transgender rights have prompted heated debates, quoted another X post by For Women Scotland, a gender critical campaign group that opposes proposed reforms allowing individuals to change their recorded sex in legal documents through self-declaration. 

This post appeared to endorse Communist Party of Britain candidate Richard Shillcock, quoting a statement by him that said: “We oppose gender self-identification and the new gender ideology. We oppose all forms of conversion therapy applied to lesbian and gay people and we oppose including trans identities in such a ban.”

Richard Shillcock of @CPBritain has sent us this statement:

We stand in support of recognising the nature of biological sex, defending sex-based rights and signle-sex services and sports, changing the Equality Act such that 'sex' means 'biological sex', and for calm,…

— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) June 22, 2024

Rowling, who according to the BBC donated £1 million to Labour in 2008, has been critical of the party’s stance on gender.

Her latest post comes days after she wrote a piece for The Times in which she accused Labour party leader Keir Starmer of “abandoning women” who are apprehensive about transgender rights.

In the 21 June piece, Rowling wrote that Labour has “turned its back on women” and its leaders are “dismissive and often offensive towards women fighting to retain their rights” .

“As long as Labour remains dismissive and often offensive towards women fighting to retain the rights their foremothers thought were won for all time, I’ll struggle to support them,” she further wrote.

The piece was published a day after Starmer reaffirmed his non-committal stance on transgender rights, as seen during Thursday’s BBC Question Time election special. 

According to a BBC report, in 2021, Starmer had remarked that it was “not right” for Labour MP Rosie Duffield to say that “only women have a cervix”, while last year, he said that “of course, 99.9 percent of women” do not have a penis. But on Thursday, Starmer said his views were aligned with those of former prime minister and Labour leader Tony Blair — that “biologically, a woman has a vagina and a man has a penis”.

Reacting to this, Rowling remarked in her opinion piece in The Times: “The impression given by Starmer at Thursday’s debate was that there had been something unkind, something toxic, something hard line in Rosie’s words, even though almost identical words had sounded perfectly reasonable when spoken by Tony Blair.”

She also emphasised that: “For left-leaning women like us this isn’t, and never has been, about trans people enjoying the rights of every other citizen and being free to present and identify however they wish. This is about the right of women and girls to assert their boundaries. It’s about freedom of speech and observable truth.”

Rowling also said she was thinking about backing an independent candidate in her constituency who is “campaigning to clarify the Equality Act” — a 2010 legislation that makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone because of “protected characteristics” which may include age, religion and sexual orientation, among others.

With the general election scheduled for 4 July, key issues such as the economy, healthcare, housing crisis, cost of living, immigration and foreign policy concerns are spurring debates around the UK.

Early polls indicate that Labour is poised to secure a majority, potentially ending more than a decade of governance under the Tories. However, the political climate is increasingly fraught with division, as the hard-Right Reform Party, led by populist Nigel Farage, is expected to surpass its 2019 performance when it was known as the Brexit Party. 

Rowling on transgender rights

J.K. Rowling has faced much criticism for her views on transgender rights.

On 6 June 2020, she had shared an op-ed that referred to “people who menstruate,” expressing her disagreement with the terminology by sarcastically suggesting alternatives like “Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

In the face of backlash, Rowling expanded on her views in subsequent posts. She argued that denying the reality of biological sex undermines the concept of same-sex attraction and erases women’s lived experiences.

While acknowledging her support for trans people, she emphasised that recognising the reality of sex is crucial for meaningful discussion about people’s lives. “It isn’t hate to speak the truth,” she said, adding that it’s nonsensical to claim women who recognise the reality of sex hate trans people.

She continued, “I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”

Her comments invited backlash even from actor Daniel Radcliffe, who played the role of Harry Potter in the film adaptation of Rowling’s books, claiming that he had not spoken to her since her controversial tweets. 

In April this year, Rowling reignited the row with Radcliffe and Harry Potter star Emma Watson — who, too, criticised her remarks in 2020 — by hitting out at “celebs” who “used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors”.