Rowling said she received “direct threats of violence” as a result of her position
JK Rowling, author of the famous “Harry Potter” series, said she is not worried about her legacy, about the impact of the backlash on her stance on transgender issues.
Some considered that Rowling launched transphobic positions, due to her views on gender identity and the issue of allowing trans women to enter women-only spaces.
“I didn’t mean to upset anyone,” Rowling said in a new podcast. “However, I wasn’t comfortable giving up my convictions.”
Referring to fans who claim she has “ruined” her legacy because of those views, Rowling said they “couldn’t have misunderstood me more deeply”. “I don’t walk around the house thinking about my legacy,” she added.
“What a way to live your life, to walk around thinking, ‘What will my legacy be?'”
Threats of violence
Rowling was widely criticized after a series of comments, in which she expressed her concerns about the impact of transgender issues on women’s rights, and her opposition to the Gender Recognition Bill in Scotland.
In an article on her website in 2020, she wrote, “When you open the doors to the bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who thinks or feels he is a woman…you open the door to all men who wish to enter.”
Some have interpreted her position as transphobic, which has led to calls for a boycott of the “Harry Potter” series, from books and films to the popular video game “Hogwarts Legacy”.
Actors from the Harry Potter films, including Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, criticized Rowling’s comments.
For his part, actor Ralph Fiennes, who played Voldemort in the film series, defended the author, describing the abuse she received as “disgusting” and “horrible”.
For her part, Rowling said her comments did not express phobia, that she respects “the right of every trans person to live in whatever way feels authentic and comfortable,” and that she wants trans people to be free from discrimination and abuse.
Stars including Eddie Izzard and Helena Bonham Carter said they did not find Rowling’s comments to be phobic, but rather that they reflected her own experience of abuse.
In the podcast, “The Trial of a Witch: JK Rowling,” the author said she had received “direct threats of violence” as a result of her situation.
“There were people coming to my house where my children live, and my address was posted online,” she said. “There were what the police consider, however, to be credible threats.”
Rowling later said that many of the questions did not necessarily have definitive answers. “There’s a great appeal to black and white thinking, and that’s what I try to show in the Harry Potter books,” she says.
“It’s the easiest place to be, and it’s the safest in many ways. If you take an ‘all or nothing’ attitude, you’ll definitely find buddies, you’ll easily find a nurturing environment,” she added.
She continued, “What I’ve tried to show in the Potter books, and what I feel strongly about, is that our self-confidence should be at its lowest, when we’re most certain.”
Trial of a Witch: JK Rowling is a seven-part series hosted by Megan Phelps-Roper, who was raised for 26 years in an extremist Westboro Baptist church, before running away in 2012.
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Daniel Radcliffe is among the stars who have distanced themselves from JK Rowling
In the first two episodes released on Tuesday, the podcast attempts to draw parallels between the Christian fundamentalists who sought to ban the “Harry Potter” books in the early 2000s and the activists who criticize Rowling today.
Asked about protesters who burned her books in the early 2000s, claiming that she promoted witchcraft, Rowling said, “Book-burners are putting themselves on the opposite front of rational debate.”
“There is no book on this planet that I would burn, including books I think are harmful. Burning, for me, is the last resort for people who cannot argue.”