Thread by @BadWritingTakes

JK Rowling, in the Scottish Times:

"it is dangerous to assert that any category of people deserves a blanket presumption of innocence."

Grim and genuinely frightening. This is the kind of extreme rhetoric you would only normally expect to hear from fascists.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

The quote above comes from an article in which JK Rowling yet again attacks GRA reform and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

As usual, it is riddled with misinformation and unevidenced claims, none of which receive any fact checking.

So let's try 🧵:

#JKRvsLGBTQ

JK Rowling opens by mentioning two opponents of GRA reform, Maya Forstater and Helen Joyce.

Forstater has recently been throwing a fit about a non-binary alien children's character.
Joyce was recently photographed smiling over a desecrated pride flag.

Great start.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Real "These days they'll put you in jail just for not having pronouns in your bio" energy.

JK Rowling suggests that opponents of trans rights are in danger of "the treat of a spell in jail".

You cannot be arrested for being a transphobe. You can for other things.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

JK Rowling also helpfully assures readers that supporting her personal version of women's rights is not, in fact, as brave as Iranian women risking assault, imprisonment and death to stand up against gender inequality.

In case anyone was confused on that point.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

"Remarkably, nobody seems able to explain what living in an acquired gender actually means."

• Firstly, the requirement for a trans person to live as their gender is *already part of the current law* that Rowling presumably wants to keep. It just takes two years.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

• Rowling gives no argument why forcing a trans person to spend two whole years getting their documents updated is somehow better for anyone but bureaucrats and sadists.

• And finally, yes, it can be explained what living in acquired gender actually means:

#JKRvsLGBTQ

"The argument is that trans people aren’t mentally ill: being trans is as natural as being gay"

We're going to be very careful not to claim Rowling is saying something that she might not be.

But many people are interpreting her as disagreeing with these statements.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Also, you really can just say "trans people", Jo.

They're a group of human beings, not a corporate industry.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

OK, so:

• The GRA has absolutely *nothing* to do with access to spaces, Jo.

• Trans people who have not undergone surgery have *already* have a legal right to use those spaces since the passing of the Equality Act in 2010 and in many cases before that as well.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

• Not only that, but as previously mentioned the currently law requires a trans person to live as their authentic gender for a period of 2 years as part of getting a gender recognition certificate. For trans women, *that includes using the spaces JK Rowling lists*.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

No, Jo.

• The original FOI requests were about incidents across the entire premises, not just the changing rooms.
• That includes facilities with both unisex and separate changing rooms.
• The Times did not give serious investigation to other possible factors.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

This is grotesquely misleading.

Firstly, yes, it's likely fewer trans woman than cis woman have been murdered - because there are far fewer of them.

Only an estimate 0.5% of Scottish people are trans, or in other words only 1 woman in 200 would be transgender.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Secondly, a purported feminist probably should not need to be reminded of this, but murder is not in fact the only crime perpetrated against women.

Statistically, trans people are indeed more likely to be victims of violence, sexual assault, and rape.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Thirdly, hate crimes against trans people - that is to say, abuse and violence motivated by transphobia - has exploded in recent years.

In only the last year, Scotland experienced an increase of 87%.

JK Rowling not mentioning these facts appears ignorant at best.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

It feels unprofessional to describe JK Rowling as having plucked this claim from the depths of her own anus, but I mean... what else can you say to this absolute manure?

Supposedly, this an argument "beloved of trans activists."

[citation freakin' needed, Jo]

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Look, if Rowling can find a single, real, genuine trans person or "trans activist" who will earnestly argue that no trans individual on the face of the earth could ever conceivably harm a woman in any way whatsoever, we will delete our account.

Our DMs are open, Jo.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

At no time does Nicola Sturgeon ever actually make these two "arguments" that JK Rowling is suggesting she invoked.

We can find no record of her saying that trans women are more vulnerable than cis women.

We can find no record of *anyone* saying the second thing.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

In the next paragraph Rowling kindly makes her opponents' case for them.

As Rowling attests, the world contains many, many ways for bad men to prey on victims.

So… why exactly would they choose "spending their life as a woman" out of all those much easier options?

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Once again it has to be asked:

What on earth does any of this have to do with trans people?

Why is anyone suppose to take examples of abuses not committed by trans people as any kind of argument that trans people shouldn't be able to update their ID more easily?

#JKRvsLGBTQ

No.

I'm sorry, but no.

The presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of freedom, morality, and law. It is literally in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The notion that any category of person should *not* have a presumption of innocence is despicable.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Some people are reading this as an implication that these women are simply pretending to be trans in order to be in women's prisons.

"Half" might sound a lot - until you discover that there are a grand total of only 17 trans women in Scottish prisons.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

JK Rowling, who a few paragraphs ago implied that there were "trans activists" that believed trans people were fundamentally incapable of hurting women, would like to reassure us that "feminists" don't think that all trans people are predators.

Well that's OK then.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

"When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. […] They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.

And some, I assume, are good people."

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Also...

YES IT IS, JO!

WHEN YOU ARE "DEBATING" THE BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS AND SAFETY OF AN ENTIRE CATEGORY OF MARGINALISED PEOPLE THAT SUFFER FROM INCREASED RISKS OF VIOLENCE AND SUICIDE, THE FACT THAT MANY ARE EXTREMELY VULNERABLE **IS** IN FACT THE POINT, ACTUALY!

#JKRvsLGBTQ

... I'm sorry, so the very worst thing JK Rowling was able to find out about the GRA reform consultation was that they preferred to receive written rather than spoken evidence from people who, by the sounds of it, did not actually have much evidence on GRA reform?

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Some fun facts about Andrea Dworkin:
• Andrea Dworkin was a famously trans-supporting radical feminist.
• She did not believe that sex was binary and opposed biological essentialism.
• She would probably have thought that JK Rowling was a complete and utter prat.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

We would like to take a moment to thank JK Rowling, the multi-multi-millionaire who tweets things from her castle, for very generously sharing this opinion regarding people in situations they will never have to face.

👍

#JKRvsLGBTQ

A reminder to anyone who's gotten lost since the start of the thread - this is about making it easier for trans people to update their ID.

That is literally it.

Rowling has gone her entire article without even *one* example of how that could possibly lead to rape.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Rowling also seems to have forgotten to actually mention any of the "rights of women and girls" that Nicola Sturgeon is supposedly out to destroy.

Though to be honest the entire anti-trans movement seems to have have had trouble with that one too...

#JKRvsLGBTQ

The attempt to reform the GRA in Scotland is not new; it's been in the works for years. JK Rowling even referenced it in her 2020 "TERF Wars" manifesto.

And do you want to know the sum total of concrete evidence anti-trans campaigners have amassed in all that time?

#JKRvsLGBTQ

None. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

Anti-trans campaigners had years to do their research and test their beliefs. They had data from 20 countries that already have so-called "Self-ID" laws for trans people.

And they found nothing that could seriously support their claims.

#JKRvsLGBTQ

Yesterday, Graham Norton was forced off of Twitter by a torrent of abuse after saying the media should speak to trans people rather than celebrities.

JK Rowling's most recent error-strewn diatribe does rather seem to prove his point...

#JKRvsLGBTQ #IStandWithGrahamNorton

The absurd claims that Rowling made in her Times article could not have survived journalistic fact checking.

But she is a rich, powerful celebrity, and so her opinions, however unevidenced, however asinine, can be published unchallenged under the guise of "news".

#JKRvsLGBTQ

And while JK Rowling is given an endless, unchecked media platform to suggest that GRA reform will lead to rape and violence, the mainstream British media turns a careful blind eye to the real-life heinous actions of the anti-trans movement.

#JKRvsLGBTQ
opendemocracy.net/en/5050/trans-…