A timeline of JK Rowling's anti-trans shift

J.K. Rowling's name has become synonymous with her legendary "Harry Potter" book series, but she is also famous for something more controversial: her public and often contentious views on the transgender community. While the final "Harry Potter" book was released in 2011, the last several years have seen a renewed uptick in news about Rowling due to her disparaging remarks about transgender people. This has led to backlash from many in the fantasy community and even from the three stars of the acclaimed "Harry Potter" film series. But despite the controversy, Rowling has not shown any signs of slowing down.

2018: Rowling 'likes' an anti-trans tweet, says it was an accident

An early instance of Rowling facing allegations of transphobia came in March 2018, when she was slammed for "liking" a tweet that referred to trans women as "men in dresses." But the author's spokesperson told Pink News this was purely an accident. "I'm afraid J.K. Rowling had a clumsy and middle-aged moment and this is not the first time she has favorited by holding her phone incorrectly," the spokesperson said.

Rowling later said she "absent-mindedly" liked the tweet when she meant to screenshot it because she had taken "an interest in gender identity and transgender matters."

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2019: Rowling follows 'self-professed transphobe' on X, then called Twitter

Rowling faced backlash after following YouTuber Magdalen Berns on X, then called Twitter. Berns was a "self-professed transphobe" who made videos with titles like "there is no such thing as a lesbian with a penis," Pink News said, adding that she was also following other anti-trans accounts. Rowling later admitted she followed Berns, an "immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour," because she "wanted to contact her directly."

2019: Rowling stands with researcher who lost contract over anti-trans statements

Months later, Rowling came under fire again for coming to the defense of Maya Forstater. At the time, the researcher had been waging an employment discrimination battle, as her contract with a think tank wasn't renewed after she made a series of anti-trans statements. These statements included that people should not be "compelled to play along with literal delusions like 'transwomen are women,'" and she referred to a gender-fluid person as a "man who likes to dress in women's clothes."

In a tweet, Rowling stood with Forstater: "Dress however you please," she said on X. "Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?"

2020: Rowling likes another controversial tweet

Rowling was again critiqued for reportedly liking another anti-trans tweet, in this case one that misgendered psychotherapist and photographer Alex Drummond and described her as "an adult human male who claims to be a lesbian (yes, he's kept his dangling bits and skipped the hormones)."

2020: Rowling's tweets spark backlash

The controversy escalated significantly in June 2020 after Rowling tweeted about an article with the headline, "Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate."

"'People who menstruate.' I'm sure there used to be a word for those people," Rowling said in a tweet. "Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?"

The next month, Rowling landed herself back in the spotlight with a thread defending "liking" a tweet that compared hormone prescriptions and antidepressants. Health professionals are "concerned that young people struggling with their mental health are being shunted towards hormones and surgery when this may not be in their best interests," Rowling said on X in her defense. She compared it to a "new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people," who are "being set on a lifelong path of medicalization that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function."

2020: Rowling publishes essay defending her stance as actors speak out

Rowling published an over 3,600-word essay on her website about why she had spoken out on "sex and gender issues." In it, Rowling said she is "worried about the new trans activism" and "the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning."

She went on to slam those who said that "women must accept and admit that there is no material difference between trans women and themselves." Rowling revealed she is a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault and said this led her to sympathize with women who had "concerns around single-sex spaces." She argued against throwing "open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he's a woman."

2020: Rowling returns award after being condemned for her statements

After Rowling received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award in 2019, the human rights group's president released a statement the following year expressing "profound disappointment" that the author "has chosen to use her remarkable gifts to create a narrative that diminishes the identity of trans and nonbinary people."

As a result, Rowling announced in August that she would return the award. The group's statement "incorrectly implied that I was transphobic, and that I am responsible for harm to trans people," Rowling said. As a donor to LGBT charities and a "supporter of trans people's right to live free of persecution, I absolutely refute the accusation that I hate trans people or wish them ill."

2020: Critics suggest Rowling's new novel is anti-trans

Rowling published a new novel titled "Troubled Blood" under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The book, which revolved around a male serial killer who dresses like a woman, was accused of being anti-trans.

It was disappointing that Rowling was propagating a "long-standing and hurtful presentation of trans women as a threat," a spokesperson for Mermaids, a charity that supports trans children, said to CNN. Rowling, meanwhile, said the book "was loosely based" on real killers.

2021: Rowling criticizes police for letting rape suspects identify as women

In another controversial tweet, Rowling shared a Times of London piece about the "'absurdity' of police logging rapists as women," which said police in Scotland would "record rapes by offenders with male genitalia as being committed by a woman if the attacker 'identifies as a female.'"

Rowling evoked "1984" by tweeting, "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman."

2022: Rowling criticizes bill that would make legally changing gender easier

Rowling condemned a bill in Scotland that would make it easier for a trans person to legally change their gender, Variety said. It would remove the requirement that applicants must be "medically diagnosed as having gender dysphoria" and "go through a minimum two year process and be aged over 18," lowering the age to 16, The Times said. On X, Rowling said the bill would "harm the most vulnerable women in society: those seeking help after male violence/rape and incarcerated women."

2022: Quidditch distances itself from Rowling

Quidditch, the actual sport inspired by the fictional sport within the "Harry Potter" universe, announced it was changing its name to Quadball. There were a number of reasons for this, but one was that Rowling had "increasingly come under scrutiny for her anti-trans positions," the International Quidditch Association said.

2022: Rowling publishes a book about a character being accused of transphobia

Rowling released another book in 2022 that drew scrutiny in light of her anti-trans controversies. Again published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, the book, "The Ink Black Heart," follows the creator of a YouTube cartoon, Edie Ledwell, who is accused of being transphobic. "The book takes a clear aim at 'social justice warriors' and suggests that Ledwell was a victim of a masterfully plotted, politically fueled hate campaign against her," Rolling Stone said.

2022: Rowling responds to calls to boycott 'Hogwarts Legacy'

After trans YouTuber Jessie Earl tweeted that supporting "Hogwarts Legacy" would be "harmful to trans people," Rowling responded, comparing this stance to book burning. "Deeply disappointed @jessiegender doesn't realise purethink is incompatible with owning ANYTHING connected with me, in ANY form," Rowling said. "The truly righteous wouldn't just burn their books and movies but the local library, anything with an owl on it and their own pet dogs." Two days later, Earl said she was bombarded with comments that included "calls for my death, insinuations that I'm a pedophile, dehumanizing comments about my supposed masculine features."

After "Hogwarts Legacy" debuted in 2023, reviewers from major outlets wrestled with the implications of purchasing a game that would financially benefit Rowling. Reviews, however, were largely positive.

2024: Rowling targets Scotland's new hate crime law

When Scotland's new Hate Crime and Public Order Act went into effect in April, Rowling tried to bait them into arresting her with posts online. The law criminalizes "stirring up hatred" against people based on their race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender identity. By passing the law, Scotland "placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls," Rowling said in the thread on X. If anything she wrote qualified as an offense under the new law, "I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment," Rowling said.

2024: Rowling named in cyberbullying lawsuit

Shortly after winning the gold at the Olympics, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif filed a criminal complaint with French authorities alleging "acts of aggravated cyber harassment" that named Rowling and other high-profile figures, like tech billionaire Elon Musk, said a Variety exclusive. Khelif was targeted online for harassment over false claims about her gender after her opponent, Italian boxer Angela Carini, dropped out of their bout seconds into the match, declaring she "never felt a punch like this."

Rowling posted a photo from the fight, accusing Khelif of being a man who was "enjoying the distress of a woman he's just punched in the head."

2024: Rowling responds to Donald Trump's win

In response to comments on X accusing her of being far-right and of celebrating President-elect Donald Trump's recent win, Rowling referred back to an earlier post where she said the U.K. left had "f**ked up monumentally on gender identity ideology." Women like her "aren't and never have been far-right," she said in the post. "We simply want the left to wake the hell up because we're watching it do its utmost to alienate people it used to represent." She clarified that she was not saying that "Trump's win was down to the gender stuff," as she is "not an American voter, so can't judge." However, she pointed out that the Labour Party won the last U.K. election, and they have "embraced gender identity ideology whole-heartedly."

2024: Rowling attacks another athlete

Rowling joined a chorus of naysayers attacking Barbra Banda, a cisgender woman, after she was selected for the BBC's Women's Footballer of the Year. "Presumably, the BBC decided this was more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women's faces," the author said in a retweet of an article about Banda winning the award.

2024: Rowling insists trans kids do not exist

The author's latest public tiff was in response to an online critic who called out her "hateful focus" on trans kids as "hurtful and unnecessary." Rowling clapped back, saying there "are no trans kids" and that no child is "born in the wrong body," in a post on X. She went on to call out the adults around the kids, including parents, teachers and surgeons, that encouraged what she deemed harmful rhetoric about gender identity. These adults are "prepared to sacrifice the health of minors to bolster your belief in an ideology that will end up wreaking more harm than lobotomies and false memory syndrome combined," she said.

2025: Rowling celebrates U.K. Supreme Court ruling

In April, the United Kingdom's Supreme Court unanimously passed a ruling that limited the definition of a woman to be based on "biological sex" under Britain's Equality Act, excluding trans women from being protected from discrimination. In response to the ruling, Rowling gloated in several X posts celebrating "terfs" and referring to the ruling as "TERF VE Day," a "play on V-E Day, the formal end of World War II and Nazi occupation in Europe," said USA Today. She capped off the thread with a photo of herself drinking a cocktail and smoking a cigar, captioned "I love it when a plan comes together."

2025: Rowling launches fund for 'women's sex-based rights'

In May 2025, Rowling announced the launch of the J.K. Rowling Women's Fund, which "offers legal funding support to individuals and organizations fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life and in protected female spaces," the fund's website said. Rowling is helming the fund with her own money (an unsurprising fact given that Forbes estimates her net worth at over $1 billion).

But controversy surrounds the fund, as many believe it is a "euphemism for the anti-trans' advocacy to which she has devoted herself and, seemingly, every waking hour of her life," said LGBTQ+ news outlet Them. This is also not the "first time that one of Rowling's organizations has made the exclusion of trans people a core part of its mission," as the outlet noted that Beira's Place, a rape and crisis center founded by Rowling in 2022, does "not hire or provide services to trans women."

2025: Rowling criticizes Potter director

In August 2025, Chris Columbus, who directed the first two "Harry Potter" films, told Variety that Rowling's stance on the LGBTQ+ community was "unfortunate. I certainly don't agree with what she's talking about. But it's just sad, it's very sad."

In a characteristic response, Rowling replied to Columbus on X. "Another man who once worked with me declares himself saddened by my beliefs on gender and sex, I thought it might be useful to compile a list for handy reference," Rowling said on the social media site, including a list of anti-transgender talking points.

2025: Rowling attacks another Potter actor

Several months after criticizing director Christopher Columbus, Rowling turned her ire toward Emma Watson, who starred as Hermione in the "Potter" films and has often been outspoken about human rights issues. Watson had previously lambasted Rowling indirectly for her anti-trans views, and offered a bit of further insight during a September podcast interview. "It's my deepest wish that I hope people who don't agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don't necessarily share the same opinion with," Watson said.

Rowling jabbed back, saying on X that Watson (and Radcliffe) "think our former professional association gives them a particular right — nay, obligation — to critique me and my views." Watson "has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is."

2025: British MP clashes with Rowling

The controversy over Rowling's stance has made its way into the halls of British government. Nadia Whittome, a member of the U.K.'s House of Commons, claimed that people like Rowling were funding anti-trans movements across the country.

"There are external forces funded by big money from Elon Musk to J.K. Rowling, but the Government isn’t standing up against that with a compassionate alternative," Whittome, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, said to The Mirror. It is "very sad, I feel very sorry for her, someone who was once a treasured children's author." Whittome urged people to "follow where the transphobia is coming from, it’s not coming from working class people, it’s trickling down from the top." Whittome and Rowling previously sparred on social media in 2024.

2025: Rowling blasts Glamour UK for honoring trans women

Rowling criticized Glamour UK after the magazine featured nine trans women on its "Women of the Year" list in October. The cover of the issue had the group posing in T-shirts and crop tops with the slogan "Protect the Dolls," a term of endearment used within the trans community to refer to trans women. Once again, Rowling took to X to express her displeasure, saying she "grew up in an era when mainstream women’s magazines told girls they needed to be thinner and prettier" but now they "tell girls that men are better women than they are." Glamour UK clapped back in their own X post: "Better luck next year Jo x."

2025: Rowling chimes in on the trans ban for UK's Girl Scouts

Rowling once again jumped online, this time to defend Girlguiding, the British equivalent of Girl Scouts, after the organization announced that trans girls would no longer be allowed to join. Someone posted, "Serious question. Who does this help?" referencing the ban. "Answer: it helps girls," Rowling replied in an X post on Dec. 3. It tells girls they "have the right to things of their own" and that "they have the right to say 'no.’" It also "reminds girls that the desires of boys do not supersede their feelings, their rights, their discomfort or their safety," Rowling added.

2026: Rowling's anti-trans views plague the new 'Harry Potter' TV series

A new television series based on the "Harry Potter" books is in production for HBO, but Rowling's controversial views and her reputation have clouded the project. Both HBO and the new cast have received backlash for working with Rowling due to her anti-trans posts. Actor John Lithgow called Rowling’s views on transgender rights "ironic and inexplicable," saying that the fallout from his decision to play Albus Dumbledore in the series "upsets me," while speaking on stage at Rotterdam film festival after a screening of his latest film, "Jimpa." People are "vehemently opposed to me having anything to do with this," he added. "But in Potter canon you see no trace of transphobic sensitivity." Lithgow has "never met" Rowling and said she is "not really involved in this production at all."

The depth of Rowling's involvement in the series has been a point of contention for many. Rowling said in the past that although she "worked closely with the extremely talented writers," she will not be writing any episodes. Network CEO Casey Bloys previously told reporters that Rowling was "very, very involved in the process" of selecting the showrunner and director of the show.

2026: Rowling signals support for IOC's ruling against trans athletes

Rowling celebrated the International Olympic Committee's decision to ban transgender women from competing in women's events at the Olympic games, praising the move in a post on X. The ruling by the IOC "means a welcome return to fair sport for women and girls," but she will "never forget the scandal of Paris 2024, when people who consider themselves supremely virtuous and progressive publicly cheered on men punching women," Rowling said.

She accompanied the post with a picture of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who previously named Elon Musk and Rowling in a lawsuit filed to French authorities over alleged "acts of aggravated cyber harassment" back in 2024.

2026: Rowling defends conservative activists

The writer inserted herself into a dispute between podcast host Alastair Campbell and For Women Scotland (FWS), a group that pushed for the U.K. Supreme Court decision ruling that transgender women aren't considered women under the nation's Equality Act.

When FWS didn't get invited on Campbell’s show as guests, the group posted a taunting "farewell, London" message on X, tagging the host. Rowling reposted the message with a GIF of Shaggy and Scooby-Doo clutching each other in fear and a caption claiming it was live footage of Campbell and his co-host.

Campbell responded to Rowling, saying he would welcome her as a guest, despite her having turned down similar offers in the past, because they considered her a "leading voice." Rowling replied that she declined because she "wasn't interested in being used to boost the viewing figures of a pair of exceptionally arrogant men whose understanding of this issue drips with classism and misogyny." She then taunted the show for not interviewing the conservative advocacy group that "secured the Supreme Court victory and are therefore THE leading voices on this issue."

Rowling next turned her attention to his daughter, Grace Campbell, who called the supporters of For Women Scotland ugly freaks "with the worst hair and the worst clothes… and the worst views," on her podcast Late to the Party, when she was interviewing trans activist and actress Charlie Craggs. "Perhaps your charming daughter has adequately represented the entire Campbell family's view, by describing them as 'ugly' women, with whom she wouldn't 'want to be in a room'?" Rowling tweeted.