There’s a glaringly obvious problem with the suggestion JK Rowling’s anti-trans tirade is in defence of lesbians
JK Rowling attends the 70th EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) at Royal Albert Hall on February 12, 2017 in London, England. (John Phillips/Getty Images)
Occasional writer JK Rowling seems to think her recent anti-trans tirade is in defence of queer women and lesbians – but there’s just one problem.
Across seven Harry Potter books and eight films, Rowling failed to write even one openly lesbian character – so maybe she’s not the lesbian champion she thinks she is.
Rowling’s LGBT+ characters – or lack thereof – has been thrown into sharp focus following her anti-trans tirade on Twitter over the weekend.
And people are expertly pointing out Rowling’s hypocrisy, as well as her heavily revisionist approach to her hugely successful series of books, in a truly legendary Twitter thread.
JK Rowling claims to champion lesbians, but there is not a single lesbian character in the Harry Potter books.
The thread was started by gay writer Anthony Oliveira, who carried out his own research project to find out just how much Rowling cares about lesbians.
JK Rowling is suddenly extremely worried that trans rights will mean lesbians will be erased so i did a quick google to see how many pages the Harry Potter books are and it’s 4224 pages and then i googled how many lesbians are in it and
— Anthony Oliveira (@meakoopa) June 8, 2020
Oliveira added: “Is it possible that queer representation is not in fact a great passion of hers after all?”
While there are no openly lesbian characters in the series of books, people hilariously pointed out that Rowling will probably quickly amend this fact in an attempt to make herself look better.
Jk two days from now: McGonagall was a lesbian, and she and Bathilda Bagshot were in a relationship.— Michael C. ? ?️? (@sassysn0wflake) June 8, 2020
Rowling’s revisionist approach to the Harry Potter books means that anything is likely to retroactively become a lesbian – even inanimate objects.
so was voldemorts snake— vinsmoke (@cabbage_san) June 8, 2020
People also suspect that Hogwarts’ famous moving paintings will end up as the home of the school’s lesbian characters.
Tomorrow she's gonna tweet something fully cursed like "The Portrait of the Fat Lady and a 4th floor painting of an 18th century witch regularly get together to swap oils!"— Aida Ronan ?♥️? (@BiStarBucky) June 8, 2020
Others pointed out that Rowling has written heterosexual back stories for many characters on her online portal Pottermore, making it as clear as day that there are no lesbians at Hogwarts.
And she's written heterosexual backstories for like every single character on Pottermore. Hogwarts is the straightest place in the entire world.
— Elizabeth Rogers 2️⃣ (@e1izabethrogers) June 8, 2020
Meanwhile, many took the opportunity to point out that Albus Dumbledore is the series’ only openly gay character and Rowling didn’t even bother to mention his sexuality in the books.
Yes, the person who had the opportunity to add Dumbledore being gay to the actual canon through the prequel films and chose not to is probably very concerned about gay and lesbian erasure.— your pal jay (@jmwink_) June 8, 2020
The author has faced significant backlash over her views.
Fan backlash against Rowling has been swift after she lashed out at trans people over the course of eight tweets posted on Saturday night (June 6).
Is it possible that queer representation is not in fact a great passion of hers after all?
In the tweets, Rowling effectively erased the existence of trans people everywhere by claiming that only women can menstruate.
When LGBT+ people told her she should speak to the community about her views, she proudly defended herself against criticism by announcing that one friend – a “self-described butch lesbian” – agreed fully with her anti-trans tweets.
