Divina De Campo doesn’t understand why JK Rowling ‘is worried about public bogs’ when she ‘lives in a castle’
Divina De Campo thinks not when it comes to JK Rowling. (Getty/BBC)
Divina De Campo had several choice words for JK Rowling and Dame Edna Everage over their antagonising remarks about trans lives.
The Drag Race UK star talked candidly about Rowling’s recent controversial forays into trans issues, condemning her suggestion that trans rights pose a threat to cis women.
In her notorious “TERF Wars” essay, Rowling said that although she believes “the majority of trans-identified people not only pose zero threat to others”, she felt moved to speak out on trans rights because “when you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman… then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside”.
The Equality Act 2010 enshrined the right of trans people to use single-sex spaces, and Divina, who is non-binary, pointed out that “statistical fact, the data [shows that] self-ID has not had these enormous eruptions in violence and problems for women”.
If you don’t want to share a toilet with somebody, I’m pretty sure that out of everybody you have got the choice!
“That’s just not a thing,” she told Ed Dyson’s United Queendom podcast.
“It’s definitely an odd way to use your platform when she said that, but, I mean – you actually, you literally live in a castle.”
Divina De Campo on Drag Race UK. (BBC)
Rowling famously lives on a palatial Scottish estate dubbed a “castle” by many, and Divina added: “Like you literally live in a castle. Why are you worried about going to the bogs in a public place?
“You’ve probably got 75 of the f**kers in your house! What is your problem? If you don’t want to share a toilet with somebody, I’m pretty sure that out of everybody you have got the choice!”
As Mermaids pointed out in its response to Rowling’s essay: “Trans people have been using toilets, trying on clothes in changing rooms, accessing domestic violence facilities, and generally getting on with their lives for as long as single-sex spaces have existed and there is absolutely no evidence we’re aware of, from the police, local authorities, shops, refuges or anywhere else besides, that predators have used the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to gain access to women’s spaces. None.
“If even a scrap of such evidence existed, you can be certain the anti-transgender lobby would be promoting it.”
Divina De Campo has had it with Dame Edna.
Divina De Campo got on to the subject when podcast host Dyson brought up the legacy of drag queens Lily Savage and Dame Edna Everage (real name Barry Humphries).
In 2016 Dame Edna referred to trans women as “mutilated men”. Three years on, Humphries said his remarks had been “grotesquely interpreted”, but did not rescind them, apologise or offer an alternative explanation.
“Barry Humphries has always been of that view,” Divina said.
“He’s never, ever being supportive of trans people. That’s just been his views. You can either choose to ignore it, and enjoy the act for what it is, or you can say, OK, I don’t want to support that. I’m going to move away from that.”
She said the same is true for both Rowling and Pointless host Alexander Armstrong, who joined other public figures as well as supporters of the LGB Alliance in signing a letter in solidarity with the Harry Potter author in September.
“Same with JK Rowling and that stupid guy off Pointless, who is essentially pointless.
“You can choose to either ignore it and take the art for, for what it is or you can, you can say actually, I can’t separate the art from the artist in that way.
“But with Dame Edna, yes, it’s immensely disappointing for somebody who has spent a lifetime profiting off highlighting the fallacies in gender for him today. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
PinkNews has contacted representatives for JK Rowling and Barry Humphries for comment.
