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In Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore told the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” Many are learning the truth of that line written by famed author JK Rowling as self-described progressives burn her books or ban them from shelves because she personally holds an opposing view of gender. Much like the boycott movement of Chick-Fil-A over comments by its CEO, people are seeking to punish Rowling through attacks on her literature. We previously discussed the...

When the Harry Potter series took off in the early 2000s, many conservative Christians warned parents that the book series was a gateway to witchcraft. Nineteen years later, activists on the far left are burning J.K. Rowling’s books because the author denies their favored kind of witchcraft — or rather, because she doesn’t embrace it fervently enough. As Newsweek reported, former Harry Potter fans started a trend on TikTok, burning Rowling’s books on video.TikTok user @elmcdo burned a pile of Harry Potter books on a pyre. “You have to stop using ‘death of the author’ as an excuse to have...

JK Rowling has once again been criticised for her new novel, after she was accused of 'transliterating' one of the book's working class characters by spelling their dialect differently. Troubled Blood, written under Rowling's pseudonym Robert Galbraith, was released Tuesday and sees detective Cormoran Strike work out what happened to missing GP Margot Bamborough. The book originally came under fire for featuring a 'transvestite serial killer' called Dennis Creed, who murders his victims while wearing female clothing and a wig, sparking furious backlash online, amid accusations of transphobia against the author.

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling has emerged into a fresh controversy after she returned the Ripple of Hope Award bestowed upon her by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization in December 2019, following criticism from Kerry Kennedy. Kerry is the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and the president of the organization. “Over the course of June 2020 — LGBTQ Pride Month — and much to my dismay, J.K. Rowling posted deeply troubling transphobic tweets and statements,” Kennedy posted on the organization’s website on Aug. 3. “On June 6, she tweeted an article headlined “Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19...

Liberals are suddenly realizing that “cancel culture” can snap back – and it hurts. The liberal idea was to “cancel” people who raise “offensive” or “objectionable” topics, summarily ending unwanted discussions by intimidating people into abandoning free speech rights. It was always anti-American. Now, it turns out the left’s beast, is eating them too. Upending the First Amendment by spurning people with different views is a dead end – legally, politically, and socially. Interestingly, conservatives generally offer to debate while liberals stifle dialogue. Now, they are being stifled. Last week, some noted liberals wrote an “open letter” decrying how unthinking,...

Weird things are happening — moderate Lefties are being attacked by the Anarchists and Occasional Cortex's. Now, the moderates are suddenly recognizing the value of FREE SPEECH! A short letter was sent to Harper's Magazine and signed by scores of prominent Liberal/Leftist writers/journalists/pundits such as J. K. Rowling and Noam Chomsky. I summarize the key points of the letter below. YouTube Commentator, Dr. Steve Turley, tells the story and analyzes the political fallout of Leftists battling each other on this issue. FR's V K Lee turned me on to Dr. Steve a few days ago and I've been enjoying his...

One of the signatories of an open letter against cancel culture has recanted her support of the initiative. Around 150 writers, academics and activists signed a pice published by Harper's Magazine in which they denounce the "restriction of debate." .... Author Jennifer Finney Boylan has recanted her support of the letter, saying she wasn't aware of who else had signed the letter. Finney Boylan tweeted: "I did not know who else had signed that letter. I thought I was endorsing a well meaning, if vague, message against internet shaming. I did know Chomsky, Steinem, and Atwood were in, and I...

Signatures include J.K. Rowling, Bari Weiss, Noam Chomsky and Gloria Steinem Liberal writers, professors and activists have come together and signed an open letter in the hopes of ending "cancel culture." "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss and political activist Noam Chomsky are a few of more than 100 names attached to the piece titled "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate" that was published Tuesday in Harper's Magazine. "Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial," the letter begins. "Powerful protests for racial and social justice are leading to overdue demands for...

The online mob came for Harald Uhlig. What terrible thing had he done? As I show in my new video, he tweeted that Black Lives Matter "torpedoed itself, with its full-fledged support of #defundthepolice." Instead of defunding, Uhlig suggested, "train them better." Hundreds of people then signed a petition to demand that Uhlig, a University of Chicago professor and head of the Journal of Political Economy, resign. Even prominent economists like Janet Yellen and Paul Krugman joined the mob. Krugman called Uhlig "another privileged white man who evidently cannot control his urge to belittle the concerns of those less fortunate."...

Publishing staff working on JK Rowling’s latest book threatened to down tools yesterday in protest at her views on gender. The Harry Potter author, 54, has endured a storm of protest since expressing ‘deep concerns’ about transgender activism in an essay last week in which she also described being a victim of domestic violence and sexual assault. Those criticising her have included movie stars she helped make famous.

JK Rowling had been tweeting warm, gushing messages to children who submitted drawings for her new book –“Eight? How can this have been done by an eight-year-old?!” – when, abruptly, her Twitter feed took a sharp swerve sideways. She shared an article about period poverty in the developing world and Covid-19, tacking on her own, snarky take. “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” It was an odd way to launch the latest salvo in the most toxic of culture wars. If you failed to recognise...

The feminist left's embrace of transgenderism probably means a lot of younger people have never encountered a feminist with Rowling's position on trans issues. To some of them, such a feminist is unthinkable. J.K. Rowling’s decision to double-down on her resistance to transgender dogma is not surprising but it is powerful, and for one particular reason: her feminist framing.After irking leftists for more than a year with her increasingly public opposition to the movement, the “Harry Potter” author self-published a long, thoughtful essay explaining her reasoning on Wednesday. You can read the full post here. It is compassionate and reasonable...

We who have picked this hill to die on, who have chosen to speak out for the rights of women, girls, and boys who end up suckered into this fantasy that biological sex is mutable, salute Rowling. J.K. Rowling has held the line on refuting transgender rhetoric, and for gender-critical women and real feminists, this is a glorious moment. We, the gender-critical, the terfs, those women who have spoken up over and over, are finally witnessing the manifestation of an ally who is simply too big to cancel. Rowling has tweeted, which is about as public as you can get...

I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what’s important right now. While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment. Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people...

"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling faced another backlash Saturday after issuing a cheeky tweet on sex and gender that opened up a new chapter in her ongoing feud with LGBT advocates. "If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction," Rowling tweeted to her 14.5 million followers. "If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth." Rowling tweeted those comments around 6 p.m. ET. Within an hour, she was...

s of today, the first book in the Harry Potter series is available in Yiddish. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” — or “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” as it is known in the United States — was released in Yiddish by the Swedish publisher Olniansky Tekst Farlag on Friday. (Yiddish is an official language in Sweden.) It was translated by Arun Visnawath, 29, the son of an Indian-American father and Gitl Schaecter-Visnawath, author of the “Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary.” Her father was a professor of Yiddish at Columbia University. Yair Rosenberg chronicles the story behind the translation in Tablet...

Weeks after J.K. Rowling expressed disdain for a British employer firing an employee for stating sex is binary, another employer—this time in the U.S.—allegedly fired a freelance columnist for saying there are only two sexes. Jon Caldara, a regular columnist for The Denver Post, announced Jan. 17 in a Facebook post that the publication had fired him for his traditional, but apparently offensive and “insensitive,” beliefs about sex and gender. An editor’s note posted Jan.21 at The Denver Post confirmed Megan Schrader, editor of The Denver Post’s editorial pages, decided the publication no longer would run Caldara’s weekly freelance column,...

Just when it seemed as though the transgender movement was reaching a fever-pitch and it was becoming impossible to stand up to the zealous mob of trans-enthusiasts, it appears some celebrities may have found the secret to shutting them down and evading the dreaded “cancel culture” imposed on anyone who dares speak truth or reason. Perhaps this culture battle is not all but lost after all. Back in December, famed author J.K. Rowling tweeted her support for Maya Forstater, a former tax expert who lost her job at think tank Center for Global Development for declaring that men and women...

I was going to write a measured piece about how the failure of Nancy Pelosi to send the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. But really, who cares about impeachment any more? Then I accidentally found out that my AT piece of two weeks ago on “Women, the Public Square, and the Cancel Culture” made it on Right Wing Watch and Patheos, where I am described as a “far right misogynist.” I can’t believe they said that! More important is the flap over J.K. Rowling putting her head in the noose by tweeting on the notion that women are women...

Three bad ideas are fueling the backlash against J.K. Rowling. The first, that a human’s biological sex can be changed. The second, that believing otherwise tarnishes one’s character. The third, that artists must conform entirely to leftist standards lest their work be deemed unworthy of consumption. Each of these bad ideas is rooted in notions both ascendant and troubling.Rowling, an outspoken leftist, made headlines just about everywhere on Thursday for tweeting in support of Maya Forstater, an academic who lost her job at a think tank over tweets affirming the reality of biological sex, including, “men cannot change into...