Gender-fluid model challenges JK Rowling to prove she’s an ally and back plans for a National LGBT+ Day
JK Rowling. (Walter McBride/WireImage)
A gender-fluid model is urging JK Rowling to endorse the creation of a National LGBT+ Day in Britain as a way of showing that the author “understands and supports” the queer community.
Lady Lloyd, a London-based drag performer and DJ, told PinkNews that she’s seeking to make 25 September “LGBTQ+ Day”, an idea that’s supported by around a third of Britons, according to new research commissioned by subscription content platform RevealMe.com.
Many surveyed said that they would like to see such a day created to “to increase public understanding of LGBT+ issues in the UK”, researchers said.
Rowling, the once-beloved Harry Potter author, has fuelled alarm among LGBT+ people for her explosive comments on trans people, which activists say are stuffed with misinformation and could provoke further “death and violence” towards trans people.
Drag queen vying for ‘National LGBT+ Day’ extends an olive branch to JK Rowling.
“Awareness is an important part of securing acceptance of the LGBT+ community and high profile supporters can be very effective at raising awareness,” Lloyd told PinkNews.
As Rowling’s views on trans people have drawn criticism from leading public intellectuals and even the actors in her films, Lloyd is asking her to sit down and have a chat.
“The LGBT+ community isn’t asking for, and doesn’t need, the support of JK Rowling,” Lloyd said, “but it would be far better if she was sending messages of support and love than stirring up a cauldron of controversy on social media.
“The power of JK Rowling’s celebrity is ever-expanding, and as much as I may wish for her to quietly disappear, the truth is that Rowling is stealing all the column inches at a time when we should be celebrating trans lives and not discussing the tweets of a billionaire.”
Indeed, column inches certainly were dedicated to Rowling on Sunday (27 September) when an open letter published in The Sunday Times newspaper offered a laundry list of celebrities as well as scores of anti-trans group leaders swinging their support to Rowling.
Lloyd, 34, added: “I’ve gained so much insight into my own gender identity by talking to people in the trans community.
“They’ve given me more than I could ever have imagined. Maybe she would better understand herself by talking with trans people and opening her heart.
“All I’ve ever known from the community is acceptance, and love – we are defined by our inclusivity – even with people, we may previously not have seen eye to eye with.
“I can’t see why anyone would not want to be an ally to the LGBT+ community when that love is all we offer in return.”
PinkNews has contacted JK Rowling’s representatives for comment.
Harry Potter fans try to reimagine the wizarding world without its creator.
Once a simple stoop-sitter whose odd new followings and likes on Twitter were met with unease from trans fans, Rowling has, with increasing speed, leapt into full-on trans commentariat.
Through winding Twitter threads, cavernous blog posts and even her clothing choices, Rowling has found herself straddling two sides of her public life.
On the one hand, famed children’s book author. On the other, someone who compares healthcare available to trans youth to conversion therapy – comments which drew sharp rebukes from parents of trans children, activists and, you know, actual health care professionals.
Harry Potter fans have wrestled with this new reality. A fictional world where magic is a mundane part of life, but its creator can’t imagine trans people as valid.
