Stephen King says JK Rowling ‘blocked and cancelled’ him for saying trans women are women
A tweet from JK Rowling praising Stephen King mysteriously disappeared after he declared “trans women are women”. (Samir Hussein/WireImage and Astrid Stawiarz/Getty)
Stephen King said JK Rowling “cancelled” and “blocked” him after he confirmed to his followers that “yes, trans women are women”.
Last year, in response to accusations by MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle that she had “used” her experience of domestic abuse to attack trans people, Rowling tweeted an Andrea Dworkin quote: “Men often react to women’s words – speaking and writing – as if they were acts of violence; sometimes men react to women’s words with violence.”
When King retweeted the quote, Rowling declared that her love for The Shining author had reached “new heights”.
However, when followers asked King to clarify his stance on trans rights, he emphatically declared: “Trans women are women.” Rowling’s tweet praising King soon disappeared.
Yes. Trans women are women.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 28, 2020
Reflecting on the incident in an interview with the Daily Beast this week, King said: “Jo cancelled me.
“She sorta blocked me and all that. Here’s the thing: She is welcome to her opinion. That’s the way that the world works.
“If she thinks that trans women are dangerous, or that trans women are somehow not women, or whatever problem she has with it – the idea that someone ‘masquerading’ as a woman is going to assault a ‘real’ woman in the toilet – if she believes all those things, she has a right to her opinion.”
He continued: “And then someone tweeted at me, ‘Do you think trans women are women?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I do.’
“And that’s what she got angry about my opinion. It’s like the old saying, ‘I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.'”
JK Rowling has repeatedly denied allegations that she is transphobic.
Stephen King said JK Rowling has never been “cancelled”.
Despite JK Rowling’s criticism of cancel culture, Stephen King insisted that no one has cancelled the Harry Potter author.
“Nobody has ‘cancelled’ JK Rowling,” he said. “She’s doing fine. I just felt that her belief was, in my opinion, wrong. We have differing opinions, but that’s life.”
King also insisted that Rowling’s views on trans people were an “an outlier in her entire political spectrum”, adding: “She was very much anti-Brexit and very much anti-Trump.
“She’s on the side of the angels in most respects, but she does have this one thing that she’s very vehement about. No doubt.”
PinkNews contacted JK Rowling’s representatives for comment.
