A Lot Of People Agree With Tinashe, Who Just Told J.K. Rowling To “SHUT UP”

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is once again facing backlash and accusations of transphobia, this time surrounding Twitter comments about International Women’s Day, which even made one unexpected celebrity fed up. On March 8, Rowling criticized the UK’s Labour Equalities Shadow Minister Annalise Dodds for saying there are multiple definitions of the word “women” in an interview, in an attempt to be inclusive to the transgender community. “Someone please send the Shadow Minister for Equalities a dictionary and a backbone,” Rowling wrote in a quote-retweet.

Rowling went on to praise Joanna Cherry, a Scottish Member of Parliament who has opposed Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill and caused controversy for her stance that conversion therapy should remain legal for transgender people Rowling wrote, “This is what a woman who owns a dictionary and a backbone looks like.” The author concluded her Twitter thread by taking aim at International Women’s Day, writing, “Apparently, under a Labour government, today will become We Who Must Not Be Named Day.”

Immediately, Rowling faced backlash over her remarks, with singer-songwriter Tinashe summing up what was on a lot of people’s minds: “Oh my god, SHUT UP.”

Just days prior, Rowling opposed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which would allow trans people to legally declare that they will live permanently as their true gender and not have to provide medical evidence of their transition for legal documents or to obtain a gender recognition certificate. “Multiple women’s groups have presented well-sourced evidence to @NicolaSturgeon’s government about the likely negative consequences of this legislation for women and girls, especially the most vulnerable,” she tweeted on March 5. “All has been ignored.”

Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, fought against Rowling’s comments on BBC Radio 4, saying the proposed bill doesn’t “take away from women any of the current existing rights that women have under the equalities act.” Rowling’s stance, combined with her International Women’s Day comment, have sparked the ire of Twitter once again.

Rowling first garnered accusations of transphobia in June 2020, when she criticized an article that used the term “people who menstruate,” meant to include trans and non-binary people. “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” she wrote. She only doubled down on her stance in a blog post, where she expressed worries about “new trans activism” and used rhetoric from anti-trans activists. “When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman — and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones — then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside,” she wrote.

Many Harry Potter stars spoke out against her stance at the time, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, who all made it clear that they stand with the transgender community. “Transgender women are women,” Radcliffe said in a statement with The Trevor Project. “Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”