Instead of apologizing, the 'Harry Potter' author chooses to return the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award she received as she defends herself against transphobia allegation.

• Aug 29, 2020

AceShowbiz - J.K. Rowling has hit out at Robert F. Kennedy's human rights activist daughter Kerry for "implying" she's "transphobic."

In June (20), the "Harry Potter" author questioned the idea that "sex isn't real" in a series of tweets, which LGBTQ+ activists condemned as transphobic - comments she later explained but refused to retract in a lengthy blog post.

Rowling received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award in December 2019 for her charity work - but has now returned it to organisation after its president, Kerry, condemned her for "attacks upon the transgender community."

Hitting back in a new post on her own website, Rowling wrote that she has received "thousands of private emails" from those affected, "both within and without the trans community, many of whom feel vulnerable and afraid because of the toxicity surrounding this discussion."

She went on to state that, "Clinicians, academics, therapists, teachers, social workers, and staff at prisons and women's refuges have also contacted me... (to express) serious concerns about the impact of gender identity theory on vulnerable adolescents and on women's rights, and of the dismantling of safeguarding norms which protect the most vulnerable women."

Criticising Kennedy, she continued, "Kerry Kennedy, President of Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, recently felt it necessary to publish a statement denouncing my views on RFKHR's website. The statement incorrectly implied that I was transphobic, and that I am responsible for harm to trans people."

"As a longstanding donor to LGBT charities and a supporter of trans people's right to live free of persecution, I absolutely refute the accusation that I hate trans people or wish them ill, or that standing up for the rights of women is wrong, discriminatory, or incites harm or violence to the trans community."

Rowling went on to state that she has "nothing but sympathy towards those with gender dysphoria, and agree(s) with the clinicians and therapists who've got in touch who want to see a proper exploration of the factors that lead to it."

She went on to cite a group of 100 clinicians questioning whether a medical transition was always a necessary remedy and claimed the voices of those who want to de-transition after medically changing sex are going unheard, insisting an "ethical and medical scandal is brewing."

Concluding, she announced she was "deeply saddened" by Kennedy's stance and would have to return her prize.