Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s transphobia has morphed into Holocaust denial, a charge — in the U.K. — that could land the accuser in court with a charge of libel.
That’s what almost happened to U.K. writer journalist Rivkah Brown, who is Jewish, after she called out Rowling for disputing the Nazi persecution of trans people.
Related:
“JK Rowling is questioning the well-documented fact that the Nazis targeted trans people,” Brown wrote.
That observation on March 13, based on Rowling’s assertion that the infamous destruction of the Institute of Sex in Berlin by Nazi paramilitaries in 1933 was a “fever dream”, inspired the author to threaten to take Brown to court in the U.K., where libel law enables anyone who is well-funded to chill free speech.
“This, from @rivkahbrown, a journalist who wrote a tweet celebrating the Hamas attack of October 6th and was forced to apologize for it, is staggering,” Rowling tweeted hours later. “I’d be delighted to meet you in court, Rivkah, to discuss holocaust denial.”
A month later, Brown handed Rowling her mea culpa.
“On 13 March I tweeted that JK Rowling ‘is a Holocaust denier.’ That allegation was false and offensive. I have deleted it and apologize to JK Rowling.”
Now, for her Holocaust denial-denying efforts and threats of litigation, Rowling has been rewarded with a top-trending hashtag on X: “JK Rowling is a Holocaust”.
“Congrats to JK Rowling for using her endless wealth to force that one Jewish writer to retract her (correct) statement that JK Rowling is a Holocaust denier,” Kendall Brown posted to X. “You sure showed that one writer by making your Holocaust denial trend sitewide. Masterful gambit, ma’am!”
Several posters drew a parallel between Rowling’s actions and Barbra Streisand’s failed attempt to suppress a photograph of her cliffside Malibu estate, which drew exponentially more attention to the notoriously private singer and her seaside retreat than if she’d never brought it up.
