JK Rowling row continues after she doubles down on mocking trans football manager Lucy Clark
JK Rowling again makes headlines after mocking Lucy Clark, the world's first openly trans football manager.
JK Rowling opened fire on social media on Saturday, May 11, as she resumed her online tirade against transgender people. This time, Lucy Clark, the world's first openly trans football manager, became the target of her contentious remarks.
The British Harry Potter author's comments came as a reply to @prideukorg's Saturday tweet celebrating Clark's achievement: “Lucy Clark, the world’s first openly transgender referee, has made history by becoming the first trans manager in the top 5 divisions of English women’s football. The former referee has taken over at Sutton United. FABULOUS!”
Hopping on X/Twitter, she wrote: “When I was young, all the football managers were straight, white, middle-aged blokes, so it's fantastic to see how much things have changed.”
While many came to Clark's defence and slammed the 58-year novelist, the other side of the Internet spoke out in Rowling's support. In the past few years, her social media presence has primarily made headlines due to her mockery of transgender people.
JK Rowling's ‘transphobic’ tirade against Lucy Clark
Later that day, Daily Mail Online posted a story addressing Rowling's remarks. The UK-based news website also shared the piece on X/Twitter, with the headline, “JK Rowling is accused of cruelty as she mocks transgender football manager by comparing her to a ‘straight, white, middle-aged bloke’.”
Rowling quickly jumped back into the conversation on Sunday, May 12, in a follow-up tweet responding to the UK news outlet's article. “I didn't compare him to one. He IS one,” she tweeted.
Earlier this year, Clark was tasked to lead the women's team at the fifth-division south London club Sutton United. The LGBTQ+ charity Pride championed Clark with a picture of the manager holding a pink whistle in one hand and a red card in the other.
Eventually, Clark (51) also addressed the “hate fuelled transphobia” directed at her in Rowling's comments.
She wrote: "Another day of hate fuelled transphobia against me… but hey guess what I am living my best life. Wake up everyday with my beautiful family around me. Everyday I laugh and have things to look forward too. Who’s winning at life…the one who’s happy and smiling or those hating.
So JK, Posie, Glinner and the rest of you out there hating on my community and myself guess what IDGAF…you keep hating and I will keep on smiling and living my best life. Maybe you should all give it a try eh."
Rowling's comments didn't die down there. A few hours ago, she again took to her profile and tweeted, “Calling a man a man is not 'bullying' or 'punching down.' Crossdressing straight men are currently one of the most pandered-to demographics in existence, and women are under no obligation to applaud the people caricaturing us.”
On being counter-questioned by Jonathan Chait, reportedly a writer for New York magazine, on X/Twitter, to call “people what they want to be called. It’s basic decency.” However, Rowling, a long-standing critic of gender self-identification, promptly responded, “Stop telling women what they're allowed to say, Jonathan. It's basic decency.”
Under her previous tweet posted in response to the Daily Mail Online article, an X/Twitter user wrote, “How can you look at her and see a man? I think you need glasses.” Rowling then commented, “My rose-tinted gender goggles keep malfunctioning, and unfortunately, when l looked at this sturdy father of three, the lenses shattered.”
Rowling has been severely outspoken against transwomen, whom she described as “men in dresses” in a 2018 tweet. The ever-expanding threads of her tweets on the microblogging platform capture the essence of her campaign for what she addresses as “women's rights.” Her position on this matter is seemingly linked to her past as “a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor”, per her 3,600-word statement shared on her website in 2020.
Another one of her May 11, 2024, tweets further articulates her stance on the gender politics rhetoric. “Astounding how often militant trans activists tell the rest of us, ‘So what you’re saying is, trans girls aren’t real girls’. Yes, that’s exactly what we’re saying. Girls are being robbed of honours and opportunities by mediocre, uber-privileged, establishment-enabled boys,” she wrote on X/Twitter on May 11.
