My friend shared the following when I asked him what does he think about the backlash from JK Rowling's tweet during the I Pride Month:

JK Rowling's response to attacks against her for being trans-phobic are quite interesting. I think it highlights that these issues are not as simple as we make them out to be. It demonstrates the importance of having mature, nuanced and honest conversations in an attempt to understand one another's concerns before we start attacking one another for being hateful.

Initially when I saw her tweet, i had difficulty comprehending what she was trying to convey until my friend explained it to me. Partly because from where I'm from and none of my friends are trans to begin with, so this thing is very unusual and unique for me. I do not condone the atrocities inflicted to trans community. I've seen some tweets and news on it. Particularly one by POTUS himself https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/12/politics/trump-administration-transgender-health-care-protections/index.html

As much as one disagrees on terminology, one should not deprive another fellow concerning health, safety and life simply because of differing beliefs.

Remember this news: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrgJQI3O_RQ (interesting video relating to this issue but different timeline).

And do read what JKR (funny in my country 'JKR' is the public work department, so when this issue was trending, people thought this department was in trouble ><) arguments as below.

JK Rowling writes:

'I have a complex backstory, which shapes my fears, my interests and my opinions. I never forget that inner complexity when I'm creating a fictional character and I certainly never forget it when it comes to trans people.
All I'm asking – all I want – is for similar empathy, similar understanding, to be extended to the many millions of women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse.

I've got reasons for being worried about the new trans activism, and deciding I need to speak up.

Firstly, I have a charitable trust that focuses on alleviating social deprivation in Scotland, with a particular emphasis on women and children. Among other things, my trust supports projects for female prisoners and for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. I also fund medical research into MS, a disease that behaves very differently in men and women. It's been clear to me for a while that the new trans activism is having (or is likely to have, if all its demands are met) a significant impact on many of the causes I support, because it's pushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender.

The second reason is that I'm an ex-teacher and the founder of a children's charity, which gives me an interest in both education and safeguarding. Like many others, I have deep concerns about the effect the trans rights movement is having on both.

The third is that, as a much-banned author, I'm interested in freedom of speech and have publicly defended it, even unto Donald Trump.

The fourth is where things start to get truly personal. I'm concerned about the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be de-transitioning (returning to their original sex), because they regret taking steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility. Some say they decided to transition after realising they were same-sex attracted, and that transitioning was partly driven by homophobia, either in society or in their families.

Most people probably aren't aware – I certainly wasn't, until I started researching this issue properly – that ten years ago, the majority of people wanting to transition to the opposite sex were male. That ratio has now reversed. The UK has experienced a 4400% increase in girls being referred for transitioning treatment. Autistic girls are hugely over-represented in their numbers.

The same phenomenon has been seen in the US. In 2018, American physician and researcher Lisa Littman set out to explore it. In an interview, she said:

'Parents online were describing a very unusual pattern of transgender-identification where multiple friends and even entire friend groups became transgender-identified at the same time. I would have been remiss had I not considered social contagion and peer influences as potential factors.'

Littman mentioned Tumblr, Reddit, Instagram and YouTube as contributing factors to Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, where she believes that in the realm of transgender identification 'youth have created particularly insular echo chambers.'

This post is not being directed towards Aisya but towards any one who is concerned about this topic.

Before I continue let me state up front that I am opposed to all forms of violence and all forms of dehumanization which are directed towards someone based on their "otherness" regardless of what form that "otherness" takes.

It is important to understand the difference between "modernism" and "post-modernism" to recognize what is happening in our society.

It is easier for me to explain this if the reader is familiar with the original Star Trek crew and also with the "Next Generation" (aka TNG) crew.

The original crew is representative of modernism and the TNG crew is representative of post-modernism.

In the original crew, Kirk's primary two advisors often argued over the topics of Objectivity and Subjectivity. The Science Officer (Spock) was known for his objectivity. During the original TV series, Spock always tried to suppress his emotions but since he was half-human he did not always succeed. The Medical Officer ("Bones") often accused Spock of being unfeeling or cold-hearted. But the original TV episodes tended to suggest that Science needs to resist being subjective.

The TNG crew was the exact opposite. The main advisor was Counselor Troi. Like Spock, she was half-human. But Troi's ambition in life was to be empathetic towards others and for her subjectivity was more important than objectivity. Science (and objectivity) were represented by the android "Data" and one of the main themes of the series was Data's lack of understanding. The series emphasized the experiential nature of reality. For example, Picard had experiences which were not objectively demonstrable but were "real" because he experienced them.

In our society today, we have some people who think like a modernist and others who think like a post-modernist. My brother is a physician but before he switched careers, he was a science teacher. (His IQ is higher than mine.) He also is an agnostic. One of the topics which we have discussed is whether or not a coroner is in danger of being sued if the coroner is asked to identify the sex of an unidentified corpse or skeleton. My brother being a modernist in his thinking tends to downplay the role of subjectivity.

Others among my relations are much less objective than my brother which has led in the past to family conflicts.

But what is going on in my family is also going on in our society.

On the left-side of politics, the feminist movement of the 50s and 60s fought for things like increased funding for women's sports in schools and colleges. Back then, their focus was on the need for what is now called cis-gender women to be able to engage in athletics against other cis-gender women. (In the 1970s, Billy Jean King challenged Bobby Riggs to a tennis match and trounced him in order to demonstrate that a woman can beat a man, but for the most part, the women of that day wanted "A League of their Own.")

The problem that has now arisen is that the modernist feminists and the post-modernist feminists are at war with each other over the topic of women's sports. The modernists think that those who are not cis-gender women have an unfair physical advantage in women's sports while the post-modernist feminists feel that the modernists are being bigots and haters.

But the main problem boils down to two completely different paradigms as to what is going on. The modernist feminists are like Spock and Police Sergeant Friday (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragnet_(radio_series)) in their approach to the subject, while the post-modernists are like Troi and Picard.

Reader, if you are alone in a room and you feel too warm or too chilled, do you look at the room's thermometer before deciding to either add clothing or remove clothing? If you do, then you are like Spock.

Thermometers are Objective but feeling chilly is subjective.

We need a society in which we can co-exist with one another without feeling as if we need to coerce everyone who doesn't agree with us. If you are not Jewish, I hope that you would not advocate for laws which coerced those who are Jews to eat meat that is not kosher. Yet that is the very thing that Rowling is afraid that the trans activists intend to do.

Whether Rowling is right to have that fear or not is not the issue.

The issue is: Will we be bigots or will we get along.

When someone in the public eye does or says something that we perceive to be horrible, the resulting apology feels manufactured and disingenuous. Do a search for “Karen apology” and you’ll find a trove of statements and videos where the apologist spoke with crocodile tears. The “apology” from the Amy woman who called the cops on a Black man in Central Park over Memorial Day Weekend is an exemplar. But something felt off with the original controversial tweet from JK Rowling.

Whatever Rowling’s actual intent, her tweet felt like it was from someone who wasn’t intelligent enough to realize the negative fallout that sure as sh— would rain down upon her for tweeting that original comment. Pre-Twitter, a publicist would carefully craft the statements made by celebrities in public appearances and interviews. Maybe Rowling believes that being an accomplished writer makes the need for a publicist’s proofreads unnecessary.

Unfortunately, we believe “the first lie” more than we do a revision provided only when the public reaction turns negative.

Very good opening post to introduce yourself to Cake! Hopefully the fact that your post got featured and you elicited some good responses will encourage you to write more 👍

PS: One tip - when you post links, press enter at the end of the link so it will generate a preview instead of just displaying the URL.

Why do you care about her tweets at all?