JK Rowling has hit back at the Chief Justice of South Australia, after the judge claimed her “anxiety” over a new gender pronouns policy was “completely unfounded”.
The Harry Potter author-turned-women’s rights activist has engaged in a week-long dispute with the Supreme Court Judge culminating in a lengthy online post where Rowling accused the judge of failing to understand how “dystopian” the insistence on “preferred gender pronouns” seems to victims of male sexual violence.
“Millions of women are losing confidence in judicial systems that have adopted an ideological position with which they do not agree,” Rowling said on X.
“In the very place where they go to seek justice, a woman may now be obliged to listen to court officials asserting they were raped or beaten by a fellow woman.
“Such women are not merely ‘anxious’, they are furious, about the apparent inability of certain men, judges or not, to understand how dystopian this situation seems to those of us who have suffered male sexual violence.”
Justice Kourakis said he would “prefer that social media commentators took the time to properly inform themselves before pressing the send button”, before assuring the South Australian public Ms Rowling’s anxiety was “completely unfounded”.
Rowling welcomed the assurance, but pointed out the issue had only been addressed after it was raised publicly.
“No such exemption is mentioned in the Practice Note, which takes the ideological position that the ‘use of preferred gender pronouns is a matter of respect’,” Rowling said.
“The natural inference is that a woman would be considered guilty of disrespect if she, alone in the courtroom, described her male attacker as a man, while all court officials were addressing and describing him as a woman.”
The Harry Potter writer said the situation she described was not “hypothetical”.
“The judge will be aware, if he’s informed himself – as he implies I have not – that I’ve already cited an example where a 60-year-old woman was violently assaulted by a 26-year-old trans-identified male,” Rowling said.
“She was chided by the judge for displaying ‘bad grace’ by not using her attacker’s preferred pronouns.”
Rowling also highlighted the chief judge’s failure to acknowledge in the Practice Note that there is a “clear clash of rights” in sexual and violent crimes committed by men against women.
“The woman has a right – indeed, a legal duty – to speak truthfully about the male violence/sexual violence to which she was subjected,” Rowling said.
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