JK Rowling is singlehandedly creating anti-trans sentiment that is very real and very, very dangerous to us. She is not just sharing her opinion— she is starting a brand new wave of transphobia.

People who did not fully care before do now. Those people may have been perfectly happy to let trans people live in peace before. Sure, they may never have fully understood us, but they likely would not have purposefully stood in our way. Now, they are.

She’s actively bringing new people into this anti-trans way of thinking. She is giving it legitimacy it did not fully have before. It is only going to continue to build, and honestly, I’m scared.

One example of this is my dad. I came out to him a few years ago, and honestly he mostly just didn’t care.

Now? Now, he’s bringing up all these “interesting perspectives” that “JKR has been commenting on.”

He simply did not care before. Now he does. ONLY because of JKR.

This is why it’s dangerous. It is not just stoking the flames of transphobes who are well set in their ways— it is actively creating new ones. New ones who don’t actually believe themselves to be transphobic.

Because JKR’s words are cloaked in civility and “concern” and a weird kind of liberalism, people do not see it as transphobia. As hate.

Which means that people who see themselves as well-meaning and liberal-minded will feel ok and justified in copying the rhetoric.

But this rhetoric is NOT neutral.

It opens up every single trans person to increased scrutiny on personal and public levels. It sows doubt that will impact policy and employment and healthcare as well as friendships and family.

It has the potential to ruin lives.