JK Rowling slammed for transgender remarks

'Harry Potter' author JK Rowling has been accused of being a 'TERF' (trans exclusionary radical feminist) after defending a researcher who was sacked for tweeting that transgender women cannot change their biological sex, a media report said on Friday.

The best-selling author hasn't personally tweeted since September, but returned to Twitter on Thursday to "stand with" researcher Maya Forstater, in a post that has been slammed by netizens, metro.co.uk said in the report.

The 54-year-old tweeted: "Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who'll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill."

Many followers and Harry Potter fans criticised the tweet and branded Rowling a ‘TERF' for her defence of Forstater, who lost a test case after she did not have her contract renewed at the Centre for Global Development (CGD), an international think-tank that campaigns against poverty and inequality, for saying that "men cannot change into women".

One Twitter user wrote: "Woowwww JK Rowling gone full TERF," with another saying: "JK Rowling is a full-blown TERF and she's saying it with her chest."

A former fan, who is trans, wrote: "I grew up as a trans child reading your books as an escape. I would often pick out names from characters to give to myself, before I ever felt comfortable in who I was. This decision, to support people that hate me, and want to do me harm. It brings me to tears..."

However, Rowling's representative told Metro.co.uk: "I'm afraid JK Rowling had a clumsy and middle-aged moment and this is not the first time she has favourited by holding her phone incorrectly."IANS