This is an insightful comment from the incredible Josephine March under the Times article.
These sorts of threats are frequent and extreme. If you google: 'JK Rowling and the transactivists, a story in tweets', you can see thousands of them.
Google terfisaslur for threats made to other people. Those making them are sometimes photographed holding weapons, sometimes in women's and girls' toilets. These sorts of threats have never been acknowledged, let alone condemned by the lobby groups purporting to speak for trans-identifying people. I hope that this post stands, or we will know that some people do not wish the truth to be told. This is not about one women - it's about a woman who stood up, knowing this would come her way, because she wanted to give a voice to other women to whom this is happening. It is meant to serve as a warning to every woman who speaks out, meant to silence us. Women, who unlike her can lose our jobs. This is misogyny, using Trans rights as its shield.
We all know that these threats aren't just a disgusting threat to the individual, they are also intended as a shot across the bows of women in general. See what happens, bitches? Now shut up.
Which is why I'm so grateful to powerful women such as JKR, and furious ones like Francis Barber. Courageously taking the flak to amplify the issue and help other women find their voice.