Open Letter from Autors and Entertainers in Support of JKR

[Igneococcus]

In the Times:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d714149e-003d-11eb-a6ce-737681864bdd?shareToken=522b280f5312e063be007bba64a0e96d

Here is the letter (a few down the list):
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/2e240198-fe6a-11ea-a6ce-737681864bdd?shareToken=8bcca8afb981c27e32894e05e7776f41

And the signatories:

We wish JK Rowling well and stand in solidarity with her.
Ian McEwan, author; Lionel Shriver, author; Griff Rhys Jones, actor; Graham Linehan, writer; Maureen Chadwick, writer; Andrew Davies, writer; Frances Barber, actress; Craig Brown, writer; Alexander Armstrong, actor; Amanda Craig, writer; Philip Hensher, writer; Susan Hill, writer; Jane Thynne, writer; Ben Miller, actor; Simon Fanshawe, writer; James Dreyfus, actor; Frances Welch, writer; Francis Wheen, writer; Arthur Matthews, writer; Aminatta Forna, writer; Joan Smith, writer; Nick Cohen, journalist; Kath Gotts, composer & lyricist; Ann McManus, writer; Eileen Gallagher, writer & producer; Jimmy Mulville, producer; Lizzie Roper, actress; Stella O’Malley, author; Nina Paley, animator; Julie Bindel, journalist; Abigail Shrier, journalist; Rachel Rooney, author; Jane Harris, writer; Tatsuya Ishida, cartoonist; Lisa Marchiano, author; Zuby, musician and author; Debbie Hayton, journalist; Gillian Philip, Author, Jonny Best, musician; Manick Govinda, arts consultant; Russell Celyn Jones, writer; Magi Gibson, writer; Victoria Whitworth, writer; Dr Mez Packer, writer; Grace Carley, producer; Sam Leith, journalist; Malcolm Clark, television producer-director; Shirley Wishart, musician; Charlotte Delaney, writer; Nehanda Ferguson, musician; Justin Hill, writer; Trezza Azzopardi, writer; Birdy Rose, artist; Jess de Wahls, textile artist; Mo Lovatt, writer; Simon Edge, novelist; Tom Stoppard, playwright; and Amanda Smyth, writer

What a great list of people with backbones

This week has been epic.

@DeaconBoo

Pissing myself at the ppl I follow on social media who started calling Father Ted (as an intentionally childish joke) "Arthur Mathews' Father Ted".

I missed that! Does that mean Father Ted will be cancelled now to them now?

Oh well if the New Puritans wish to live a joyless life, full of self-reflection, worrying about pronouns and calling a spade a rake then that's up to them. The rest of us will carry on watching Father Ted, Black Books, IT Crowd, reading Harry Potter and not giving two hoots.

Good to see more heads emerging above the parapet.

I think the article is perhaps quite clever. Mischaracterising the murderer as a fetishist - well, if he wasn't that then clearly he was just a man disguised in a woman's coat. The bland quote from Stonewall implies their position as being supportive of JK and the gc stance. Honestly, I rather hope they can clean out the Augean stables and get back on a sensible track rather than collapsing.

Some wonderful names on that letter.

Glad to see the artist Birdy Rose on there too. She has had to put up with some terrible bullying and victimisation from the gender extremists but she's steadfastly working hard getting her message out and raising money for NIA.

Trans rights were never the issue, the attack on women's (and children's) rights were always the central issue and trans issues just used by MRAs as a Trojan horse to make their misogyny not just socially acceptable but literally undebateable

^this

The self ID is about removing women's rights not improving trans rights. Women disagreeing with Stonewall get misogynist abuse. Stonewall permits misogyny with #nodebate and "acceptance without exception" against women disagreeing with their campaign to dismantle women-only spaces and services; and attack people who describe themselves as exclusively same-sex-oriented.

Thanks for sharing. It is good to see this support.

Why were these people not defending her on twitter

Not sure if all of those people would be twitterers?
I'm not going to fault find the people who've signed this very public letter now - I'm going to hope more heads start to appear above the parapet.

Troubled Blood now had 5 complete stars in its rating. Remember last week, when it started off with one stars from people who hadn't even read the book? They've been legitimately out-ranked.
And I just bought the Kindle version, and intend reading the entire series, even though it's not a genre I normally read. So there.

@FamilyOfAliens

Brilliant but this gaslighting quote from Stonewall absolutely infuriates me:

”Our school training and guidance is clear that teachers shouldn’t make assumptions about whether a child is trans because they don’t conform to gender stereotypes.”

They’re the ones who have trained teachers to make assumptions, to ignore safeguarding good practice and to keep parents in the dark. Such a bunch of back-pedalling liars.

And were campaigning to remove sex as a protected characteristic from the equality act. And claim sexual orientation isn't based in sex.

I never see a rep of stonewall on the tv or radio. Has a anyone, ever, been able to publicly question them?

Frankie Boyle and Owen Jones aren't on that list are they. Of course they're not, it's for authors and entertainers 🤣🤣🤣

@highame

Frankie Boyle and Owen Jones aren't on that list are they. Of course they're not, it's for authors and entertainers 🤣🤣🤣

Neither is John Boyne, who IS an author, and who has been a weed in the wind on this issue. Neither is a Guardian journalist who has writes mostly on literary matters, and whom I know for a fact (from FB) is very GC. She hasn't written much of late so perhaps she's wise to keep her head down for the time being; I'm not assigning blame, especially for a Guardian writer.

I love Philip Hensher's work and have been so pleased to see him speak out on this issue time and again.

Brilliant letter. It's horrifying, the way people are using this as a wedge issue to shut down discussion around women's rights and even biology at all - in Nehanda's interview, she said the moment it dawned on her was when she was told mentioning her uterus at all on social media (I presume she was probably joking about period cramps, which most of us have done) was transphobic - and seeing people start to defend JK Rowling as the enormously decent, kind, generous-hearted person she so clearly is is wonderful. She's been so brave and suffered such horrifying abuse from it. I love her. And, as Rose of Dawn noted, almost everyone I talk to completely agrees with her - most of whom had no idea that it was even happening, until she spoke up. Well, they do now!

Probably worth noting all that Graham Linehan has had to deal with, too. He could have kept his head down, with no costs or risks. But he hasn't, and it has cost him dear. He had a lot to lose but has kept on fighting, and he's been pretty remorselessly bullied and abused over it. I really hope he's feeling less isolated now.

Some pleasing names on that! 👏

@KatVonlabonk

You can really see from this who would actually stand up against totalitarianism.

The Mccarthyist bullies have had their day.

Well said.

This is good news. Wasn't there an open letter of lawyers in support of her this week too?

This is what I was thinking of twitter.com/legalfeminist/status/1310112935218380800?s=20

"Gender self-ID: An open letter to Government
Proposals to amend the Gender Recognition Act to bring in self-ID have now been formally dropped (Times, 23 Septemberr_: “Plans to let transgender people self-identify are shelved”). But self-ID is being widely implemented in practice by public and private bodies, and any questioning of such policies is increasingly framed as hateful; see for example the Liberal Democrats’ definition of transphobia, published last Saturday.
We are lawyers and legal academics. Some of us specialise in discrimination law; all of us are personally opposed to arbitrary discrimination on grounds of sex, race, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, disability, age, marital status, gender reassignment or religion or belief. We believe that all people should be treated with dignity and respect, and should be able to live their lives free from unlawful discrimination, abuse or harassment.
We also believe that sex is biological, and (in humans) immutable: we do not believe that it is possible for a human being literally to change sex. We think it self-evident that biological sex has material consequences. We think there are circumstances in which it is necessary to draw distinctions between (natal) women and trans women. (These are our personal beliefs; we say nothing about the beliefs of any organisations with which we are associated.)
We are surprised that any of this needs saying. But in the face of escalating efforts to make these unremarkable beliefs a matter for shame and secrecy — or loss of livelihood, party discipline, public or even judicial opprobrium — we wish to make it public that they are our beliefs.
Signed by:
Prof Allessandra Asteriti, Jessica Atkinson, Pippa Banham, Susan Bruce, Rebecca Bull, Thomas Chacko, Naomi Cunningham, Peter Daly, Joanne Deveney, Deborah Evans, Eileen Fingleton, Prof Rosa Freedman, Clare Gould, Caroline Gutteridge, Victoria Hewson, Francis Hoar, Rachel Horman-Brown, Karen Jackson, Amanda Jones, Donal Lawler, Belinda Lester, Audrey Ludwig, Lucy Masoud, Tessa McInnes, Emma McNulty, James Mendelsohn, John AP Moir, Barbara Muldoon, Simon Myerson QC, Anthea Nelson, Helen Nettleship, Maureen O’Hara, Adam Ohringer, Clare Page, Anya Palmer, Sarah Phillimore, Tim Pitt-Payne QC, Dr Hannah Quirk, Prof Peter Ramsay, Barbara Rich, Rachel Rowles Davis, Chris Sheridan, Angela Smith, Amy Stroud, Emma Stuart King, Elizabeth Todd, Harry Trusted, Catherine Urquhart, Nina Vallins, Merry van Woodenberg, Emily Watson, Anna Whetham, Gudrun Young, Charlotte Godber"

Some solid names, really pleased to see Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller there.

I am so pleased to see this. I am a member of a children's writing related FB group, and it's been so depressing to see discussion about JKR entirely framed towards her 'spewing hate', which is so far from the truth.

Hoping the inclusion of some of these names will give a pause for thought for some of these people who have demonised JKR so unthinkingly.

Good to see.

Stephen King can go fart into a void, as far as I'm concerned. Craven twonk.

He possibly used women’s clothing in a failed abduction and it’s alluded to as an MO to deceive witnesses, and kept souvenirs of his victims. There is no “fetish for women’s clothing”.

To be fair, besides the disguise incident, the book also mentions that the serial killer character had a history of stealing women's underwear. This is a common feature of the histories of many real life serial killers.

Some people I really rate have signed this. I'm so happy!

@ArabellaScott

Good to see.

Stephen King can go fart into a void, as far as I'm concerned. Craven twonk.

SK has a bad dose of Trump Derangement Syndrome/Wokeism, unfortunately. It sneaks into his recent writings