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

@TheLurkingOne, I may have to join you...

@TheLurkingOne, this is quite funny, too. This is the passage in the LoB wiki entry about that scene:

Hardly mentioned in the discussion was the sideswipe at the women's movement, which started to draw a lot of attention in the 1970s. In accordance with the language of political activists, resistance fighter Stan wants to use “his right as a man” to be a woman. The group accepts him from that moment on as Loretta, because the right to give birth was not theirs to take. Also as a result from that, the term sibling replaces the terms brother or sister.[94]

Goodness.

@TheLurkingOne

John Cleese has really thrown himself into the fray in JKs defence and he is not holding back. He is a legend.

Have any of the lame woke Harry Potter actor's done a reverse ferret yet?

Eddie Redmayne has now condemned the vitriol against JKR.

Of course, when he was chanting TWAW, everyone was high fiving and patting him on the back.

Now he's condemning death and rape threats, they're all against him because he's a "cis" man who played a transwoman 🙄

So fickle.

twitter.com/ZackFord/status/1310665310677204993

Link to one. He's trending on Twatter.

Detest Redmayne. Over privileged wide eyed prat. Dh was at university with lots of men like that - anything he is on is switched off. When he came out against JKR just confirmed our low opinion.

Redmayne was a member of the all male Pitt Club at Cambridge. Sooooo inclusive, darling.

*voted to allow women in in 2017 apparently

So many names I'm pleased to see on that list! This is what we need - for more people to stand up and calmly take the middle ground here. No-one wants trans people dead, as the hyperbolic language around the issue would have you believe. We just want women's rights respected equally, and we want the freedom to even have the conversation without being silenced or subjected to the vilest misogynistic abuse.

No rational person could argue with that. The more the likes of Stephen King and Philip Pullman pretend to misunderstand the issue, the more they show themselves to be cowards, who only care for women's rights when it's en vogue to do so.

Saw a blue tick called Abi Roberts had replied this to that guy Zack Ford crying about Redmayne.

" If he cared about his career he would have thrown JK under the bus like the other spineless, woke, genuflecting pricks but he’s clearly got a spine. Good for him. "

That is quite the bat for JKR she's made.

(This is the first time I've come across her)

She's giving Redmayne far too much credit though. He's a pathetic weasel.

twitter.com/abiroberts/status/1310702813392121857?s=20

news.sky.com/story/amp/jk-rowling-profoundly-grateful-for-supportive-letter-over-transphobia-allegations-12084520

www.thebookseller.com/news/mcewan-and-forna-defend-honourable-rowling-1220240

@yourhairiswinterfire

twitter.com/ZackFord/status/1310665310677204993

Link to one. He's trending on Twatter.

Big Brave Zack (whoever he is) has hidden some replies

Zack has a beard, his pronouns in his bio and describes himself as queer.

My expectations of him having any opinions worth listening to are appropriately adjusted. Downwards.

I've just added my name to that list/letter via email to Stella O Malley. Feeling a bit scared and a bit proud of myself.

I'm no blue tick but I'm a professional illustrator, moderately known in the children's book illustration circles. I have around 6k followers.

This is first time I've ever spoken out on anything. I may have just fucked my career but I just couldn't sit back anymore and it's a great hill to die on.

Great, Sunset. It's lovely to see the growing support. After all this time.

Oh, can one do that, Millicent? I'd happily add my name, little known as it is, as a writer. Will try.

And I'm in complete agreement 're career. What would be the point in being a writer or artist if one is only free to mouth certain prescribed platitudes and absurdities? That is not why I do it. Rather be unemployed than a fucking liar, to paraphrase Magdalen.

Go for it Arabella. Shall I dm you you email address I used. I got it from the Daily Glinner.

Yes, please!

Arabella nice to have your company. My publishers may drop me but seeing as I'm mid fiction series with some of them they'd be in such a hole if they did!

Now I wish I'd done something moderately useful with my life instead

Maybe I'll write to my uni "equality" team and ask if they will reconsider some of their pretty-much-enforced transgender training instead.

Arabella and Millicent, thank you both for your bravery!

I'm between publishers. I've been taking note of the craven ones. Would actually be useful to get self put on a gc list to save the bother of a fall out later on tbh.

Even though I'm GC, I re-read the letter. There's literally nothing in it that any decent person could disagree with. Standing up against bullying women and misogynistic abuse online?
Who could get angry with us for that right?

@Milicentbystander72

Go for it Arabella. Shall I dm you you email address I used. I got it from the Daily Glinner.

The address is on one of my posts a few pages back.

Is there a list somewhere with all the people who have asked to be added?

No, because it is still being built! apparently it's a veritable DELUGE. Anyone who cares to be on the right side of history better get there fast!

Yes, sadly I think using the word 'misogyny' or 'feminism' is considered a 'dog whistle' these days. At least, it is if the person using those words is a uterus-haver.