Harry Potter creator JK Rowling has revealed that she would happily do prison time over her views on transgender women.
Rowling appeared to be responding to a story in the Mail on Sunday, which reported that a Labour government in Britain could make gender identity attacks a criminal offense.
Critics told the newspaper that it could result in prison sentences for those who refuse to use a transgender person’s preferred pronouns.
“I’ll happily do two years if the alternative is compelled speech and forced denial of the reality and importance of sex,” Rowling said on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.
Rowling has become a leading voice for women’s rights and the importance of biological sex amid the fraught trans debate. Her post appears to suggest that she is willing to commit hate crimes in her desire for freedom of expression.
Rowling added that a court case would be “more fun than I’ve ever had on a red carpet,” before she started joking with her followers about her imagined prison duties.
“Hoping for the library, obviously, but I think I could do ok in the kitchen,” she said. “Laundry might be a problem. I have a tendency to shrink stuff/turn it pink accidentally. Guessing that won’t be a major issue if it’s mostly scrubs and sheets, though.”
Rowling’s prison pledge came after she posted a photo on X from magazine Dazed, which in 2018 projected the statement, “Repeat after us: Trans Women are Women,” onto the offices of the British Ministry of Justice. “No,” she captioned the photo.
