Latest news with #womenOnlySpaces
Times
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Times
‘We were never friends.' JK Rowling rebuffs Stephen Fry in trans row
JK Rowling has issued a withering rebuff to Sir Stephen Fry after he claimed she had become 'radicalised' over trans issues and described her as being a 'lost cause'. The broadcaster and author previously dined regularly with Rowling and narrated the audiobook versions of her seven Harry Potter novels. However, last week he claimed the Edinburgh-based writer's views had become 'inflammatory and contemptuous'. Jolyon Maugham, the barrister and author, took to social media to echo Fry's views. 'Really creditable this, from Stephen Fry. I've spoken to so many of JKR's once friends who now despair at her privately but won't do so publicly, which is very much the British way and why nothing ever changes for the better,' he wrote. 'So well done Stephen'. Rowling, however, appeared to suggest that Fry was mistaken in his belief that they were once close. 'It is a great mistake to assume that everyone who claims to have been a friend of mine was ever considered a friend by me,' she wrote, responding to Maugham on X. Rowling has become one of the most outspoken campaigners for women-only spaces, becoming a target for criticism from transgender rights activists. Supreme Court judges ruled in April that under equality law the definition of a woman is based on biological sex and biological men cannot become women regardless of whether they hold a gender recognition certificate. The ruling was the culmination of a long-running legal battle and has significant implications for how sex-based rights apply across Scotland, England and Wales. The court sided with campaign group For Women Scotland, which brought a case against the Scottish government challenging its guidance on gender representation. Rowling had donated £70,000 to the group to help fund their challenge. Fry, speaking on The Show People podcast, suggested her views had become extreme. 'She started to make these peculiar statements and had very strong, difficult views,' he said. 'She seemed to wake up, or kick, a hornets' nest of transphobia, which has been entirely destructive. I disagree profoundly with her on this subject.' Fry, who is gay, said he was angry that Rowling had failed to disavow 'some of the more revolting and truly horrible' things people say. 'She says things that are inflammatory and contemptuous, mocking and add to a terribly distressing time for trans people. She has been radicalised, I fear,' he said, suggesting she had been hardened by the vitriol thrown at her. 'I am sorry because I always liked her company. I found her charming, funny and interesting and then this thing happened and it altered the way she talks and engages with the world.'
Daily Mail
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Trans lobby groups 'lied for years' that anyone self identifying as a different gender could access women's' toilets, equality chief says
Transgender people were misled about their rights to female only spaces by lobby groups, according to a senior member of an equality watchdog has said. In April a Supreme Court ruling confirmed the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act 'refer to a biological woman and biological sex'. Akua Reindorf, a barrister who is one of eight commissioners at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said trans people had been deceived about their rights were. Speaking in a personal capacity during a debate about the recent ruling, she said there must be a 'period of correction' to acknowledge women's right to women-only spaces. The decision made it legal for trans people to be banned from women-only sports teams, and from using bathrooms and changing rooms for the gender they lived as. These terms were later supported by interim non-statutory advice given by the EHRC last April. When an audience member at the debate raised fears about the recent Supreme Court ruling and how it could strip away trans peoples rights, barrister and panellist, Naomi Cunningham said: 'It can't be helped, I'm afraid.' In agreement with her fellow panellist, Ms Reindorf said she believed trans lobbyists were at faults for the misunderstanding. 'Unfortunately, young people and trans people have been lied to over many years about what their rights are,' she said. 'It's like Naomi said – I just can't say it in a more diplomatic way than that. They have been lied to, and there has to be a period of correction, because other people have rights' She claimed it boiled down to the law prior to the Supreme Court ruling being misunderstood due to groups contending trans people who self-identified should be treated as their preferred gender. However, this was only the case for the those who had obtained a gender recognition certificate (GRC). The barrister said the amalgamation of different rights made the Equality Act nonviable from a personal capacity. 'The catalyst for many to catch up, belatedly, with the fact that the law never permitted self-ID in the first place,' she said. As such, the feeling of a loss of right of trans people was due to an overwhelming product of 'misinformation' perpetrated by 'lobby group and activists'. Author JK Rowling backed the barrister's recent comments, saying lobby groups lied 'about what the law said'.' However, the head of gender justice at Amnesty International UK, Chiara Capraro, hit back Ms Reindorf's comments. She said: 'The EHRC has the duty to uphold the rights of everyone, including all with protected characteristics. We are concerned that it is failing to do so and is unhelpfully pitting the rights of women and trans people against each other.' A spokesman for the EHRC told The Guardian: 'Akua Reindorf KC spoke at this event in a personal capacity. This was made clear at the event and in the video recording published online. 'As Britain's equality regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission upholds and enforces the Equality Act 2010 to ensure everyone is treated fairly, consistent with the Act. 'Our board come from all walks of life and bring with them a breadth of skills and experience. This helps us take impartial decisions, which are always based on evidence and the law.'
