Acclaimed author J.K. Rowling has once again dropped more controversial tweets concerning the transgender community. This time, her target was Lucy Clark, the world’s first openly transgender football manager, who recently made history by taking over at Sutton United in the fifth division of English women’s football.
The controversy began when Rowling responded to a now deleted tweet celebrating Clark’s achievement with a mocking remark:
“When I was young, all the football managers were straight, white, middle-aged blokes, so it’s fantastic to see how much things have changed.”
Rowling’s comments were met with widespread criticism, with many accusing her of cruelty and transphobia. However, the author doubled down on her stance, later responding to a Daily Mail article about the incident by tweeting, “I didn’t compare him to one. He IS one.”
Lucy Clark later addressed the “hate-fuelled” comment on X, writing :
“Another day of hate fuelled transphobia against me… but hey guess what I am living my best life….Who’s winning at life…the one who’s happy and smiling or those hating?”
J.K. Rowling, on the other hand, still continued to defend her position in a different post.
“Calling a man a man is not ‘bullying’ or ‘punching down.’ Crossdressing straight men are currently one of the most pandered-to demographics in existence, and women are under no obligation to applaud the people caricaturing us.”
Rowling has been an outspoken critic of transgender rights for many years now. Most have perceived this to be so due to her past as “a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor,” which she shared on her website.