Police throw out anti-trans complaint against JK Rowling – ‘Not a crime’
JK Rowling will not face police action after officer threw out a complaint that the author “misgendered” trans presenter India Willoughby.
A row erupted after the Harry Potter writer referred to Willoughby as a man in a post online.
The Loose Women presenter previously alleged that Rowling “definitely committed a crime”.
However, a Northumbria Police spokesman said: “While we recognise the upset this may have caused, the post was reviewed and did not meet the criminal threshold.”
Willoughby lodged a complaint with police after Rowling refused to call the former Celebrity Big Brother contestant a “woman” in an debate online.
The author also repeatedly used “he” pronouns.
Rowling said that if she was contacted by police, she would have told them that: “in my view, India is a classic example of the male narcissist who lives in a state of perpetual rage that he can’t compel women to take him at his own valuation.”
However, the 58-year-old hit back and said she is “legally a woman”.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
JK Rowling in explosive row with India Willoughby as author refuses to call trans newsreader a ‘woman’JK Rowling hits back after being ‘reported to police’ and called ‘extremist’ by WilloughbyEmily Carver hits out at Tom Harwood in TV fierce row on JK Rowling trans comments
“I’m legally a woman. She knows I am a woman, and she calls me a man,” Willoughby told Byline TV.
She claims to have been targeted by other accounts with “some of the worst abuse I’ve ever seen on social media” due to Rowling’s “trigger”.
Rowling’s comments came after she took to social media over the weekend to unleash a rant against the idea of trans women being allowed in female locker rooms.
Willoughby was brought into the social media discussion when one X user questioned Rowling on whether or not “this lady”, alongside a gif image of Willoughby, should be forced to use men’s locker rooms.
Responding to the user’s query, Rowling took aim at Willoughby as she replied: “You’ve sent me the wrong video. There isn’t a lady in this one, just a man revelling in his misogynistic performance of what he thinks ‘woman’ means: narcissistic, shallow and exhibitionist.”
A second X user also questioned Rowling: “If India Willoughby is a ‘misogynist’ why did she become a woman? Think!”
But Rowling issued an unwavering retort as she claimed: “India didn’t become a woman. India is cosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy of what a woman is.”
Willoughby, who is Britain’s first transgender newsreader, soon responded to Rowling’s remarks, accusing the Harry Potter author of “grotesque transphobia”.
“How dare you JK Rowling. I’m a woman,” Willoughby penned on X. “Recognised in law and reality. Honestly, you are such a vile person.
“The most obviously transphobic thing you could say to a trans person. Go get some therapy.”