JK Rowling responds as India Willoughby reports author to police over misgendering
07.03.2024 - 21:11
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Author JK Rowling has said the “police are going to be very busy” amid accusations she misgendered broadcaster India Willoughby.
In an interview with Byline TV, Willoughby, 58, a trans woman and broadcaster, told journalist Caolan Robertson that she had reported the Harry Potter author to the police for calling her a man.
Following the release of the filmed interview, Rowling, 58, said that Willoughby appeared to have forgotten the Forstater ruling, which “established that gender critical views can be protected in law”.
Maya Forstater successfully brought a case to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) to establish that gender-critical views are a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010 in 2021.
Rowling later reposted a clip of Robertson in which he said he had contacted the author for an interview as well.
She accused the journalist of calling Willoughby “him” twice in the video. The captions refer to Willoughby as “them” and Robertson has refuted Rowling’s claims.
Rowling also said in the post: “Extraordinary… The police are going to be very busy.”
On Sunday, the Harry Potter writer posted a criticism of trans women being allowed into women’s changing rooms on X and in the thread she spoke about Willoughby and said: “India didn’t become a woman. India is cosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy of what a woman is.”
In the interview with Byline TV, Willoughby said of the posts: “JK Rowling has definitely committed a crime.
“I’m legally a woman. She knows I’m a woman and she calls me a man.
“It’s a protected characteristic.
“And that is a breach of both the Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Act.
“She’s tweeted that out to 14 million followers.”
Under the Equality Act 2010, a person cannot discriminate against