Police have decided not to take action against JK Rowling after dismissing a complaint regarding the author’s alleged “misgendering” of trans presenter India Willoughby.
A row erupted when the Harry Potter author mentioned Willoughby as a man in an online post. 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 complained to the police because Rowling wouldn’t refer to the former Celebrity Big Brother contestant as a “woman” during an online debate.
The author also repeatedly used “he” pronouns.
Ms 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”.
“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 made these remarks after she posted on social media over the weekend, expressing her strong opposition to the idea of transgender women using female locker rooms.
Willoughby became part of the conversation on social media when a user asked Rowling whether “this lady”, with a gif image of Willoughby, should have to use men’s locker rooms.
Responding to the user’s query, Rowling aimed 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!”
However, 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.”
