Culture

J.K. Rowling, Officially A Bad Person, Says Hormone Treatment Is The ‘New Conversion Therapy’

The UK is currently looking to ban conversion therapy, and J.K Rowling thought she could add her transphobia to the bandwagon.

by Jared Richards  6 July 2020
J.K. Rowling compares hormone treatment to 'gay conversion therapy', is widely criticised

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Transphobe and ‘Ickabog’ creator J.K. Rowling has continued her harmful vitriol around trans people, arguing in a Twitter thread that medical professionals are overprescribing hormone treatments akin to anti-depressants, resulting in a “new kind of conversion therapy for gay people”.

The Harry Potter author has voiced transphobic views before, but it has become much more explicit in recent months. In June, she published a 3,600 word screed that included many of the arguments made by TERFs, aka trans exclusionary radical feminists, which boil down to a belief that trans women are a danger to women, children and feminism as a whole.

The essay was disavowed by many LGBTIQ+ activists and also figures within the Harry Potter world, including all three lead actors in the film adaptations. Writer Dawn Ennis has gone through the article’s arguments if you’d like to understand why Rowlings words about trans women being a violent threat to women (or that trans children may just be ‘confused’) are so hurtful.

Now, a few weeks later, Rowling has doubled-down on her double-down. It began after a Twitter user called the author out for liking a tweet which called “hormone prescriptions the new anti-depressants”, labelling both “pure laziness” and overprescribed by those who don’t need them.

“Yes they are sometimes necessary and lifesaving, but they should be a last resort,” the tweet read. “Pure laziness for those who would rather medicate than put in the time and effort to heal people’s minds.”

Rowling responded to the tweet first by calling it part of a fake smear campaign, then clarifying her point. Over an 11 tweet thread, she states she has used anti-depressants herself, but think both they and hormone treatments — particularly the latter — are over-used.

“Many health professionals are concerned that young people struggling with their mental health are being shunted towards hormones and surgery when this may not be in their best interests,” she writes.

“Many, myself included, believe we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalisation that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function.”

The belief that ‘vulnerable’ young people may be ‘converted’ to a trans identity has been widely debunked by the wider medical community but continues to be a line of argument from TERFs and transphobes.

The equation of ‘conversion therapy’, an incredibly harmful psychiatric tool used to ‘convert’ LGBTIQ+ people to cis-heterosexuality, to hormone treatment is a barbed irony. Trans people with hormone or any other affirmative treatment are having the exact opposite of conversion therapy — one gives people the tools to be their true self, the other attempts to break them down.

In her blog post, Rowling expressed a belief that some young people may falsely identity as trans as they believe it to be easier than being same-sex attracted — something which, uh, immediately makes no sense, given that trans people objectively face far more discrimination and threats than anyone else in the LBGTIQ umbrella (that’s spelled out in this paper, though, if that isn’t self-evident).

The UK parliament will soon address a bill that would ban conversion therapy, which the BBC report all major UK therapy bodies and the NHS support. Rowling is attempting to jump on a bandwagon, and was lambasted by LGBTIQ figures and medical officials for doing so.

“Trying to manipulate the current discourse around conversion therapy and trying to compare it to support for trans people is misleading and sinister,” wrote LGBTIQ writer Calum McSwiggin. “There is no evidence to back up your claims, gay people aren’t being converted, trans people are having their identities affirmed.”

Several medical officials also criticised Rowling for spreading information, calling her concerns about young people being ‘pushed’ into hormones completely unrealistic.

Many trans women also came forward with their own experiences to point out Rowling’s concerns about trans teens losing their fertility due to hormone treatment isn’t not only none of her business, it’s also not true.


Others are simply upset with the harm that Rowling is causing as arguably the world’s most famous young adult author. Model and trans activist Munroe Bergdorf wrote that Rowling’s so called concern is only causing harm.

“Not once has @jk_rowling stopped to think about the damage she is doing to the mental health of trans kids,” she wrote. “Not supporting a trans kids transition doesn’t stop them from being trans. If anything forcing them to live as a gender they don’t identity as, is conversion therapy.

“Kids, I want to say that I am so, so sorry this is happening. I will fight tooth and nail on this for you, I will always fight for you. These evil people will not win.”

Last month, more than 60 trans activists and public figures in the U.K. co-signed a letter of solidarity with Rowling, who, after disclosing her history of domestic violence in her anti-trans essay, was targeted by tabloid The Sun with a front-page interview with her ex-husband, who said he’d “hit her again”.

“We stand alongside JK Rowling and all victims and survivors of gender-based violence. It might surprise some, given the impact of her words on the trans community,” one co-signer explained. “I was as hurt as the next trans person by her essay. But our struggles are connected.”