J.K. Rowling Gives Back Kennedy Family Award After Kerry Kennedy Condemns Author’s Anti-Transgender Remarks

Harry Potter author J.K Rowling has returned her Ripple of Hope Award after Kerry Kennedy called her out over her anti-transgender comments.

Rowling, 55, has been in headlines a few times over the last few months following a slew of troubling anti-trans – specifically anti-transwoman – comments she made towards the #transgender community. Back in 2019, Rowling was given the Ripple of Hope Award by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization, but now she’s sending it back after Robert F. Kennedy’s daughter, Kerry, called her out over her problematic statements.

“Over the course of June 2020 — LGBTQ Pride Month — and much to my dismay, J.K. Rowling posted deeply troubling transphobic tweets and statements,” said Kennedy, who posted her statement on the organization’s website on Aug. 3. “On June 6, she tweeted an article headlined “Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate.” She wrote glibly and dismissively about transgender identity: ‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

Kennedy went on to say that she’d spoken with Rowling “to express my profound disappointment that she has chosen to use her remarkable gifts to create a narrative that diminishes the identity of trans and nonbinary people, undermining the validity and integrity of the entire transgender community — one that disproportionately suffers from violence, discrimination, harassment, and exclusion and, as a result, experiences high rates of suicide, suicide attempts, homelessness, and mental and bodily harm. Black trans women and trans youth, in particular, are targeted.”

In response, Rowling wrote her own statement saying that she would be returning the award. “Because of the very serious conflict of views between myself and RFKHR, I feel I have no option but to return the Ripple of Hope Award bestowed upon me last year. I am deeply saddened that RFKHR has felt compelled to adopt this stance, but no award or honor, no matter my admiration for the person for whom it was named, means so much to me that I would forfeit the right to follow the dictates of my own conscience.” She added that she feels Kennedy’s statement falsely accuses her of perpetuating the exclusion of trans people, saying the statement against her “incorrectly implied that I was transphobic, and that I am responsible for harm to trans people.”