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- JK Rowling reacted angrily to reports calling a transgender murderer a woman.
- The conviction of Scarlet Brown has sparked intense discussion in Rowling's native Britain.
- Some activists, like Rowling, object to the media and others respecting the self-identification of criminals.
JK Rowling posted about a lurid murder story in the UK, reopening a fierce debate about how society should talk about and punish transgender convicts.
Reacting to a Sky News clip on X, formerly Twitter, about the case, the "Harry Potter" author wrote: "I'm so sick of this shit. This is not a woman. These are #NotOurCrimes."
She was referring to Scarlet Blake, a transgender woman who was sentenced to life in prison in a UK court after she was found guilty of murdering Spanish national Jorge Martin Carreno in July 2021.
Per Rowling's argument, Blake's post-transition identity as a woman makes it harder to understand and respond to patterns of criminality properly.
"Crime statistics are rendered useless if violent and sexual attacks committed by men are recorded as female crimes," she wrote in a following post.
Rowling has become a central figure in Britain's gender-critical movement, which objects to society's increasing willingness to recognize a person's stated gender identity.
Critics have said the author's position is transphobic, and her position on the issue has complicated her status as a previously beloved children's author.
Rowling has said she felt strongly enough about the issue, even knowing it would harm her reputation.
The lurid details of Blake's crime have made her fertile ground for Rowling and others to advance their arguments.
Blake lured the 30-year-old to a secluded area, struck him in the head with a vodka bottle, and attempted to strangle him before finally pushing him into a river, where he drowned.
She also pleaded guilty to criminal damage and animal cruelty in the killing of a cat, an act which she live-streamed months before the murder.
Gender-critical figures say that Blake and others should be held in prisons that match their biological gender.
They argue that they represent a danger to the women held around them in single-sex prisons.
It's had an effect on policy. In 2023, the UK government changed its rules around housing transgender prisoners.
Perpetrators of sexual or violent crimes, it said, would no longer be held in women's prisons if they had male genitalia.
It said exceptions could be made if "explicitly approved at the highest level."
Critics of that position highlight the harm they say transgender people suffer from being held in prisons that don't match their identity.
The recent death of the transgender prisoner Tiffany Scott, who was told she could not move from a men's prison in Scotland to a women's one, has fueled that argument, though the circumstances of her death are yet to be determined.
In 2020, an NBC News report said that many transgender inmates were at serious risk of harm in the prison system, citing a 2015 DoJ report that said 35% of transgender people who had been in prison had reported being sexually assaulted in the prior year.
The NBC News report, based on data from 45 states, found that there were 4,890 transgender inmates in state prisons in the US, but it could only confirm that 15 of those inmates were incarcerated in a prison that matched how they self-identify.
It also noted that some have claimed such figures on sexual assaults are likely too low, as many cases aren't fully reported.