Harry Potter Fame J.K. Rowling To Return Her Human Rights Award
J.K. Rowling announced that she will be returning the human rights award, Ripple of Hope Award that she was honored with last year. The award was presented to the author by the Human Rights organization's Robert F. Kennedy who was a former United States Attorney General.
The announcement was made after Kerry Kennedy, president of the Human Rights organization made a comment on J.K. Rowling being transphobic. Kennedy criticized the author of Harry Potter through the organization's official website following her troubling statements and tweets related to the LGBTQ community.
"Over the course of June 2020 -- LGBTQ Pride Month -- and much to my dismay, J.K. Rowling posted deeply troubling transphobic tweets and statements,” Kennedy wrote on the website. The former attorney further highlighted an article's headline that was tweeted by the author, Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate.
Kennedy accused Rowling with the headline and said that she called transgender as "people who menstruate", which is extremely degrading. He further said that she used words carelessly regarding the transgender and taunted that previously she used certain words such as Woomud, Wimpund, and Wumben.
Kennedy revealed that he had a word with the author to express his opinion and disappointment following the identity remarks. He explained that the transgender community is suffering from exclusion, harassment, discrimination, and violence which eventually leads them to suicide, bodily harm, mental illness, and homelessness.
He noted that Black women who are transgender and youth are the most targeted individuals from the community. However, Rowling took her own official website on Aug. 27 to counter the transphobic accusation.
The author explained that Kennedy has misunderstood and implied incorrectly that she is transphobic. In fact, she clarified that she is not responsible for damaging any transgender individual. Rowling said that she has been a supporter of the community and has been actively helping LGBT charities.
Rowling cleared the air that she never thought ill about the community or hate them. In fact, she has been helping women to fight against discrimination, violence, or anything that doesn't work in their favor.
However, she noted that the misunderstanding between the RFKHR and her are getting bigger and as a result, she did like to return the Ripple of Hope Award that was granted in 2019. Although the Harry Potter stars also took their social media such as Emma Watson, Eddie Redmayne, and Daniel Radcliffe to support the LGBT community.