People are angry after J.K. Rowling’s latest book misses the mark, again

 J.K. Rowling continues to undo all of the good in the world that she did with Harry Potter. This time the author is coming under fire for her new novel, which completely misses the mark on everything her critics have been trying to communicate to her ever since she first made controversial comments about the trans community last December.Troubled Blood—the fifth installment in Rowling’s Cormoran Strike series that she writes under the penname Robert Galbraith—hits bookshelves on September 15. And already those who have heard about the premise or gotten an advanced copy are seeing red. The novel revolves around a cisgender male serial killer who dresses like a woman to get close to, and kill, his female victims. As one critic puts it, Rowling “proves her commitment to transphobia” with the setup, which perpetuates harmful and anti-trans stereotypes and sentiments.“One wonders what critics of Rowling’s stance on trans issues will make of a book whose moral seems to be: never trust a man in a dress,” the Telegraph writes in its review. Further driving home that point, the novel describes its killer as “transvestite,” which is considered an outdated and derogatory term for cross-dressing (and is not the same as being trans).Some might argue that changing terminology can be confusing and the author and her editors may not have known the harmful connotations of that word. However Rowling has continued to express transphobic opinions on Twitter, not to mention on her personal website. At this point, she has become one of the highest-profile TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) around, and former fans are fleeing. But not before calling her out. Again.

I really appreciate her being less coy about her transphobia though. I'll remind you all once again, trans people who spent most of their lives taking hormones and getting surgery are very aware of what their biology is. The disconnect is how they know they're trans.

— Mona Lisa Needsa Treatsa (@kat_blaque) September 14, 2020

Does JK Rowling realize that she’s literally putting trans people’s lives at risk? We are regularly killed based on the idea that 1) we’re predators and 2) we aren’t real. Transphobic culture=death. #TransLivesMatter @translashmedia https://t.co/5RPecs5Atj

— imarajones (@imarajones) September 14, 2020

JK Rowling has basically become Dolores Umbridge, so obsessed with her deeply prejudiced perspective that she’ll go to any length to remain convinced of her own righteousness, no matter what harm it causes. https://t.co/6RpVHxvjoW

— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) September 14, 2020

#TransRightsAreHumanRights

Understanding is the first step to acceptance @jk_rowling and only with acceptance can there be recoveryIt matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving!— JEDWARD (@planetjedward) September 15, 2020

JK Rowling thought she was like Hermione but she was Peter Pettigrew all this time x

— its halloween luvs x (@plumbellayt) September 15, 2020

As Vanity Fair points out, this isn’t the first time Rowling has used her anti-trans opinions in a novel. In the second Strike book, The Silkworm, a woman stalks the detective before trying to stab him. When he locks her in his office, her identity is revealed as a trans woman—one who is described in detail in terms of her Adam’s apple and hands. Prison “won’t be fun for you,” Strike says.The book release comes in the same week that former Sex And the City star Cynthia Nixon spoke out against Rowling’s stance. In an interview with The Independent on September 14 she said that Rowling’s comments were painful for her transgender son Samuel to hear. “It was really painful for him because so much of his childhood was tied up with Harry Potter,” she revealed. “We’re a Harry Potter family. The books seem to be about championing people who are different, so for her to select this one group of people who are obviously different and sort of deny their existence, it’s just… it’s really baffling. I know she feels like she’s standing up for feminism, but I don’t get it.”Former fans don’t either, but one person who is standing up for Rowling following this latest controversy is Harry Potter star Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid in the films. Unlike Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and many other of the franchise’s actors, editors and the like, Coltrane believes people are too easily offended.“I don’t think what she said was offensive really. I don’t know why but there’s a whole Twitter generation of people who hang around waiting to be offended,” the 70-year-old told the Radio Times, as per PinkNews. “They wouldn’t have won the war, would they? That’s me talking like a grumpy old man, but you just think, ‘Oh, get over yourself. Wise up, stand up straight and carry on.’”He then continued, “I don’t want to get involved in all of that because of all the hate mail and all that s---, which I don’t need at my time of life.” Someone might want to tell him it could be a little late for that. Meanwhile, the fact that Rowling continues to stand on this hill remains baffling.[video_embed id='1999754']BEFORE YOU GO: Transgender pastor fired from her church[/video_embed]