JK Rowling blasts John Oliver for rant about trans athletes

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has slammed John Oliver for 'spouting bulls***' during a segment on his show in which he said women do not face safety threats from competing against trans athletes. 

On the latest episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver said that there was 'no evidence [trans athletes] post any threat to safety or fairness.'

'There are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high schools anywhere,' Oliver began.

'Even if there were more, trans kids like all kids vary in athletic ability and there is no evidence they pose any threat to safety or fairness. It is very weird for you to be so focused on this subject.'

Rowling, an avowed anti-trans feminist, described the late night host as 'an undoubtedly intelligent person spouts absolute bulls*** to support something he wants to be true, but isn't.'

She added in her post to X: 'If you want to tell the world you're happy to watch females suffer injury, humiliation and the loss of sporting opportunities to bolster an elitist post-modern ideology embraced by a minute fraction of the world's population, fair enough; you're allowed your opinion. 

'But if you've just told girls they don't deserve fair sport, maybe rethink using all too real and common sexual predation against young women as a punchline for your "edgy" closing joke.'

She cited the case of Payton McNabb, the volleyball player who was left partially paralyzed by a transgender opponent who struck her face with a ball at the age of 17, saying: 'Girls have been ousted from teams to make way for boys. Women have suffered serious injury playing against trans-identified men.'

McNabb was 17 when a ball spiked by a trans opponent with force struck her in the face, threw her to the ground and shut off her consciousness.

The 5ft 11in trans player cackled in delight, Ms McNabb said, after sending her to the floor. As did other players in the opposite team.

Ms McNabb was left with brain damage and paralysis on her right side, which ended her dreams of getting a volleyball college scholarship and has made it difficult to walk without falling.

She previously told DailyMail.com that she worries for other female athletes who are made to compete against trans athletes. 

She said: 'There is a biological difference between the two [trans women and women], there is a difference in sports because of this in the first place.

'It's dangerous to have the two [sexes] competing together, and just not okay. I am disgusted by this, personally. This is morally wrong and evil.

'It used to be illegal for men to beat up women, and now people are putting it on TV and watching it. It's such a weird reality we are living in now.'  

In his late night rant, Oliver lambasted the Democratic establishment for abandoning trans people in search of votes ahead of the November 5 election, which Kamala Harris lost. 

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JK Rowling defends her views on women's rights in wake of Donald Trump's US election victory

He criticized self-proclaimed progressives who've turned against transgender people and blamed 'woke' politics for Donald Trump's success. 

He bluntly critiqued Harris's campaign and how it largely ignored trans rights while Republicans poured over $215 million into anti-trans advertising - amounting to roughly $134 for every trans person in the U.S.

Oliver argued that Democrats should have taken a stronger stance in supporting trans people, expressing frustration with the Harris campaign's failure to effectively counter the attacks. 

He called the lack of response particularly disheartening, noting that 'formulating a response is actually quite straightforward.' 

Addressing those blaming trans issues for Democratic losses in recent elections, Oliver warned that such finger-pointing at a specific demographic is 'missing the mark.' 

Rowling has been seen as a key figure in the anti-trans fight since at least 2019, when she publicly backed Maya Forstater, a woman who lost her job at a thinktank for her gender-critical views. 

Most recently, she launched a blistering attack on her gender ID critics in the wake of Donald Trump's US election victory.

The Harry Potter author pointed the finger at 'the left' for their support of controversial gender ideology.

Ms Rowling insisted she was not 'far right' but was standing up for women and would not back down on her staunch defence of 'women only spaces'.

She said the current Labour government had plummeted in polling after they 'embraced' gender identity ideology and suggested it might have been a reason behind the re-election of Trump.

The 59-year-old referenced an earlier message she had posted on social media where she claimed the 'left had f****d up monumentally' on gender identity ideology.

She said: 'Women like me, and there are a lot of us, aren't and never have been far-right. We simply want the left to wake the hell up, because we're watching it do its utmost to alienate people it used to represent.