J.K. Rowling didn’t hold back in her takedown of late-night host John Oliver’s latest virtue-signaling tirade about transgender athletes in sports.
The “Harry Potter” author aired her frustrations online, starting with a dose of disappointment. “Nothing about this feels good,” Rowling wrote, referencing her previous respect for Oliver due to his charity work for her organization, Lumos. But she wasted no time dismantling his arguments, saying, “God knows, if you ever need an example of motivated reasoning and confirmation bias, this video’s for you. An undoubtedly intelligent person spouts absolute bullsh** to support something he wants to be true, but isn’t.”
Oliver, in his Friday “Last Week Tonight” segment, waded into the debate over biological males competing in women’s sports, parroting the same recycled lines that have long been debunked. He confidently claimed there was “no evidence” trans athletes have a competitive advantage and dismissed concerns about fairness or safety as overblown hysteria. “There are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high schools anywhere,” he argued, adding that opponents should focus on the “creepy assistant volleyball coach” liking students’ Instagram posts instead.
Rowling wasn’t having it. She fired back with cold, hard facts, pointing to a recent U.N. report showing that over 600 female athletes were robbed of medals across 29 sports because of trans-inclusion standards. She also cited the case of Payton McNabb, a young athlete who suffered a concussion after a trans-identifying male spiked a volleyball at her during a high school game.
“Again and again I’ve come up against men who argue exactly what Oliver does here, using the very same talking points,” Rowling said, dismantling his claims with precision. “With a straight face, the ‘believe the science’ guys will say, ‘Actually, we don’t yet have enough data to say whether men and boys are stronger and faster than women and girls.’”
Rowling didn’t mince words when addressing the hypocrisy of Oliver and his ilk. “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 maybe, just maybe, rethink using all too real and common sexual predation against young women as a punchline for your ‘edgy’ closing joke.”
It’s clear Rowling isn’t here to play nice, especially when fairness and safety are on the line.
