Today Rowling retweeted an X posting by Julie Bindell that included her recent podcast comments about Pink News, an interview she chose to caption with the brief and terse, “I sued Pink News.”
It was not news per se but Rowling’s retweeting it included her back and forth replies to Bindell that of course went out to Rowling’s 14 million plus followers on that platform. It had a startling finish:
The “shocked” bit is evidently sarcasm, meaning “this was very well known and you know very well how involved I was in that suit.” Bindel’s “I don’t like to mention it” is similarly sarcastic; she is not one to suffer injuries or fools quietly (her courage in reporting the Muslim rape gangs for many years speaks to her temperament in this regard). Rowling segues from that false humility or reserve to the subject of her having been rumored to be bankrolling this lawsuit against Pink News, which Bliden confirms.
And then Rowling drops what seems to be the point of the re-tweeting and the entire exchange. “I feel today’s a really good day to let the delightful Cohen and James know I was indeed backing you.” Rowling as a rule does not flaunt her private generosity in public. What has happened to make 18 January a “really good today” to reveal that she had been paying Blindel’s significant legal costs in her battle against Pink News, costs that would otherwise have bankrupted the independent journalist?
Two explanations are credible, I think.
The first is that this is Pink News specific. The two owners of this LGBTQ+ publication are facing a landslide of allegations from former employees of sexual misconduct and, at best, a “hostile work environment.” If you listen to the Blindel podcast comments about Pink News, the edited version makes sure to highlight Blindel’s comments that Pink News published almost 700 articles about J. K. Rowling to defame her as a “transphobe,” “bigot,” and “TERF.” Today would be the day to reveal to “Cohen and James” that their attempt to wait out Blindel and bankrupt her in a kind of “lawfare” had failed because the journalist had the barracuda barristers of a billionaire at her side; their fall from grace, Rowling seemed to think, was the right moment to reveal a la the Count of Monte Christo who their real persecutor is.
Hence the popularity of this meme today:
The message seems to be Rowling telling those who come for her that actions have consequences, i.e., F. A. F. O.
That makes sense except that the Pink News story is more than a week old by BBC time and Rowling said “today’s a really good day” to reveal she had Blindel’s back in this court case. This is beside the points that Rowling is not given to either flashing her generosity for social media credit or doing end zone dances. Why “today,” then?
Check out this story today in the UK Daily Mail about a Gender Identity case in the Australian courts:
If you read the story, you learn that there is very little evidence beyond a December tweet that Rowling has become “involved” in this case, known inevitably perhaps as ‘Tickle vs Giggle.’ In brief, a “transgender woman” sued a women’s only online site, ‘Giggles for Girls,’ for excluding him because he is a biological male. The Australian court decided in a “What is a Woman?” decision that gender identity is equivalent to biological sex; ‘Roxy Tickle’ “transitioned” in 2017 and had mutilating surgery several years later, which in Australia now means that “sex is changeable” in the eyes of the law. Tickle, the man’s real surname, was awarded $10,000 AUD in damages though he sued for $200,000.
Grover appealed. Today’s headline announced that Tickle elected to counter-sue Grover, an unexpected tack in his situation. From the Daily Mail article:
Ms Tickle has filed a cross-appeal seeking to elevate the court’s finding from indirect to direct discrimination.
She also aims to increase the awarded damages and aggravated damages significantly beyond the initial $10,000 compensation and legal costs, which were capped at $50,000.
The move was confirmed by her legal firm, Barry Nilsson.
‘A cross appeal has been filed and there will be a case hearing to determine it,’ Senior Associate Tinashe Makamure said.
‘It’s just looking particularly on the finding of indirect discrimination… and whether the legal tests that were applied were correct.’
Where does Rowling enter into this? The Mail reports that Grover, a “mother-of-one is now being supported by prominent gender activist and Harry Potter author JK Rowling. It’s understood the pair are planning to meet in the UK next month.” The only evidence for this that they offer is screen shot a twixter exchange between Rowling and Grover late last year:
My guess is that Rowling’s exchange with Julie Bindel this morning was to put the Tickle legal team on notice that, should they be trying to bankrupt Sall Grover by their counter-suit (which Grover would have to respond to while paying her lawyers for the appeal of the original decision), Grover has resources to carry her through whatever legal proceedings this case requires. Adding speculation on top of that guess, the Daily Mail may have been cued to include Rowling in this headline by her agents not just because of the December 2024 tweet and the clear click-bait goldmine that the author always is, but also because Team Rowling suggested it to them, in case the Bindel chat charade wasn’t clear enough of a message.
Think ‘Hermione Granger manipulating the The Quibbler to get Harry’s version of events ‘out’ to the Wizarding World.
Why is Rowling so involved, however, in the Australian case? Tickle has done her no immediate wrong as had Pink News.
If the preliminary court ruling that “sex is changeable” is overturned on appeal, then the fact that sex is immutable becomes the premise of judicial decisions again ‘down under.’ If Tickle wins contra Grover’s appeal, the cause of women’s right to women’s only spaces in Australia is set back years if not forever and an international precedent is set.
Rowling’s twixter exchange today with Bindel may very well be about the Pink News case. The story didn’t burst upon us today but it remains topical.
I think, though, that it is at least as likely that Rowling is broadcasting to the Gender Identity community that she will be bankrolling the court battles of Gender critical feminists in the UK and elsewhere to defend women’s rights as well as to protect children and adolescents from chemical castration and surgical mutilation. The ability of the trans activist mob to crush lone women financially or even the perception that this would be a possible legal tactic has just evaporated.
Whence these other memes from Daffy Dee about Rowling this week in which Julie Bindel and Sall Grover are mentioned:
