J.K. Rowling's 'dehumanizing' misgendering post reported to UK police, TV personality says

British TV personality India Willoughby says she has reported "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, who has shared anti-trans rhetoric in recent years, to U.K. law enforcement for misgendering her on social media.

Willoughby, a co-host of the popular ITV network talk show "Loose Women," revealed in an interview with Byline TV released Wednesday that she "reported J.K. Rowling to the police for what she said." Willoughby added that she'd contacted Northumbria Police "yesterday" regarding the matter.

The "Loose Women" co-host's name was brought up on Monday, after another social media user shared a GIF of Willoughby dancing in a comment thread under one of Rowling's posts on X, formerly Twitter. The British author replied, "India didn't become a woman. India is cosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy of what a woman is."

In the interview, Willoughby said, "For J.K. Rowling to deliberately misgender me knowing who I am is grossly offensive. It is a hate crime.

"I don't know if (the police report is) going to be treated as a hate crime, malicious communications, but it's a cut-and-dried offense, as far as I'm concerned," she said.

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for ITV, Rowling and Northumbria Police for comment.

J.K. Rowling responds to India Willoughby's claims on social media

Following Willoughby's interview, Rowling took to X with a five-part response Wednesday, which started with the writer claiming she has a "clearly winnable case against India Willoughby for defamation" and that "India's obsessive targeting of me over the past few years may meet the legal threshold for harassment."

In the following posts, Rowling wrote that "the Forstater ruling established that gender critical views can be protected in law as a philosophical belief. No law compels anyone to pretend to believe that India is a woman."

The Forstater ruling she referred to was a 2021 case in which an employment appeal tribunal found that "gender-critical beliefs, which include the belief that sex is immutable and not to be conflated with gender identity," was protected by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and the Equality Act 2010's section on "religion or belief."

"This judgment does not mean that those with gender-critical beliefs can ‘misgender’ trans persons with impunity," the ruling states. "The Claimant, like everyone else, will continue to be subject to the prohibitions on discrimination and harassment that apply to everyone else."

Rowling continued, "Aware as I am that it's an offence to lie to law enforcement, I'll simply have to explain to the police that, in my view, India is a classic example of the male narcissist who lives in a state of perpetual rage that he can't compel women to take him at his own valuation."

Rowling has been loudly criticized − and just as loudly defended − since she made a series of posts in 2020 that conflated sex with gender and defended ideas suggesting that changing one's biological sex threatens her own gender identity. Since then, Rowling has become increasingly vocal about her anti-trans beliefs.

J.K. Rowling's post led to 'deluge' of 'absolutely disgusting' comments, India Willoughby said

In her Byline TV interview, Willoughby described Rowling's post as "insulting. It's just so dehumanizing. And I'm really tired of it. And at the end of the day, it is a hate crime. Transgender identity is a protected characteristic, just as race is, just as sexuality is."

She added, "I am a woman regardless of what J.K. Rowling says. I've been through everything that's required of me. My birth certificate says female, my passport. I am legally recognized as a woman."

Rowling's X post has spurred a wave of social media comments that Willoughby said were "absolutely disgusting, putrid, some of the worst abuse I've ever seen on social media."

"To have that deluge is really difficult," she shared. "Transphobia isn't taken seriously" in the U.K., she concluded.

According to material published by the U.K. Government Equalities Office in 2018, 41% of transgender people reported in a national survey that they'd experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity over the previous year. "Gender reassignment" is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, which "legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society."

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J.K. Rowling's comments about transgender people date back to 2019

Rowling first came under fire in 2019 for posting a message of support for Maya Forstater, a researcher who lost her job at a think tank for stating that people cannot change their biological sex, on X.

In response, GLAAD shared a statement condemning Rowling for aligning "with an anti-science ideology that denies the basic humanity of people who are transgender. Trans men, trans women, and non-binary people are not a threat, and to imply otherwise puts trans people at risk."

Months later, Rowling made a similar stir in criticizing a headline on the website devex.com. The op-ed piece included the phrase "people who menstruate" to be more inclusive. "I'm sure there used to be a word for those people," Rowling posted on X. "Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?"

After facing backlash, Rowling stood her ground, claiming her life "has been shaped by being female" and defended the exclusionary comments while arguing she still supports transgender people.

"I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives," she wrote in a series of X posts. "It isn't hate to speak the truth ... I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I'd march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so."

Last year, Rowling addressed the criticism she's received on the podcast "The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling."

"I absolutely knew that if I spoke out, many people who would love my books would be deeply unhappy with me," Rowling said. "Time will tell whether I've got this wrong. I can only say that I’ve thought about it deeply and hard and long and I’ve listened, I promise, to the other side." 

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Contributing: Barbara VanDenburgh and Hannah Yasharoff, USA TODAY