JK Rowling joins 150 authors and academics calling for an end of ‘cancel culture’

More than 150 academics and writers including the likes of JK Rowling, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie have called for an end to ‘cancel culture,’ to defend their right to freedom of speech. 

Journalist Anne Applebaum warned ‘Twitter mobs’ on the left and right sides of the political agenda, along with US President Donald Trump, were placing ‘very important restraints on freedom of speech’. 

Ms Rowling and Ms Atwood, the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, have both signed the letter, despite being on opposing sides on trans issues recently.

The letter, published in Harper’s calls for: ‘The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted.’

The signatories go on to say they ‘uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter speech from all quarters.’ 

It later adds:  ‘It is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought.’

JK Rowling’s signature is one of 150 on an open letter warning of the risk to open debate, while branding US President Donald Trump an ‘enemy to democracy’ 

The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood has also signed the letter. On Monday she voiced her support for the trans community by tweeting: ‘We’re all part of a flowing Bell curve’ 

American journalist Anne Applebaum has also signed the letter, she told BBC Radio Four today: ‘We’re worried about pressures that come at the moment from both the right and the left.

‘In the United States we have a President who denounces by names the owners of newspapers and seeks to restrain them and seeks to actually use tools of government to stop them.

‘At the same time we have the phenomenon of social media panics and Twitter mobs that seek to silence people who veer from one orthodoxy or another. These are both very important restraints on freedoms of speech and also on people’s sense of risk aversion.

‘There are a lot of writers, artists and journalists who are afraid of approaching certain subjects, afraid of crossing lines or even lacking sufficient zeal for particular subjects because they’re afraid of their peers.’

The journalist says the letter’s purpose is to ‘put some spine’ into universities and other institutions who ‘have become afraid of Twitter mobs’. 

She added: ‘It wouldn’t hurt younger people to go back and listen to arguments that were made 20 and 30 years ago in order to understand some of the context and some of the discomfort that people feel now.’

Rowling sparked fury last month when she reacted to an online article titled: ‘Opinion: Creating a more equal post COVID-19 world for people who menstruate’. 

She tweeted her 14.5 million followers: ‘People who menstruate. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’ 

On Sunday the author, who also goes by the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, said: ‘Many, myself included, believe we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalisation that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function.’

Margaret Atwood voiced her support for the trans community on Monday, tweeting: ‘Biology doesn’t deal in sealed Either/Or compartments. We’re all part of a flowing Bell curve. Respect that! Rejoice in Nature’s infinite variety!’ 

Both authors, joined by the likes of Salman Rushdie, who was accused of blasphemy by the some members of the Muslim faith when his book The Satanic Verses was published in 1988, have supported an open letter published in Harper’s Magazine. 

The letter opens by praising a ‘moment of trial’ cultural institutions face trial’ in the midst of mass protests for racial and social justice, but warns open debate risks being weakened.  

It reads: ‘As we applaud the first development, we also raise our voices against the second. The forces of illiberalism are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump, who represents a real threat to democracy.’ 

It goes on to say: ‘The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted.  

The Harry Potter creator likened hormone therapy and surgery for transgender young people to ‘a new kind of conversion therapy’ 

‘While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty. 

‘The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation. 

‘The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away.

‘We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other. As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes.’ 

Transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf has slammed JK Rowling as ‘dangerous’ and a ‘threat to LGBT people’ in a row over the author’s latest controversial tweets.

The Harry Potter creator likened hormone therapy and surgery for transgender young people to ‘a new kind of conversion therapy’.

Her statements were backed by Baroness Emma Nicholson – who is embroiled in a row with Bergdorf over allegations that the Tory peer bullied her – who dubbed Rowling ‘the very bravest of women’. 

She was also lent support from Walt Heyer, who transitioned to a woman and then back to male who called her ‘my hero’. 

But Bergdorf was quick to slam the author’s statement and wrote: ‘Mark my words. JK Rowling is dangerous and poses threat to LGBT people. 

‘Trans healthcare is not conversion therapy. This is INSANE.’

In a separate Tweet she added: ‘JK Rowling is not a scientist. She is not a doctor. She is not an expert on gender. She is not a supporter of our community. 

‘She is a billionaire, cisgender, heterosexual, white woman who has decided that she knows what is best for us and our bodies. This is not her fight.’

She also called the author an ‘enemy of progress’ and branded her comments ‘evil’. 

But there was support for the writer from Walt Heyer, 80, who transitioned to a woman and then back again to male.

The American, who had 12 years of hormone therapy, backed the Harry Potter creator.

He told the MailOnline: ‘JK is quite correct to equate hormone therapy and surgery to “conversion therapy” very accurately put.

‘The people are having a “row with her” because she is absolutely telling it like it is and frankly JK has become my hero for her willingness to stand up to the nonsense.

‘JK is just getting on with the truth, bravo to her not many have such pluckiness.’

Ms Rowling had written: ‘Many health professionals are concerned that young people struggling with their mental health are being shunted towards hormones and surgery when this may not be in their best interests.

‘Many, myself included, believe we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalisation that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function.

She went on to cite articles discussing the long-term effects of both antidepressants and hormone therapies.

She added: ‘None of that may trouble you or disturb your belief in your own righteousness. But if so, I can’t pretend I care much about your bad opinion of me.’