On December 14, author JK Rowling, a well-known author who created the widely popular Harry Potter series, took to Twitter to wish a follower a ‘Merry Terfmas’ followed by a ‘blowing kiss’ emoji.
And since then, the tweet has garnered an overwhelming torrent of abuse ahead of the ‘Gender Critical Coming Out Day’—also known as ‘Terfmas’.
Rowling posted the tweet in response to a Twitter user @Sian_L_S, who hailed JK Rowling for the launch of a rape and sexual assault crisis centre in Edinburgh that supports and employs only cisgender women while excluding trans women in the process.
Merry Terfmas 😘
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 14, 2022
But this did not sit well with many social media users, including those sympathetic to the cause of Transgender, who took to Twitter to attack the Harry Potter author, accusing her of harbouring ‘gender-critical’ views and ‘revelling in transphobia’.
‘Gender Identity’ fanatics attack JK Rowling over her ‘Merry Terfmas’ tweet
Popular gaming influencer @iamBrandonTV derided Rowling on Twitter, asking Harry Potter fans who still want to purchase and play the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy Video game, which is set to release on 10 February 2023.
“I want to play that new Harry Potter game, I don’t understand why people would be mad about that.”
— iamBrandon 🏳️🌈 (@iamBrandonTV) December 16, 2022
The author of that wizard book: pic.twitter.com/oADesHVYcQ
Several other Twitter users have been hating Rowling and accusing her of being ‘transphobic’.
Why is @JK_Rowling such a terrible person? pic.twitter.com/zbf2EwngRj
— David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) December 16, 2022
Gender Criticals: "There's no evidence that JK Rowling is transphobic!" pic.twitter.com/O1O6irkUdb
— Natalie (she/her) 🏳️⚧️ (@natgrace79) December 19, 2022
Rowling apologists: “Show me where JK was explicitly transphobic!!”
— Have a Holly Jolly Get Rekt (@mallowm00n) December 17, 2022
JK Rowling herself: pic.twitter.com/ssB1Bfwc7L
What does ‘Merry Terfmas’ mean?
TERF is an acronym that stands for a trans-exclusionary radical feminist. Trans-inclusive cisgender feminist writer Viv Smythe coined the word in 2008, and it is used to describe feminists who do not consider trans women to be women and often oppose trans-inclusive policies.
The term ‘Merry Terfmas; is a play on the popular festival greeting ‘Merry Christmas’, the occasion that marks the celebration of Jesus Christ. ‘Merry Terms’ was first used in 2021 by Graham Linehan to describe his much-ridiculed ‘Gender Critical Coming Out Day’, exhorting people to make their ‘gender-critical’ views known to friends, family and colleagues.
However, in the last few months, the phrase ‘Merry Terms’ has gained currency among TERFs as a watchword during the festive season to describe ‘Gender Critical Coming Out Day’.
What is ‘Gender Critical Coming Out Day’?
‘Gender Critical Coming Out Day‘ was co-created by Graham Linehan, who was permanently de-platformed from Twitter in 2020 for “hateful conduct” over his continuous anti-trans rhetoric, in addition to anti-trans activists Helen Staniland and the anonymous ‘Karen Actually’. It falls on December 19.
A website is dedicated to creating awareness among people about ‘Gender Critical Coming Out Day’. which describes the event as “a day to let others know you support the reality of biological sex, and that you are against an ideology that says gender identity can replace sex, in whatever way works for you”.
As per the website, supporters are asked to mark the day by using hashtags such as #SexNotGender, #IStandWithMaya, #IStandWithJKRowling or changing email signatures to include purposeless phrases such as “my pronouns are based on my biology” on their social media accounts.
Merry Terfmas and JK Rowling connection
‘Gender Critical Coming Out Day’ or ‘Merry Terfmas’ falls on December 19, the anniversary of Rowling’s infamous #IStandWithMaya tweet in 2019, after she tweeted her support for a British woman who was fired for making transphobic remarks.
The hashtag #IStandWithMaya was in support of a researcher Maya Forstater, who had claimed online that there are only two biological sexes, for which she was fired by the U.K. poverty think tank that employed her for questioning government plans to allow people to self-identify as another gender.
Rowling had tweeted in solidarity with Maya Forstater, The tweet read: “Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill”.
Dress however you please.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 19, 2019
Call yourself whatever you like.
Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you.
Live your best life in peace and security.
But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill
Past instances when JK Rowling had faced attacks for her views on ‘gender identity’
This is not the first time that author JK Rowling has come under attack for voicing her opinions on ‘gender identity’. Last year, JK Rowling took to Twitter to narrate how she and her family were doxxed by LGBT activists for not buying their ‘socio-political concept of gender identity.’
The Hary Potter-fame-author informed that 3 LGBT activists deliberately clicked pictures of themselves outside her residence such that the address was visible in those photographs. The activists then uploaded the pictures on Twitter, thereby leaving Rowling and her family vulnerable to attacks. The incident took place on Friday, November 19, 2021.
In July 2021, JK Rowling received death threats from LGBTQ activists for flagging the dangers women face in public toilets by men identifying themselves as women. Rowling shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by one of the nasty internet trolls, who apparently wished her “a very nice pipebomb in the mailbox”.
Rowling had drawn the ire of the LGBTQ community in 2020 after she linked her experience of sexual assault with her concern over transgender access to women-only spaces in a 3,600 words long essay.
In her article, Rowling, a domestic violence survivor, said she was perturbed that “the new trans activism” was undermining women and girls’ rights to single-sex spaces by “offering cover to predators”.
