Eddie Izzard Defends J.K. Rowling

"I hate the idea we are fighting between ourselves, but it's not going to be sorted with the wave of a wand"

BY Allie GregoryPublished Jan 4, 2021

Just weeks after announcing she'd started using she/her pronouns, gender-fluid British comedian Eddie Izzard has come to the defence of notorious transphobe J.K. Rowling.

Speaking with The Telegraph, Izzard explained that she doesn't think Rowling is transphobic — despite years' worth of evidence to the contrary. This includes when the author compared transgender hormone treatment to gay conversion therapy and penned that 3,600-word essay about cancel culture and trans activism's effect on children, as well as when she threw a tantrum over the use of gender-inclusive language in an article about menstrual products.

"I think we need to look at the things she has written about in her blog," Izzard told The Telegraph. "Women have been through such hell over history. Trans people have been invisible, too."

She added: "I hate the idea we are fighting between ourselves, but it's not going to be sorted with the wave of a wand. I don't have all the answers. If people disagree with me, fine — but why are we going through hell on this?"

It remains unclear if Izzard is fully aware of the depths of Rowling's history of transphobia or if she has based her opinion of the Harry Potter author solely on her TERF-aligned tweets.

Unsurprisingly, Twitter users have blasted Izzard over her defence of Rowling. See some of those reactions below.
 

Latest Coverage