JK Rowling has attacked Labour’s trans conversion law for ‘usurping’ the role of parents in children’s lives.
The Harry Potter author shared a post on X claiming the new legislation, which outlaws abusive attempts to change people’s sexuality or gender identity, could also threaten gay rights.
Critics fear the bill will have a similar effect to Section 28 of the Local Government Act – that banned the ‘intentional promotion of homosexuality’ – as teachers will be prevented from suggesting children may be happier growing up gay, rather than transgender.
Ms Rowling retweeted the post which was written by journalist Kevin McKenna, alongside the caption ‘THIS’, indicating she agreed with its content.
‘The proposed Conversion Practices bill risks an authoritarian government usurping the role of parents in their children’s lives,’ Mr McKenna’s post read.
‘It may also be the biggest threat to gay rights since Section 28.’
Ms Rowling, who is a prominent gender critical feminist, has campaigned against the erasure of biological sex.
Her criticism of the draft law is likely a boost to activists who want it to be scrapped.
Under the terms of the bill, parents could face up to five years’ jail if they refuse to fund their children’s gender surgery.
JK Rowling has attacked Labour’s trans conversion law for ‘usurping’ the role of parents in children’s lives
Primary school pupils could be taken to court over remarks made about classmates who want to change sex, according to a damning assessment of the bill co-written by Britain’s former equalities watchdog.
The report says the draft legislation breaches the right to a fair trial by introducing the contentious ideology of ‘gender identity’ into law by the back door, and will allow activists to bring private prosecutions against their opponents.
Baroness Falkner, former Chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: ‘This draft bill appears oblivious to human rights law in Britain.
‘In current form it breaches numerous rights including the right to a fair trial, the right to a family life, the freedom to hold religious or other beliefs, while curtailing freedom of expression.
‘The impact of its measures on parental rights and duties and children’s safeguarding is unforeseen. It has been ill-conceived and will be unworkable unless it is considerably revised and then subjected to a full public consultation.’
The report, published by think-tank Policy Exchange, brands the draft legislation ‘ideological, authoritarian, unworkable and wholly unsuitable for a democratic and pluralistic society’.
It highlights the fact that the description of ‘transgender identity’ in the bill includes someone who ‘identifies as neither male nor female or as not solely male or female’.
This encompasses hundreds of alternative gender identity labels according to the study and would even include ‘catgender’, described in an online dictionary as someone who has ‘a very strong connection to cats or other felines’ or who experiences ‘delusions of being a cat’.
‘It is not an overstatement to say that, under the draft Bill, a person may face imprisonment for trying to persuade another that they are not, in fact, a cat,’ the report warns.
It also points out that practices previously used to force gay people to change their sexual orientation – including electric shock therapy and ‘corrective rape’ – are already unlawful.
A Government spokesman previously said: ‘This report is misleading and based on a number of inaccurate claims. This draft Bill targets a specific form of abuse, it does not touch regular parenting.
‘LGBT+ people should never, without exception, have to suffer coercion or abuse in an effort to change who they are.
‘Successive governments have agreed for almost a decade that Conversion Practices have no place in modern Britain – this government is finally delivering on this promise.’
