J.K. Rowling’s row has put BBC and Warner Bros. on hot seat!
On Thursday, December 19, Deadline reported that Warner bros. Discovery and the BBC have been under fire for having double standards on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) after both organizations lent their support to the Harry Potter author amid her transgender rights controversy.
While the Warner Bros. has been working with the writer on HBO’s forthcoming Harry Potter TV series, BBC has recently premiered Strike season 6, which is based on Rowling’s Robert Galbraith novels.
For those uninformed, J.K. Rowling has been slammed for quite some years over her use of terms related to the transgender community who find it offensive.
The author has opposed several proposed laws that asked to make it simpler for transgender people to transition as she believes that making it simpler would have an adverse impact on women rights such as female-only spaces and legal protections for women.
Several members of the transgender community, while speaking to the outlet, have expressed their rage, arguing that WBD and BBC have betrayed the DEI policies by working with Rowling.
Commenting on the allegations, WBD stated that the writer has a “right to express her personal views,” while BBC preferred not to comment on the matter, adding that it was committed to “creating an inclusive workforce that reflects and represents the diversity of the UK.”
To note, while in 2020, J.K. Rowling pledged to “respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feel authentic and comfortable to them,” her statements regarding the matter have seen a shift throughout these four years as she now described some trans women as “crossdressers.”
