J.K. Rowling continues to be one of the biggest villains of the transgender movement.

Rowling believes women are women, men are men and spaces for women should be protected from biological men. And for this, she has received attacks and threats from trans activists.

While speaking with host Megan Phelps-Roper on “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling” podcast, the wildly successful author said she stands by her beliefs.

“I thought about it deeply and hard and long and I’ve listened, I promise, to the other side,” she said. “And I believe, absolutely, that there is something dangerous about this movement and that it must be challenged.”

Rowling admits she knew what she was getting herself into.

“When I first became interested in, and then deeply troubled by, what I saw as a cultural movement that was illiberal in its methods and questionable in its ideas, I absolutely knew that if I spoke out, many people who love my books would be deeply unhappy with me,” she said.

The 57-year-old author said the trans activist movement “echoes the very thing that I was warning against in ‘Harry Potter.’”

“In fact, a ton of Potter fans are grateful that I said what I said,”

And although she admitted it would have been easier not to get involved, Rowling said she feels she’s doing the right thing.

“I am fighting what I see as a powerful, insidious, misogynistic movement, that has gained huge purchase in very influential areas of society,” Rowling said. “I do not see this particular movement as either benign or powerless, so I’m afraid I stand with the women who are fighting to be heard against threats of loss of livelihood and threats to their safety.”

J.K. Rowling is not afraid to stand up for women.

And she first ruffled feathers in 2020 when she sent out a tweet suggesting that “people who menstruate” could simply be called “women.”

That initial tweet garnered a lot of backlash, but Rowling didn’t relent. She wrote about her views in more detail.

In the months following, woke activists and celebrities — including the star actors in the “Harry Potter” movies — spoke out against Rowling.

And it got even more asinine from there.

Quidditch — which Rowling literally invented – became “quad ball.” Then, critics called for a boycott of a new video game, Hogwarts Legacy, due to a lack of “queer” people in the development of the game. Even Rowling’s own friends begged her not to go public with her beliefs on gender ideology.

Still, she won’t kneel at the feet of the mob.

In a world where regular people can lose their jobs and be labeled transphobic bigots simply for acknowledging biological reality, high-profile voices like J.K. Rowling’s are so important.

She doesn’t care about legacy, cancellation or money. Because her legacy is undeniable, she’s un-cancellable and she’s already worth about $1 billion.

A disturbing TikTok video has gone viral showing the moment a transgender woman was verbally assaulted at a restaurant in San Francisco.

Content creator Lilly Contino was dining with her dog at the Cheesecake Factory in San Francisco’s Union Square while live-streaming a conversation with her followers when an unidentified woman began harassing her.

In the footage, the woman is heard proudly describing herself as a TERF to Ms Contino – an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist meaning a person who sees themself as a feminist but who is transphobic.

“You know I’m a TERF right? Trans-eccentric radical feminist,” the woman is heard saying off-camera.

When Ms Contino asks if she is a TERF, the woman doubles down saying: “I am a TERF.”

She then asks Ms Contino if she wants her to move away, to which Ms Contino responds: “No, actually, you should tell me about being a TERF.”

At that point, the woman misgenders Ms Contino saying: “You’re a boy, right?”

She then begins to threaten Ms Contino with physical violence.

“Don’t f*** with me, ‘cause honestly I hit. I hit hard,” she says.

The incident continues with the woman telling Ms Contino not to “judge” her for being a TERF and telling her “I get to be who I want to be and you get to be who you want to be”.

She then tells Ms Contino to “take your stupid dog, eat your f***ing food and get the f*** out of my life” before saying she will “have to label you a white racist”.

Ms Contino then asks to speak to the manager of the restaurant who is heard off-camera apologising for the incident.

Ms Contino shared a clip of the encounter on her TikTok platform and, as of Monday morning, it had racked up 9.7 million views.

Story continues

Ms Contino explained to KPIX that the harassment first began when the woman started telling jokes and then offered to show her a surgery scar on her stomach.

When she politely turned her down, the woman replied: “I’ll show you if I want to, son.”

“And, of course, as a trans person, I’m more sensitive to gender language,” Ms Contino said.

She said that she became more shocked as the incident went on, saying that nothing like that had ever happened to her before.

She was especially shocked, she said, given that she had moved from Georgia to the liberal city of San Francisco.

“I was just like flabbergasted. I’ve never been physically threatened in public. I’ve never been berated in public,” she said.

“Part of this was just shock and disbelief that this was happening. I live in San Francisco for a reason. I live here because it’s a liberal city, it’s one of the most queer-friendly cities in the world.

“To have it happen in such a public place and have nobody help.”

Despite public outcry both during and after its meeting, the Greenville County Library System’s Materials Committee voted Monday to advance a proposal limiting access to transgender-themed materials.

The full board of trustees will vote on the proposal later this month.

The committee debated changing the library system’s collections development and maintenance policy, which governs the type of books and materials that are included in the library.

The committee specifically proposed changes to the library’s juvenile and young adult collections, seeking to move materials with “gender transition ideologies” into other collections that require an adult-access library card to check out.

In its proposed policy changes, the committee also sought to limit access to materials containing explicit descriptions or depictions of sexual acts, incest, pedophilia and graphic depictions of violence or abuse.

Although the committee is only made up of five board members, all 10 Board of Trustee members were present at the meeting either in-person or virtually to debate the proposed changes.

Employees and advocates:Greenville County Library System has ‘toxic’ board leadership

Greenville County Library System’s Materials Committee reviews 24 books, chooses broader action

The committee was expected to make a decision regarding the fate the 24 books that have been under review since last November, but instead of issuing permanent bans on any of those books, the committee focused instead on the library’s larger collections policy.

The committee was initially tasked by the board last fall to review 24 books, many with LGBTQ+ themes, that were subject to scrutiny from the county GOP and board members themselves.

A single copy of each of the following books was removed from circulation pending that review:

• “Adventures with My Daddies”
• “Daddy & Dada”
• “Feminist Baby Finds Her Voice”
• “Generation Brave: The Gen Z Kids Who Are Changing the World”
• “Heather Has Two Mommies”
• “It’s Perfectly Normal”
• “It’s So Amazing: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families”
• “Love, Violet”
• “Pride Puppy”
• “Sex Is A Funny Word”
• “Stella Brings The Family”
• “Teo’s Tutu”
• “You Don’t Have To Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves”
• “Gender Queer”
• “Lawn Boy”
• “All Boys Aren’t Blue”
• “Out of Darkness”
• “The Hate U Give”
• “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”
• “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”
• “The Bluest Eye”
• “This Book is Gay”
• “Beyond Magenta”

After its decision to review those books, the library system faced accusations of censorship from employees and local advocates.

The committee formally completed that review at its meeting on Monday, but it took no action to ban any of the books. Instead, the committee focused on making changes to the board’s broader collections policy.

Committee debate focuses on limiting transgender themes

Most of Monday’s discussion centered around the policy’s limitations on materials with transgender themes.

Joe Poore, vice chair of the board of trustees but not a voting member of the materials committee, expressed concerns about the proposals vague language, asking if it would disproportionately target the LGBTQ+ community.

Other board members expressed similar concerns about vague language, prompting committee chair Elizabeth Collins to include a further definition that gender transition ideologies are “anything that affirms that a person’s gender is other than that person’s biological sex.”

Marcia Moston, a materials committee member, spoke in favor of the proposed changes. She called access to children’s books with transgender themes “life threatening for our youth.”

Members of the public are not allowed to speak at library committee meetings, but attendees still expressed their outrage at Moston’s remarks by rising from their seats and waving posters in support of access to books with LGBTQ+ themes.

Tommy Hughes, a committee member, along with Kenneth Baxter and Brian Aufmuth, both board members who are not on the committee, all raised the point that librarians are already trained to ensure that content in each collection is age appropriate.

Later in the meeting, Aufmuth said the proposed policy changes were seeking to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist. His comment was met with snaps, claps and muffled support from the audience.

Poore said he fears the board could be overstepping its role with this policy. He said parents should be responsible for what their children read in the library, and the board should “empower and encourage that responsibility.”

After more than an hour of debate, the committee voted unanimously to advance its juvenile policy changes to the full board. One committee member, Tommy Hughes, abstained from voting on the young adult policy changes, but it still passed with four votes.

The full board of trustees will meet at noon on Monday, March 27, at Hughes Main Library to vote on the proposed policy changes.

− Tim Carlin covers county government, growth and development for The Greenville News. Follow him on Twitter@timcarlin_, and get in touch with him atTCarlin@gannett.com.

 

 

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To read the article, see “Being transgender at work,” November 10, 2021.

— The bill — H.R. 734 (118), the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023 — was introduced by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) several times, but was taken up by the House Education and Workforce Committee for the first time last week in a 16-hour markup. It would amend Title IX, the federal education law that bars sex-based discrimination, to define sex as based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.

— The measure was recommended by the committee in a vote on party lines and is now primed for a vote on the House floor. While H.R. 5 (118), the Parents Bill of Rights Act, cleared the committee the same day and is slated for a vote in two weeks, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s office said they haven’t made any announcements on when they will take up the sports bill for a vote. House Republicans are expected to pass the bill with their slim majority, but it’s not likely that the Democrat-controlled Senate will allow the bill to move.

— The legislation will be a way for the GOP to force Democrats to go on record with their support for transgender students to play sports, a key part of the GOP’s 2022 midterm policy agenda. It is also a direct rebuke of the Biden administration’s proposed Title IX rule, which seeks to codify protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Education Department is expected to unveil its final rule in May, though it said it would make a separate rule for sports.

— Meanwhile, West Virginia has decided to appeal a stay on its transgender sports law to the Supreme Court, marking the first opportunity for the high court to weigh in on the issue. “West Virginians and the American people are animated,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said at a Thursday press conference. “They know this is a matter of basic, common sense and basic fairness. We believe we’re absolutely correct on the merits. And I know that there’s always a debate as to when you go up to the high court, but … we think it’s justified to make sure that the law that was put in place by the legislature, reflecting the will of the voters, gets back in place very, very quickly.”

IT’S MONDAY, MARCH. 13. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Let’s grab coffee (even virtually!). Reach me at [email protected]. Send tips to my colleagues Mackenzie Wilkes at [email protected], Juan Perez Jr. at [email protected] and Michael Stratford at [email protected]. And follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.

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BONAMICI’S BILL OF RIGHTS — Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) introduced her Bill of Rights for Students and Parents, a Democratic response to the GOP’s Parents Bill of Rights, which is headed to the House floor for a vote in two weeks. “Parental involvement is critical to developing and sustaining high-quality public schools, and we must do all we can to involve parents and break down barriers that prevent or discourage participation,” Bonamici said in a statement.

— The bill, which is supported by dozens of education groups including the National PTA, outlines that a student “should be able to receive a well-rounded education,” and parents and families “should be able to collaborate effectively” with their children’s teachers. Additionally, it dictates that public schools should be “responsive and inclusive,” students should be able to learn in environments “free from all forms of discrimination,” and all students should “receive an education that is historically accurate, reflects the diversity of our nation, and prepares students to think critically and participate actively in a representative democracy.”

— House Republicans unveiled their “Parents Bill of Rights” earlier this month. It would require mandates for school districts to offer teacher-parent meetings, publicly disclose budget materials and allow parents to address the school board — things that are already present in many schools across the country.

— “The previously introduced ‘Parent Bill of Rights’, HB5, completely misses the mark and has discriminatory undertones that distract us from the seriousness of this moment,” the National Parents Union said in a statement. “Pitting parents against parents, parents against teachers, and adults against students does nothing to move us forward.”

BIDEN BUDGET FALLS FLAT WITH CHARTERS — President Joe Biden has proposed a $440 million budget for federal charter school grants, irking advocates after consecutive years of flat funding, Juan reports. The flat funding is a problem for charter boosters concerned about rising inflation that cuts the buying power of nearly half a billion dollars and higher interest rates that swell borrowing costs to pay for facilities.

— The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is asking Congress to approve $500 million for the programs. “We are disappointed that President Biden is proposing flat funding [for] the vital Charter Schools Program, which has been level funded by Congress since FY2019,” said Nina Rees, the alliance’s president and CEO, in a statement on Friday.

— But charter supporters are also praising a renewed department proposal to bring “greater flexibility” to how the program’s funds are spent. The department’s budget pitch notes a request for flexibility to “adjust” federal charter spending “in response to demand across the program components.” Similar language has also appeared in prior year charter program budget proposals.

— “As in past years, this year’s budget will again include a request of Congress to provide greater flexibility to the Department in its allocation of funds under the multiple authorities provided in ESSA’s Charter School Program,” a department spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement. “The Department is interested in utilizing this flexibility to ensure it can efficiently respond to demand for federal funds from the charter school community.”

PROMISE IN DUAL ENROLLMENT — More high schoolers are taking dual enrollment courses, which allow them to take their classes and simultaneously apply the credits toward a diploma and an associate degree. And while Biden’s college affordability agenda has stalled on Capitol Hill, the two-for-one special could cut the cost of college for many teens as the programs grow in popularity.

— It’s also helping community colleges shore up their enrollment. The two-year institutions saw a 12 percent spike this academic year in these programs. The resulting uptick in dual enrollment students has spurred a small increase in overall community college attendees from the last academic year — a much needed boost after those institutions faced the worst enrollment plunges due to the pandemic.

— Governors in Arizona and Florida, and elsewhere, have been pushing to expand dual enrollment options as a way to streamline the path from high school to the workforce or quicken the path to a bachelor’s degree. Nearly all states have dual enrollment policies.

— Dual enrollment also provides access to courses in welding and other hands-on technical education to help high schoolers build skills that they can apply to a job or a certificate, a path Republicans in Congress have long touted as an alternative to a traditional college.

— Last week, Biden urged Congress to fund what his administration called the Career-Connected High Schools initiative, which would dole out $200 million for programs that align high school and college by expanding access to dual enrollment, work-based learning and college and career advising for students in high school.

CAL’S NOISE COMPLAINT — The People’s Park, a park near UC Berkeley that once hosted iconic protests against the Vietnam War, is now at the center of another public furor: loud parties, POLITICO’s Blake Jones and Matthew Brown report. The university, a state appellate court found, failed to account for “excessive noise” when it considered the environmental effects of building housing for 1,100 students in a park abutting a residential neighborhood.

— The neighborhood group that filed the lawsuit pointed to hundreds of complaints to the city about student parties and even hired a “noise expert” to describe the role of college partying in undergraduate life.

— UC Berkeley might still get the project at People’s Park built, but the legal challenge has set construction back months, if not years. The court ruling — based on a 1970 state environmental law meant to serve as a check on rampant development — has injected new uncertainty into housing plans at California’s public university campuses, many of which are in dire need of housing amid a yearslong expansion.

— Justice Teri L. Jackson worried aloud during oral arguments about a “great deal of social implications” that could stem from a broad reading of environmental rules on noise. But, she said, she was constrained by the law. “Noise is noise,” she said.

— School district sued over handling of student’s pledge of allegiance protest: The New York Times

— Arizona launches hotline for public to report ‘inappropriate’ school lessons: CNN

— WA college-going rate dropped sharply during pandemic: The Seattle Times

— Republicans race to outdo each other on education: The Hill

— Texas families would get $8,000 in tax dollars to send students to private school in sweeping ‘parental rights’ bill backed by Lt. Gov.: The Texas Tribune

The law banning gender affirming treatments prohibits doctors from providing any health care to minors in order “to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex,” that is, the minor’s sex assigned at birth. The law bans the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments to treat gender dysphoria’s underlying cause, but does not ban the drugs’ use for other treatments.

As of last June over a dozen states were implementing or considering such laws, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The World Health Organization, American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, and American Psychiatric Association all endorse gender-affirming care as an effective treatment for gender dysphoria among minors. There isn’t any scientific basis for the attack on gender-affirming care, only a religious one, which is entirely unconstitutional.

The ban will force children who take the medication to stop doing so by March 31, 2024.

The bill was mostly approved along party lines, with the exception of the Tennessee House, where three right-wing Democrats voted for the legislation, including Representative Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis). Parkinson attempted to put the blame on voters, claiming, “My constituents didn’t want it. It’s pretty simple, pretty straightforward. My constituents were like, ‘let these children be children.’ Let them grow up and make that adult decision when they become adults.”

The ban on drag is part and parcel of the demonization of trans people, with the law aiming at legitimizing the far-right claim that drag queens are “grooming” children. At least seven other states are considering similar bans on drag performances, according to PEN America.

Both pieces of legislation followed right-wing propaganda revolving around Vanderbilt Medical Center, where far-right commentators falsely claimed that doctors were performing genital surgeries on minors.