New York (tca/dpa/GNA) – J.K. Rowling has joined a list of 150 writers, academics and activists who signed an open letter warning about the dangers of an « intolerance of opposing views » that are now « spreading more widely in our culture, » according to the note.
The Harry Potter creator, who has been under fire for recent comments on transgender people, joined a list of high-profile public figures, including « The Handmaid’s Tale » author Margaret Atwood, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria and « Midnight’s Children » author Salman Rushdie.
In the 530-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine Tuesday, the signatories applaud recent « powerful protests for racial and social justice, » but warn that « resistance must not be allowed to harden into its own brand of dogma or coercion. »
The letter, entitled « A Letter on Justice and Open Debate, » denounces the « restriction of debate » in modern culture.
« The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted. While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty, » the letter reads.
« We uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter-speech from all quarters. But it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought. »
Rowling has been widely criticized for a series of comments that have been seen as transphobic by LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer] activists.
She has expressed support for an anti-transgender researcher who was fired for tweeting that « men cannot change into women, » made fun of the term « people who menstruate, » and has linked hormone treatment to gay conversion therapy.
Best-selling author and trans activist Jennifer Finney Boylan, one of the signatures in the list, later distanced herself from it and apologized for endorsing the essay.
« I did not know who else had signed that letter, » she tweeted Tuesday evening, likely referring to Rowling.
« I thought I was endorsing a well meaning, if vague, message against internet shaming. I did know Chomsky, Steinem, and Atwood were in, and I thought, good company, » she wrote.
« The consequences are mine to bear. I am so sorry. »
