The Independent’s double standards for J.K. Rowling

It’s fair to say that J.K. Rowling’s latest intervention has put the cat amongst the pigeons. The Harry Potter author criticised Police Scotland’s new policy for trans suspects after the force confirmed it will record rapes by offenders with a penis as carried out by a woman if they identify as female, regardless of whether they have legally changed gender. Rowling’s implicit criticism of this move – riffing on Orwell that: ‘War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman’ – has sparked a terrific backlash, with much of it seeming to come from angry, pompous middle-aged men.

But leaving aside the Jolyons of this world, the most extraordinary attack seems to have come from the Independent whose editorial standards are well known to Mr S. The defunct newspaper has run a comment piece from Noah Berlatsky, under the headline ‘J.K. Rowling keeps tweeting and we keep wondering why.’ Berlatsky says that ‘if Rowling really wanted to advocate for victims of violence, she would advocate for trans women, who are disproportionately victims’ adding that ‘it seems clear at this point’ that ‘her main priority’ is to not stop causing ‘pain.’

So who is this little-known sage of sexual ethics? Berlatsky, it transpires, works for the controversial not-for-profit Prostasia Foundation which has been accused of trying to normalise paedophilia through its work.