Author J.K. Rowling deleted a tweet praising Stephen King after the horror author tweeted his support for transgender women, the Independent reports.
On Sunday, King retweeted a post by the Harry Potter author that read, “Andrea Dworkin wrote: ‘Men often react to women’s words—speaking and writing—as if they were acts of violence; sometimes men react to women’s words with violence.’ It isn't hateful for women speak about their own experiences, nor do they deserve shaming for doing so.”
The tweet was part of a thread in which Rowling defended an essay she wrote on her website in which she claimed that if you open “the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman…then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside.”
Rowling thanked King for retweeting her, writing, “It’s so much easier for men to ignore women’s concerns, or to belittle them, but I won’t ever forget the men who stood up when they didn’t need to. Thank you, Stephen.”
A Twitter user tweeted at King, asking him to clarify “if you believe trans women are women.”
“Yes,” King responded. “Trans women are women.”
Rowling then apparently deleted her tweet praising King. She didn’t delete her tweet quoting Dworkin, although as many Twitter users noted, the feminist author was a supporter of transgender rights.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
