JK Rowling picked a fight with a UK presenter and things are getting stupider by the minute

UK TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp recently took to Twitter/X to say that she opposes puberty blockers but calls for “listening and understanding” for the trans community. Because this stance apparently did not vilify the trans community enough, JK Rowling entered the chat with her usual vitriol.

Allsopp is known for hosting property shows Location, Location, Location and Love It or List It UK. Last year, she defended Dylan Mulvaney from transphobic harassment following the Bud Light partnership. “There are issues to debate, but Dylan isn’t the problem and targeting her is bullying,” she said at the time.

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More recently, she again argued for the ideal of civil debate. “It has always been possible to strongly support trans people, and to believe that making decisions that permanently alter your fertility, when you are under the age of 18, is a bad idea,” she wrote in an April 12 post.

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While there is certainly flawed logic in the idea of supporting trans people while barring their access to life-saving care, Rowling’s ire focused on the apparent nonexistence of any debate going on.

On April 15, Rowling replied, “I’m astounded by this comment. One of the gender ideologues’ favourite slogans is ‘no debate’. Opponents have been attacked, vilified, subject to discipline at work, had their lives overturned and lost their careers, all for the crime of wanting a debate.”

Predictably enough, Allsopp soon indicated that she was undergoing a dogpile from Rowling’s millions of followers. “I would have thought it was almost impossible to make me look like David in any circumstance, but the Goliath that is JKR & her followers might just manage it,” Allsopp wrote. “I believe there is some middle ground where listening & understanding is possible, and I must prove it.”

“I’m interested in the words ‘decided to take odds with my views’, Kirstie, which implies that I was looking for some way to attack you personally, which I wasn’t,” Rowling said. “I certainly do take odds with people trying to rewrite history, though, as you did in saying airily that we’ve always been able to debate so-called gender affirming care for minors.”

“I have no interest in making this about me, or about you,” Allsopp said. “I believe that there is a middle ground where people with a genuine desire to listen & learn can discuss these things with compassion. There are too many issues impacting today’s world which are scarily divisive.”

But JK Rowling maintained that there is no middle ground between TERFs and the trans community. On that much at least, we can agree.