The first time I met JK Rowling, River Cafe, April 2022
It has been six years since JK Rowling wrote her essay on why she chose to speak out against transactivism and for women’s rights. This week she has written again about how the landscape has changed and why she is still speaking out, and putting her money behind women bringing legal cases.
As she points out, pretending that sex doesn’t matter is an elitist game that can only be played by those who are insulated from its impacts. This pretence has taken over powerful institutions and been imposed top-down on people who do not want to play along. Those who are most harmed are those who have least power.
Gender ideology breaks safeguarding, as institutions tie themselves in knots to avoid recognising the obvious truth that, statistically speaking, men pose a greater risk for violence and sexual offending than women do, and there is zero evidence that trans-identifying men pose a lower risk than other men do. On the contrary, all the evidence points the other way.
By setting up the JK Rowling fund to support women bringing legal fights to retain women’s and girls’ sex-based rights, she changed the rules of engagement, tipping the balance back so that powerful organisations can no longer ignore women’s rights with impunity.
Sex Matters does not receive any core funding from the JK Rowling fund, but we have received some funding towards specific cases, and we have helped some individuals’ cases make their way towards the JK Rowling fund. We are very grateful both to her, and to everyone else who has put their hand in their pocket to support legal cases.
This week, our thanks go to everyone who has donated to our crowdfunder for our challenge to the admissions rules at the Hampstead Ponds. This isn’t merely about an iconic and important single-sex space for women in London, it is also a test case concerning how the law on single-sex services works nationwide. We are taking on one of the country’s most powerful institutions, which is still arguing that “gender-identity based services” should be lawful.
Media coverage
JK Rowling’s New Essay On Trans Issues Targets 8 Groups
Amanda Castro writes for Newsweek on J.K. Rowling’s new essay. In 2020, Rowling wrote in support of Maya Forstater. Her views haven’t changed since, but she has gone beyond speaking out to funding women’s services and legal cases.
Amanda Castro • Newsweek
The government’s dangerous plan to ban “conversion practices”
The government says its draft Conversion Practices Bill will stop “abuse”. But in reality the planned new law would do something quite different: it would criminalise conversations, including those within families. In this session at last weekend’s Battle of Ideas in London, panellists including Helen Joyce laid out the serious problems with the bill, which would put ordinary, loving parents who are trying to protect their children at risk of police investigation.
Ministerial promises are not legal protection
Bridget Phillipson, Minister for Women and Equalities, says the draft Conversion Practices Bill will not catch parents who have difficult conversations with their children. But there is nothing on the face of the bill that protects those parents...
20th October 2026
Read our letter to Bridget Phillipson on the Conversion Practices Bill.
Criminalising conversations: read the summary report.
18-month wait for clarity finally over
Several civil-service departments finally released new policies on trans-identifying civil servants, and on 15th October NHS England also released a new policy on single-sex hospital wards. These replace transactivist-influenced policies that were out of line with both the...
16th October 2026
Media coverage
Civil servants told: Don’t challenge trans women over female toilets
“It’s indefensible that it has taken government bodies 18 months to revise their policies on sex and gender following the Supreme Court ruling.” - Maya Forstater
Bill Curtis • The Times
Don’t challenge trans women in lavatories, Civil Service tells staff
“Guidance we have seen accepts the law on single sex spaces, which is a big improvement. But it also contains concerning sections that will give licence to continuing trans activism within the Civil Service.” - Maya Forstater
Daniel Martin, Janet Murray • The Telegraph
“It states that staff do not have to disclose their sex at work, and that not accepting a person’s gender identity could be a disciplinary matter. It is hard to see how this can be compatible with having clear sex-based... - Maya Forstater
Martin Beckford • Daily Mail
End of the road for GLP challenge
The Court of Appeal has refused permission to the Good Law Project (GLP) to continue its challenge to interim guidance on single-sex facilities from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). In February the High Court refused GLP permission to...
16th October 2026
In other news
“It’s very simple” | Fiona McAnena on NHS return to single-sex wards
Connor Phillips • BBC Radio 5
“Comparing clear NHS guidance with ‘transphobia’ is a sign of just how far activists at the BMA have gone from their medical training and their pledge to do no harm.” - Maya Forstater
Sam Merriman • Daily Mail
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Rowling is sexist scum, as shown here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQuAIW2_Mx2JXv2_kqe3IkVo5uAr9sNKZOvobFG1PH6hDUvdUauQp0wv_gWuctrHA9jcFlH012t7gSO/pub
https://biard.substack.com/p/terfs-pretend-that-female-failings