JK Rowling has distanced herself from Vladimir Putin after the Russian President cited her as an example of why western cancel culture is wrong.
In a speech broadcast on television, Putin said that the west was trying to cancel Russia in the same way that it had Ms Rowling due to her opposition to rights for transgender people.
“They’re now engaging in the cancel culture, even removing Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov from posters. Russian writers and books are now cancelled,” Putin complained.
“Recently they cancelled the children’s writer Joanne Rowling because she – the author of books that have sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide – fell out of favour with fans of so-called gender freedoms.”
However, Rowling has since distanced herself from the Kremlin and tweeted a link to an article about the poisoning and jailing of Alexei Navalny - one of Putin’s most prominent Russian critics:
“Critiques of western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics. #IStandWithUkraine,” she wrote.
Ms Rowling also tweeted a link for those wishing to donate to the Ukraine appeal organised by her children’s charity, Lumos; Ms Rowling has promised she will match all donations up to £1 million.
A reminder: I will personally match all donations to our emergency appeal, up to £1m. If you're able to, you can donate here. Again, thank you so very much to all who've already donated.💙💛 @lumos https://t.co/NSDoHf1ZHv
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 25, 2022
Transgender rights
Earlier this month Putin hit out at Russian emigrants who live in the west and “who cannot do without foie gras, oysters or so-called gender freedoms”.
While late last year Putin said that, “a woman is a woman, a man is a man, a mom is a mom, and a dad is a dad.” He also compared the western push for trans rights to COVID-19 and said it amounted to “new strains” of a “pandemic”.
Recently Ms Rowling accused British Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, a Queen’s Counsel and former Director of Public Prosecutions, of “misrepresent[ing] equalities law” after he said that, “trans women are women, and that is not just my view - that is actually the law."
Main image: JK Rowling during the opening of The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic at Edinburgh University in 2013. Picture by: Andrew Milligan/PA Archive/PA Images.
