There are few good things to say about the public conversation around transgender issues, which all too often shows us — all of us — at our worst. But it also offers up a seemingly endless series of case studies illustrating wider problems with the way contemporary culture and institutions deal with difficult ideas.
The latest lesson comes from Boswells School in Chelmsford, Essex. It has dropped J.K. Rowling’s name from one of its houses. Previously, she was honoured as a champion of self-discipline, regarded as a role model for children perhaps for her determination in starting her globally-successful series of books under difficult circumstances. Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter novel as a struggling single mother, telling stories to millions of people about a boy-wizard who does the right thing even when it’s difficult.
Nothing in that origin story of Harry Potter has changed. Rowling remains today at least as self-disciplined as she was when Boswells named its house after her. The Harry Potter stories themselves have not changed. The reason for the school’s action is, of course, that she has written things some people didn’t like about the potential for changes in law intended to benefit trans people, which she worries adversely affects the rights of women.
The school does not say, of course, precisely what Rowling has done or said that is wrong: vanishingly few of those who criticise her even bother trying to point to any particular words to justify themselves, probably because her words offer no such justification. Instead, simply discussing trans issues at all is, ipso facto, proof of guilt.
According to the BBC, Boswells School took this decision because Rowling’s ‘views on this issue do not align with our school policy and school beliefs’.
Those few words capture something important and dismal about the way some people and organisations conduct themselves today.
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