Utah’s Misty Snow on calls to cancel J.K. Rowling for ‘trans rant’

BY TONY HOBDAY

On July 1, 2020, Misty K. Snow issued a public statement in response to J.K. Rowling’s recent transphobic comments, and as well as Salt Lake-based Avalanche Software, who is developing a game based on her books.

In 2016, Snow made national headlines for being the first transgender person to win a major party nomination for US Senate anywhere in the country; a truly historic moment for the traditionally conservative state. She also made Utah history for being the first woman to ever appear on a general election ballot for US Senate in the state.

“For better or worse, I am the most famous trans person in the state of Utah, and with this game studio being literally located in my own city, I have to speak out,” Snow said. “What Rowling said in her nearly 4,000-word transphobic manifesto was unacceptable and does real harm to trans people.

“We think that J.K. Rowling needs to be canceled. Unfinished projects based on her works such as books, movies, and video games must also be canceled. Boycotting the sales of her existing products is needed. All until such a time that Rowling renounces her harmful statement and apologizes. Recent articles reported earlier this month that a game based on her books is in development here in Salt Lake City, and I want to bring attention to it.

We have GOP senators in this country quoting Rowling while blocking the equality act which would protect LGBTQ people in housing, employment, and credit. This is her causing real harm not just to trans people, but to all members of the LGBTQ community. In her transphobic manifesto a few weeks ago, she brought up the restroom nonsense, but here’s the thing trans people do in restrooms: they use the toilet, then wash their hands, and leave.

Policing public restrooms also ends up causing harm to cis women because it leads to situations where women who are not deemed sufficiently feminine enough get their right to use a public restroom challenged. Her entire essentialist argument that defines women by narrow biological characteristics ends up harming women, as well as it only serves to reinforce patriarchal sexist stereotypes.

The worst part is that she claims to be some kind of liberal and ally when she’s doing the bidding of conservatives. The fact that she said she was speaking out for those “without privilege” is practically Orwellian as her words harm many of the people who are the least privileged. As I said before, transphobia always bleeds out into other areas of anti-LGBTQ discrimination, and often leads to whorephobia against sex workers, and sometimes leads to anti-choice actions. All of these things are connected.

Trans people, when they seek care, go to a gynecologist. In many places in this country, trans people get such care at Planned Parenthood, so you end up seeing transphobia becoming another justification from conservatives to pass anti-choice legislation which harms trans people and other members of the LGBTQ community.

Every year in this country dozens of trans people are murdered. Almost all are black trans women, and most are sex workers. This is where racism, transphobia, and whorephobia meet to deadly consequences. This is why we say black trans lives matter because there is an epidemic of violence against black trans women in this country. It is also why we need to talk about sex-worker rights, and the need to fully destigmatize and decriminalize all forms of sex work. Because for trans women, about 1 in 5 has been a sex worker at some point in their life. Plus, those numbers are much higher for black and Hispanic trans women.

This radical feminist movement that Rowling seems to be part of is very much anti-sex worker as much as it is anti-trans, and we call them SWERFs and TERFs respectively, though they are often the same people. Because of the large number of trans people, particularly trans women of color who do sex work, any legislation that seeks to criminalize or stigmatize sex work is inherently anti-trans. Many socalled liberal politicians in this country also buy into these same arguments and pass laws in the name of feminism, but at the expense of trans women, sex workers, and other disadvantaged populations.

A perfect example is Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif), who, while attorney general, blocked transgender prisoners from accessing transition-related care. She also led the charge against Backpage and was the main force in getting it shut down — the closure of which led many sex workers into doing more dangerous street work. Harris also helped write the disastrous SESTA bill that further restricted sex-worker rights. Few people in this country have done more harm to trans people and sex workers than this socalled liberal senator from California.

But it’s not just Harris. A so-called champion of the left Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), is co-author of another disastrous bill with Marco Rubio (R-Fla), that would restrict banking access for sex workers. Again another disaster that does real harm to sex workers and trans women all in the name of protecting women.

This is why we must push back against the J.K. Rowlings of the world because her way of thinking is wrong, that any socalled feminist movement that purposely excludes trans women and sex workers is wrong. After all, it does real harm to real people. We must push back and demand J.K. Rowling is canceled because our lives depend on it. Hate should have consequences for the haters, not the hated.