This is the tactic of the abuser.

Don't leave disagree with me, I'll kill myself!

Edit: I'm going to keep going because soapbox.

We are aware through our work with families that there have been cases of self-harm and even attempted suicide following J.K.Rowling’s statements and the public response on social media and in the press. Surely this must cause us all to pause and question the way young trans lives are being debated in public.

Call me a heartless monster, but that is nobody else's responsibility but their own. Yes, it's awful when anyone self-harms or attempts suicide, but if people are so fragile they are going to self-harm over something they read in the newspaper then that tells me that they are in desperate need of psychiatric intervention, not that the debate that offends them is upsetting. Exposure to issues that offend or upset you builds character, and strengthens or challenges your own convictions. Mermaids should be inveighing against the lack of mental health resources available to these people, not JK.

Trans people are far from being accepted by society and suffer real life discrimination, including physical violence, employment discrimination and everyday harassment on the street.

But so do plenty of people. This is something societies need to work on, but if a woman killed herself because she was refused the CEO role she really wanted, most people would probably rightly come to the conclusion that there were other demons lurking under the surface.

Therefore, as a woman of great power and someone sympathetic to trans young people, we ask her to acknowledge the many young people around the world who fundamentally disagree with her position on trans acceptance and we beg her to at least consider the possibility that trans young people are able to express who they are for themselves.

JK Rowling doesn't have to do shit. 'I am aware people disagree with me, but honestly, fuck them right?' - would that be fine then? JK isn't stupid enough to think that people don't disagree with her. The fact that she has doubled down in spite of massive disagreement makes her statements all the more profound. She has not been cowed into silence or retraction.

She's not denying that trans people can't express who they are for themselves. A tweet of hers literally says 'wear a dress, call yourself what you want' - what is that if not 'considering the possibility'? What they mean is 'come round to the pov that...'.

J.K. Rowling rightly speaks of brave ‘detransitioned’ young women. Yet, does she consider trans people, living openly in spite of public hostility, less brave? Are those who have fought for decades to be treated with respect and dignity in a society that ridicules and demonises them, less brave? Are those children and young people who state their true gender in the face of rejection from family and friends less brave? At Mermaids, we support people no matter the path they take and that of course includes those who transition, detransition or retransition.

It doesn't matter how brave she thinks they are, bravery and being right aren't mutually exclusive options. You can be brave and wrong, and cowardly and correct.

J.K. Rowling may see that as part of a ‘radical trans rights movement’, we see it as our duty. If we are considered radical by some, then we will accept the badge and wear it with pride. We do not consider it radical to listen to young people and support them without prejudice. We do not consider it radical to believe that trans adults were once trans children. We do not consider it radical to believe that children and young people know who they are, for themselves, without arbitration from strangers. If standing beside trans young people and their families is radical, then please J.K. Rowling, be radical.

JK does not consider it radical to stand up for the sex-based rights of women and girls. JK does not consider it radical to believe that 'trans children' deserve psychiatric intervention and protection from invasive, irreversible medical procedures. If standing up for women and girls (and many others groups besides) is radical, then please, JK, be radical.

We hope people will soon see the damage being done to vulnerable people by the nature of this polarised, misinformed ‘debate’.

/r/selfawarewolves

We repeat our call for people of all perspectives to refrain from threatening and aggressive behaviour and we utterly condemn anyone sending threatening or abusive content to J.K. Rowling. We ask J.K.Rowling to make a similar appeal to those using her name in their profiles whilst threatening and abusing trans people and their friends, supporters and families.

That is fair enough, and I think JK herself (without wanting to put words in her mouth) would condemn in the strongest possible terms anyone who used her name to threaten or abuse anybody else.

Again, as we have asked before: please, do not speak about trans children and young people, until you have listened to them first.

I agree in principle that people shouldn't spout off about things about which they know nothing, but a larger part of me just wants to tell these people to fuck off.