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Fox News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Boy George's criminal past gets called out by J.K. Rowling after picking fight on transgender rights
Print Close By Rachel del Guidice Published June 19, 2025 Singer Boy George got called out in a particularly sharp way by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling after he picked a fight with the author this week on transgender rights. In an X post from June 11, Rowling asked, "Which rights have been taken away from trans people?" The singer, whose full name is George O'Dowd, and was convicted of falsely imprisoning and assaulting a male escort in 2007 and served four months in prison in 2009, responded to Rowling's post, saying, "The right to be left alone by a rich bored bully!" 'HARRY POTTER' ACTOR STANDS BY JK ROWLING AT TONY AWARDS AMID CRITICISM OF HER TRANSGENDER VIEWS Rowling posted a reply of her own, calling out the differences between the author and singer, citing gender, fame, O'Dowd's crime and freedom of speech. In her lengthy reply, she addressed why she believes it is critical to keep biological men out of women's spaces. "For more than half my life I was a regular anonymous person," Rowling said. "Some of those years were spent in poverty. That's why I understand the importance of single-sex spaces for women who're reliant on state-funded services. That's why I understand why mixed public changing rooms are a problem for women. That's why I have a problem with men 'identifying' into women's rape crisis centres, domestic abuse and homeless shelters that are supposed to be single-sex. I don't stand against gender identity ideology because I personally still need those services, but because my life has taught me exactly how vulnerable women are when they don't have the money/influence I have now." JK ROWLING FIRES BACK AT LIBERAL COMEDIAN AFTER HE DOUBLES DOWN ON TRANS ATHLETE STANCE The world-famous author and advocate for women also brought up Boy George's assault and prison time. "You yourself have been convicted of violent assault," Rowling said in the post. "The overwhelming number of people who commit crimes of violence are male, just like you. That's why I don't want to see men identifying into women's prison cells or any of the spaces mentioned above. Not all men are violent or predatory, but enough are to make safeguarding necessary." She ended her reply by saying she thinks that the singer no longer values "non-conformity." "Lastly, I'm a writer who believes in freedom of speech and belief," Rowling said. "As we both know, the safe, fashionable thing in the arts world right now is to do exactly what you're doing: parrot TWAW [Trans Women Are Women] and sneer at the unenlightened plebs who think sex is important and matters. For a man who was once all about non-conformity, George, you couldn't have become more predictably or more tediously conformist." CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE In a Monday reply on X about the feud with Rowling, Boy George addressed her personal appearance. "The demolition of her filler face is more laughable! The dragon has been slayed!" he stated in the post. In a subsequent post on Tuesday, he said, "I do not hate women. I cannot be clearer than that. I don't hate men either. I'm just not anti trans. We have [lived] together for centuries without having to be separated. Some men need to be taught to respect women more and some women need [to] stop blaming all men for the bad deeds of the few." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Print Close URL
News.com.au
a day ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
‘So many pronouns': Boy George sparks feud with J.K. Rowling
Boy, this is messy. Boy George picked a fight with J.K. Rowling on X over the Harry Potter author's controversial views on the transgender community. The feud started Saturday when the British DJ, 64, responded to a thread between Rowling, 59, and another user where she asked, 'Which rights have been taken away from trans people?' 'The right to be left alone by a rich bored bully!' George, who is openly gay, wrote. But Rowling had a scathing response to the singer the next day. 'There are many differences between us, George, but some are particularly relevant to this debate,' Rowling wrote, pointing out that George is a man, while she's a woman, and that he's 'been wealthy and famous' since his early 20s, while Rowling didn't make a name for herself until she was over 30. 'I've never been given 15 months for handcuffing a man to a wall and beating him with a chain,' Rowling added, referring to George being sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2009 after he was convicted of the assault and false imprisonment of a male escort. Continuing her take-down of George, Rowling wrote, 'You yourself have been convicted of violent assault. The overwhelming number of people who commit crimes of violence are male, just like you.' 'That's why I don't want to see men identifying into women's prison cells or any of the spaces mentioned above,' she added. 'Not all men are violent or predatory, but enough are to make safeguarding necessary.' Rowling concluded: 'For a man who was once all about nonconformity, George, you couldn't have become more predictably or more tediously conformist.' The following day, an X user resurfaced a 2020 message from George that read, 'SO many pronouns, so little time,' which sparked a reaction from Rowling. 'In fairness, he's no worse than half the slebs who clambered onto the gender bandwagon because they were scared of being unfashionable,' she tweeted. 'You could dig up most of their deepest convictions in under a minute, with a teaspoon.' George, in turn, hurled more insults at Rowling. 'The demolition of her filler face is more laughable! The dragon has been slayed!' he wrote. In another tweet, George — real name George Alan O'Dowd — told Rowling she gets her fun 'from other people's pain.' Rowling's controversial comments about the transgender community have been met with backlash over the last few years. Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson even spoke out and publicly disagreed with her back in 2020. In April, franchise actors Eddie Redmayne, Paapa Essiedu and Katie Leung signed a pro-trans open letter after the UK Supreme Court ruled that the terms 'woman' and 'sex' refer strictly to a biological woman and biological sex. Rowling celebrated the ruling with a photo of her smoking a cigar and holding a drink. 'I love it when a plan comes together. #SupremeCourt #WomensRights,' she wrote in her caption. Her views have even caused some Harry Potter fans to threaten to boycott HBO's upcoming TV show adaptation, which she's an executive producer on. However, HBO CEO Casey Bloys went on record saying that the series will not be 'secretly infused' with Rowling's opinions. 'The decision to be in business with J.K. Rowling is not new for us. We've been in business for 25 years,' Bloys said in April. 'And if you want to debate her,' the exec added, 'you can go on Twitter.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Taylor Swift dragged into JK Rowling's bitter trans row
JK Rowling, the author of the famous Harry Potter series, has been getting heaps of media attention lately - but it hasn't all been positive. For years, Rowling has been in the spotlight not because of her resounding success as a writer but for what are seen as her transphobic comments and beliefs. And just as the author became embroiled in another heated exchange over trans rights (this time with Grammy-winning English singer Boy George), another name has been dragged unfairly into the ongoing discourse with Rowling - Taylor Swift. Swift had been visiting children and their families at the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Florida on June 13. In one of the videos of Swift's visit, she Facetimed a patient's sister, and complimented the room around her. 'You saw this room right?' Swift asked to the fan's sibling on the phone. 'Dude, it's got Harry Potter stuff everywhere, it's insane. It's the coolest room ever,' Swift went on. 'I love it.' Once the video was shared on social media, fans jumped to equate Swift's appreciation of the Harry Potter-themed room to a political statement. 'There's no way she doesn't know about JK Rowling at this point... this is disappointing,' one fan shared, followed by a sad face emoji. 'Not shocking that she supports JK,' another said. While another chimed in, saying, 'I didn't expect Taylor to be transphobic.' Another user extrapolated a similar conclusion, saying, 'Wow Taylor loves transphobes.' But Swifties were quick to run to her defense, saying that there was no other appropriate response to a child's room in a hospital. 'Oh my god people Taylor isn't going to tell an ill child that they shouldn't have Harry Potter stuff y'all are STUPID AS F**K,' one X (formerly Twitter) user said. 'I literally violently hate Harry Potter and I'm not even a "Taylor glazer" but being mad at her for complimenting a sick kid's room is crazy,' another user wrote. 'Did y'all want her to say "ew wtf your room is disgusting that lady is evil" like come on now these are the four walls that the kid gets idgaf.' Swifties jumped to Swift's defense, saying that it would be inappropriate to say anything negative about the child's room Others pointed out the sheer ridiculousness of the backlash Swift was receiving. 'Idgaf about Taylor Swift but people wanting her to yell at a child about Harry Potter stuff is so f**king funny.' 'People complaining about this spend too much time online. Go outside lmao,' another added. Aside from a rumor in 2024 that Swift would be writing a song for the HBO Harry Potter TV series set to come out in 2026, she hasn't been tied to Rowling or the franchise anytime recently. She also hasn't made any comments either condemning or supporting Rowling's anti-trans comments. Though, in 2018 (before Rowling shared her political views), Swift did take a picture backstage with the author following one of her shows.
Spectator
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
JK Rowling's takedown of Boy George was a joy to behold
Few things are more delicious to watch than an uneven battle of wits – and it is hard to imagine a more uneven fight than one between Boy George and JK Rowling. 'Which rights have been taken away from trans people?', Rowling asked her followers on X this weekend. 'The right to be left alone by a rich bored bully!', Boy George responded. 'I've never been given 15 months for handcuffing a man to a wall and beating him with a chain,' wrote JK Rowling We waited with bated breath for the inevitable response from the Harry Potter author. When it came, it didn't disappoint. 'I've never been given 15 months for handcuffing a man to a wall and beating him with a chain,' wrote Rowling – a reference to when Boy George was jailed in 2009 for handcuffing an escort to his bed and inflicting what a judge called 'wholly gratuitous violence'. 'You yourself have been convicted of violent assault,' she said. 'The overwhelming number of people who commit crimes of violence are male, just like you. That's why I don't want to see men identifying into women's prison cells or any of the spaces mentioned above. Not all men are violent or predatory but enough are to make safeguarding necessary.' In just a few direct and fluidly cogent paragraphs, Rowling patiently detailed her actual objections to men crashing into women's spaces – and no doubt left Boy George regretting ever wading into this fight. Still, I'm glad he did. One of the great delights of recent years has been witnessing Rowling running out of monkeys to give. It's been bracing to witness the intellect that created an entire imaginary world out of thin air demonstrate another string to its bow. Most of us can do only one or two things passably well, and that's enough. When somebody can do one thing extraordinarily well, it's a sensation. Now we find that Rowling can do this too. It's thrilling. It is so refreshing to see someone 'schooled', as the youngsters say, in this case almost literally. What of George, the Goliath in this fight? And he is the Goliath, with almost all the public and private institutions still on his side. I'm all for rehabilitation, penitence and welcoming the sinner back into the fold. But it is astonishing that George's conviction for false imprisonment and assault has been forgotten. This fits in with my long-standing suspicion that we homosexual men just aren't taken very seriously, or at least not as seriously, no matter what we do, good or bad. We are festive and fun, hurrah, which is why we often appear festooned with streamers and tinsel. Don't worry, I'm not suggesting this is some terrible societal sin that needs to be rectified by copious municipal funds and even greater quantities of variegated bunting. I think it is more likely simply because a double standard inevitably applies to men's bad behaviour among themselves, compared to men's bad behaviour towards women. A man socking another man in the jaw, however hard, will always be less viscerally repulsive than a man socking a woman in the jaw. Yes, this is technically a sexist hypocrisy – but, as double standards go, it is a good one to have, I think. There is, however, a flip side to that equation. If George had done time for exactly what he did but the victim had been a woman, I doubt that he would be sniping away blithely from the moral high ground on social media. He would not have been ushered back in to the bosom of reality TV. The divide in George's soul – between his Hare Krishna 'war is stupid' mantras, exotic whole food fig-and-brown-rice recipes versus his snappy, snitty, salty persona – is rewardingly comic. But again, if the person he handcuffed and assaulted had been female, we would not find this mismatch such a big chuckle. One of the great qualities of the old gay culture was its telling of truths; in fact, George himself was once a proponent of this, casually puncturing all sorts of pomposities and pretences in the pages of Smash Hits. It was one of his delightful qualities. But, while Marilyn, Boy George's chum in 1980s gender-bending pop, has stayed true to that form, George switched when the milieu changed. As Rowling stated in her reply, the great non-conformist rolled right over for this palpable rubbish. Has George 'taken the L' from his drubbing, as the youngsters also say? It appears not. He has not even tried to make an actual case in reply to her points, so perhaps even he is aware that stringing a coherent argument together is not his strong suit. No, he's back to the Edina Monsoon-style 'I am yogically serene and above all temporal things, honest, I REALLY BLOODY AM, sweetie darling' schtick, which is unintentionally hilarious. On Monday he posted the gloriously Pooterish one-two, 'I am happy to say I hate nobody and that serves me very well. Even JK Rowling who is clearly a deeply unpleasant woman'. To show further that he REALLY DOESN'T CARE, he then hit back at her with the devastating riposte 'Turns out she's a Muggle!' I bet she's never heard that one before. 'Words are few I have spoken, I could waste a thousand years,' George once sang. Indeed.
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
JK Rowling in bitter spat with Boy George as singer calls her ‘rich bored bully' over trans rights
JK Rowling has blasted Boy George for calling her a 'rich bored bully' – pointing out he once served time for whipping a male escort with a chain. The Harry Potter author posted a furious response on X after the Culture Club singer waded into a spat with another user who claimed Ms Rowling was 'the person maybe most responsible for the push to take away trans rights'. 2 JK Rowling and Boy George have got into a bitter row on social media Credit: PA 2 The Culture Club singer branded the author a "rich bored bully" Credit: Getty When Ms Rowling asked the X user 'which rights have been taken away from trans people?', Boy George responded: 'The right to be left alone by a rich bored bully!' Ms Rowling posted a lengthy rebuttal in which she accused the Karma Chameleon singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, of sneering at 'unenlightened plebs' who reject the notion that trans women are women. She added: 'I've never been given 15 months for handcuffing a man to a wall and beating him with a chain.' Boy George was jailed in 2009 for handcuffing an escort to his bed and inflicting 'wholly gratuitous violence' at a property in Shoreditch, east London, in April 2007. The court was told that the cocaine-fuelled attack on Audun Carlsen, a Norwegian man, had been 'premeditated and callous' and had left the victim 'traumatised'. Boy George had been found guilty at an earlier trial of false imprisonment and beating Carlsen with a chain with the help of another man, whom he had never identified. Ms Rowling rejected Boy George's claim that she was entitled. She pointed out that she had been poor and could empathise with women who relied on state-funded services, such as single-sex rape crisis, domestic abuse and homeless shelters. Most read in The Scottish Sun She said: 'You yourself have been convicted of violent assault. The overwhelming number of people who commit crimes of violence are male, just like you.' Ms Rowling has become one of the most outspoken campaigners for women-only spaces, becoming a target for criticism by transgender rights activists. Trans ruling victory hides a terrifying reality - for years, women have been demonised simply for pointing out biological fact The row broke out months after Supreme Court judges unanimously ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under equality law.
