JK Rowling, a once beloved children's author who has now become the face of a hate movement, went to social media on 22nd November 2021 to state that her home address was doxed by trans activists.
In her tweets Rowling claimed that her home address had been released to the public by 'trans activists', and that this was a breach of her privacy. She seemed most distressed by the fact that the people who took photos of themselves outside her castle, yes, a literal castle, had her address visible in the photograph. In any other circumstances this would indeed be doxing.
Doxing, for those unaware, is the act of searching out private, identifying information, and making that visible. This can be revealing the legal name behind a social media account, revealing someone's place of work, or releasing details of a persons home address. If these three people had indeed released information about where Rowling lived, they had indeed doxed her.
But the thing that makes this situation a bit different is that Rowlings addresses, for her multiple huge mansions and castles, have been public knowledge for years.
The home in question for this event, Whitehouse Castle, is a very publicly known location. You can google the name, and not only does it bring up the location on Google maps, but there are multiple tourist websites that will give you the full postal address, co-ordinates for the house, and even list Rowling as the owner. As such, it's hard to see just how three people taking a photo in front of this castle, and sharing it to social media, is revealing new information.
The first thing to come up on Google image search for this house is a photograph of her home, with the house number clearly on display; the same thing that Rowling was angry was in a photograph with trans people.
Another or Rowling's giant homes, Killiechassie house, is also a public location. It has its own Wikipedia entry, and is even listed as a place of interest for tourists. You can even leave reviews for the house on Google, which is not something that can be done for most homes, and certainly not private residences.
So if your homes are listed as places of public interest, have Wikipedia entries, are featured on travel and tourist websites, are featured a number of times in news articles, and seem to generally be pretty public knowledge, how is a single photo of the house doxing? That's not a rhetorical question. I genuinely want to know what seems to make this incident doxing, whereas all of that other information, and Harry Potter fans taking photos outside her castle, isn't? Because if there isn't some kind of explanation as to why this is different it seems like the only issue Rowling has is that it was trans people, a group she seems to hate, were near her home.
I'm sure some of you might say that because they were there on the Trans Day of Remembrance, a day to mark and remember the hundreds of trans lives lost over the last year (due in large part to the spread of transphobia and misinformation being spread in the world today) it became a protest, and is therefor wrong. But there have been a lot of times in the past the people have protested outside homes, and these get described as protests, but never as doxing. Was it doxing when people protested outside Jeff Bezos' home in 2020. Is it doxing when people protest outside The White House, or Buckingham Palace, both locations that are well known tourist locations, like Rowlings homes?
I'm sure that Rowling was upset that three people from a minority group she's been saying awful things about were outside her home, making it clear that they believed she was a transphobe and adding to the harm against trans people. But being annoyed does not make this into doxing. These were people behind a huge gate, a giant hedge, and separated from her by her round the clock security personnel. She was never in any danger, and I'm sure she wouldn't even have known they were there is she just went to the other side of her giant, literal castle.
But perhaps even more hypocritical of Rowling was when in the same twitter thread that she claimed she was doxed she mentioned other transphobes, people who have actively engaged in the harassment of trans people. She held them up as being poor victims, people who had been targeted because they 'refuse to uncritically accept that the socio-political concept of gender identity should replace that of sex'.
First of all, I'm having to point out yet again that Rowling is making an argument about something that is just not real. Trans people are not trying to replace sex with gender. The idea that we want to, that we don't understand the difference, or that we're trying to replace what it means to be male or female is ridiculous. I can assure you, trans people very much understand that sex and gender are not the same. It's kind of a big part of understanding ourselves as people whose physical sex and gender don't quite line up. It appears that Rowling is simply having to make these false claims because she can't just openly say 'I hate trans people', and needs to manufacture a false fight in which she can seem like the rational mind battling for what's right.
But even with that aside, these people she's talking about, Allison Bailey, Raquel Sanchez, Marion Miller, Rosie Duffield, Joanna Cherry, Julie Bindel, Rosa Freedman, and Kathleen Stock, aren't coming under fire for no reason. They have made it their mission to eradicate trans people, and that's not really a good thing to dedicate your life to. But also, some of these people she has named have literally engaged in doxing, an act that Rowling apparently finds appalling.
Marion Miller, who Rowling named, appeared in court because she engaged in harassment of trans people online, as well as doxing by revealing home addresses. Home addresses that aren't tourist location castles. Information on her doxing can be found here.
Rosie Duffield, a sitting Labour Party MP who appeared on television to spread transphobic lies on Trans Awareness Week, has come under criticism from her staff for her transphobic and anti LGBTQ+ views, and one staffer said that she tried to dox them by revealing their personal details on social media. Information on her doxing can be found here.
Rosa Freedman received an email regarding her increased attacks on the trans community. In response to this Freedman released the personal details of the person to her social media following. Information on her doxing can be found here.
Whilst that is only some of the names Rowling mentioned, the other people she talked about have engaged openly in transphobia. Allison Bailey claimed that trans people were trying to murder her dog with chocolate, and has recently lamented that young girls transition to trans men because it means people won't get to touch their breasts.
Joanna Cherry, a member of Scottish parliament, has spoken out against banning conversion therapy, as she believes conversion therapy would be fine to use against trans people and doesn't want that option taken away from her. She has also spoken in parliament to try and harm LGBTQ+ organisations such as Stonewall.
And there's Kathleen Stock, who recently quit her job at Sussex Universtity after a protest their at her anti-trans views. Despite the university deciding to back her, Stock left her position, and has since appeared in numerous publication, radio shows, and TV programmes to talk about how she was 'cancelled' simply for having anti-trans views. It should be noted, however, that Stock signed a declaration, the WHRC Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, that calls for the complete removal of all rights and protections of trans people, leaving them with no legal protections or rights.
And it appears that even Rowling herself has engaged in doxing. In her own twitter thread. She, a mulit-millionaire who lives in castles with round the clock security protection and 13 million twitter followers, included the twitter accounts of the three people who took a photo outside her home. She showed her supporters, a lot of whom are openly violent and harassing transphobes, where they could go to find these people and take their anger out on them (I removed their names from Rowlings tweets shown in the article).
These accounts have been deleted, most likely by the owners as Rowling sharing them would guarantee that they would receive harassment and abuse. And I believe Rowling was very aware of that fact when she did so.
Rowling was not doxed. Her home address and location are open to the public, and have been for many, many years. But as seems to be the case with people who campaign against trans people Rowling has claimed that she is the victim, and has tried to silence those she doesn't like. This isn't new, as Rowling has used the threat of legal action to have articles removed in the past, and part of me expects that this article here could go the same way.
Rowling was not doxed. She was not put in any danger. She praised people who have engaged in doxing. Don't believe her claims. Rowling is once again trying to harm the trans community. Don't let her get away with it.
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