Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines May 17
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J.K. Rowling is leaping to the defense of a student who claims she was driven from her private school after challenging the "transgender ideology" of a guest speaker.
"Utterly shameful," the "Harry Potter" author tweeted Tuesday in response to a report of the story. "Add this to the tottering pile of evidence that people in education and academia who're supposed to have a duty of care towards the young have succumbed to an outbreak of quasi-religious fanaticism. The girl's crime? Saying 'sex exists.’"
Per a report from The Times, the 18-year-old student told the outlet, "The language (the speaker) was using was implying critical theory took precedence over biological reality in defining women.
"When I questioned that, she said it wasn't an issue of semantics. She said trans people don't have basic human rights in this country. Afterwards, I spoke to her and said I'm sorry if I came across as rude."
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The report further maintained that while other students were initially supportive of the student, they later turned and accused her of transphobia.
The student ultimately left the school in September after she said personnel told her she would be relegated to working in the school’s library if she said anything provocative.
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Rowling has been outspoken in recent years about her own views on sex and gender.
She also returned a coveted Ripple of Hope Award presented to her by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization in December 2019 after remarks from the organization’s president criticizing the author for tweets and statements the organization deemed transphobic.
J.K. Rowling called the treatment of a student allegedly driven from her school "utterly shameful" after the 18-year-old said she questioned the "trans ideology" of a guest speaker. (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/WireImage)
After the statement was released, Rowling took to her own website and wrote that Kennedy had "incorrectly implied that I was transphobic and that I am responsible for harm to trans people."
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"As a longstanding donor to LGBT charities and a supporter of trans people’s right to live free of persecution, I absolutely refute the accusation that I hate trans people or wish them ill, or that standing up for the rights of women is wrong, discriminatory or incites harm or violence to the trans community," Rowling maintained.
A rep for Rowling did not immediately respond to Fox News request for comment.
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