An English professor at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, went viral on X this week for tweeting about how students in his Harry Potter class have been discussing author J.K. Rowling’s alleged “hatred of trans people.”
“Today in my Harry Potter class [at Baylor], we had a hard and necessary conversation about JK Rowling and her hatred of trans- people,” Prof. Greg Garrett, the Carole Ann McDaniel Hanks Chair of Literature & Culture, tweeted on Tuesday.
“We decided novelist Rowling, who wrote with compassion about diversity, equity, and inclusion, is worth our attention. Twitter Rowling? Shame on her.”
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Today in my Harry Potter class @Baylor, we had a hard and necessary conversation about JK Rowling and her hatred of trans- people. We decided novelist Rowling, who wrote with compassion about diversity, equity, and inclusion, is worth our attention. Twitter Rowling? Shame on her.
— Greg Garrett (@Greg1Garrett) April 2, 2024
Rowling made headlines earlier this week for tweeting out a list of biological men who identify as transgender women while calling them men and daring police in Scotland to arrest her for violating the country’s new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act.
The law, which went into effect April 1 and created a new criminal offense of “stirring up of hatred,” carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison, a £10,000 (about $12,500) fine or both. It defines hate crime as “any crime which is perceived by the victim, or any other person, to be motivated (wholly or partly) by malice and ill-will towards a social group” and enables police to log alleged “hate incidents.”
“It is impossible to accurately describe or tackle the reality of violence and sexual violence committed against women and girls, or address the current assault on women’s and girls’ rights, unless we are allowed to call a man a man,” Rowling wrote in part. “Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.”
The bestselling author also claimed that Scottish women have for several years been expected to embrace a “neo-religious concept of gender that is unprovable and untestable.”
Rowling drew support from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said, “people should not be criminalized for stating simple facts on biology.” Tory peer Zac Goldsmith likened the Scottish law to something out of East Germany under the communist Stasi.
Garrett’s tweet about Rowling, which racked up over 2.2 million views as of Friday night, drew scorn from users on X, some of whom accused him of violating Baylor’s statement on human sexuality. Others questioned why Baylor University has a collegiate-level Harry Potter class in the first place.
Tuition at the private Baptist research university is nearly $52,000 per year, a price tag that swells to more than $70,000 after books, room and board and other expenses.
Garrett, who received a $488,000 grant from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation in 2021 to “illuminate the ways various forms of American culture have promoted racial myths through the centuries,” doubled down following the backlash and suggested he was standing up for the same sort of people Jesus and the prophets did.
“I am not unaccustomed to disagreement on Twitter,” he tweeted Wednesday. “I’m a Christian, I teach at a great Christian university, and I’m involved in the Christian work of acknowledging the marginalized and dispossessed, those whom the Prophets and Jesus put front and center. Disagree if you must.”
Garrett, whose pinned tweet on his X profile is in support of Black Lives Matter as of Friday, also reiterated his assertion that Rowling is guilty of exhibiting “hate.”
“And maybe we could discuss the definition of ‘gaslighting’ instead of ‘hatred,'” he wrote. “If JK Rowling chooses to post negative comments about trans women on a day commemorating the violent deaths of people for being trans and invites the Scottish authorities to enforce an anti-hate law…”
He went on to claim that he has spoken with Rowling’s former bishop in Edinburgh to confirm that she attended church some years ago.
“I understand religious disagreements on LGBTQ issues,” he added. “My family is Southern Baptist. But there’s expressing disagreement, and there’s this. Hate is the proper word.”
Baylor University did not respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment by publication, and Garrett directed CP to a January article in the student newspaper Baylor Lariat about his 300-level Harry Potter class.
In the article, Garrett likened Harry Potter to a messianic figure.
“[Rowling] said early on that the story of ‘Harry Potter’ — the whole seven-volume story — was based on the Gospels,” Garrett told the outlet, adding that the Christian themes of love and compassion are one of the most powerful messages in the series.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
