JK Rowling reps blame ‘middle-aged moment’ for liking tweet calling trans women ‘men in dresses’

JK Rowling’s reps have claimed she had a “clumsy and middle-aged moment” – after she liked a tweet that referred to trans women as ‘men in dresses’.

The beloved Harry Potter author shocked fans yesterday when she liked a controversial tweet amid a row about the status of transgender women in the left-wing Labour Party.

After a surge in anti-trans rhetoric, a fringe group of campaigners have led calls for transgender women to be banned from standing on Labour’s women-only shortlists for Parliament, and have threatened to resign from the party if it does not agree to their demands.

Rowling, a prominent Labour supporter who frequently engages in issues around the party, ‘liked’ a message about the campaign from a prominent anti-transgender campaigner.

The message read: “I was shouted at by men at my first Labour Party meeting aged 18 because I asked them to remove a Page 3 calendar. I’ve been told to be louder, stronger, independent. I’ve often not felt supported. Men in dresses get brocialist solidarity I never had. that’s misogyny!”

As Twitter frequently shows people’s liked tweets in users’ feeds, a number of fans were shocked to see the message pop up on their timeline as being ‘liked’ by Rowling.

Approached for comment, a spokesperson for the author told PinkNews that she had not intentionally liked the message.

The spokesperson told PinkNews: “I’m afraid J.K. Rowling had a clumsy and middle-aged moment and this is not the first time she has favourited by holding her phone incorrectly.”

A string of messages criticising Rowling had gone viral.

Trans journalist Shon Faye led the criticism, pointing out that the Twitter user who penned the message, who has since made their account private, has previously sent messages referring to transgender women as ‘men’.