Suzy Eddie Izzard swipes at JK Rowling for wading into ‘heated’ online rows over trans rights

Suzy Eddie Izzard slammed Harry Potter author JK Rowling today when she warned against wading into online disputes over transgender rights.

The comedian and Labor activist warned that “heated” debates could “become more and more extreme” on social media.

But Izzard praised how “we’re just starting to get used to it” discussing transgender issues even though “LGBTQ people have been there since we were cavemen.”

The 61-year-old has previously spoken about her fluid gender identity and requests that she be referred to using the pronouns she/their.

She also recently announced her full name as Suzy Eddie Izzard to ‘add’ a name she’s wanted to use since childhood.

JK Rowling has been a fierce critic of Scotland’s recent gender identity reforms and clashed with outgoing Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon over the issue.

Speaking to LBC Radio this morning, Izzard said she chose not to read the negative comments about her online and would “just carry on.”

It came when she was asked why Rowling has become a ‘semi-hate figure’ to some when it comes to transgender rights.

The author has been a fierce critic of Scotland’s recent gender identity reforms and clashed with outgoing Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon over the issue.

Rowling has also frequently entered into debates about transgender rights on social media, regularly leading to backlash.

But Izzard suggested that this was often a way to escalate the arguments.

“If you get into the debate and take sides, people can tell you certain things,” he said.

“And if you react, especially online, if you react to things, everything can get more and more extreme.

It’s like an argument that turns into an argument, that turns into pure anger, that turns into a fight.

‘Something like this is happening right now. We need to understand that LGBTQ people have been around since we were cavemen.

‘We’re just starting to understand it and talk about it and relax about it, even though the discussions are heated.

So I don’t want anyone to have a really bad time. People were online saying negative things about me, but I don’t read those things I keep doing.”

Izzard dismissed concerns that Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer might be backtracking on his earlier commitments on trans rights.

Izzard also suggested that the current political arguments over transgender rights were “just about the time that trans people have to go through”.

“If you remember the fight and the discussions about lesbian and gay rights 20 years ago, marriage equality, that was very heated,” she added.

“Now everything has calmed down and another gay activist was telling me: ‘I think this is the moment that trans people have to go through.'”

‘He has to go through all these discussions. Now, when I came out in 1985, 38 years ago, there were no arguments about us, not a silly bird, not a single word.

We were toxic people, we were outside of society, we just weren’t people. And at least the discussions are happening, even if they are heated.’

Izzard, who failed to become a Labor MP last year, dismissed concerns that party leader Sir Keir Starmer might be backtracking on his earlier commitments on trans rights.

It came after the Labor leader said yesterday that the ‘lesson’ of the dispute over Scotland’s gender identity reforms was that ‘you have to take the public with you’.

Izzard said: ‘I think that’s correct. If you look at what I’ve tried to do personally for 38 years is to buoy people up little by little.

“If you hear me talk, I hope you’ll think ‘well that’s just one person, he seems like a decent person’.”