Author J.K. Rowling has stated she is "burning with fury" after Amnesty International included her women's charity, Beira's Place, on a list of organizations it accuses of rolling back LGBT and women's rights. The charity, founded in 2022, provides support to victims of sexual violence in Edinburgh, operating as a women-only space.
Rowling, a vocal campaigner for women's rights and single-sex spaces, criticized Amnesty International on social media. She stated that the organization "has become a self-appointed, vainglorious policeman of wrongthink" and that it "demonises those who disagree with those slogans."
Beira's Place describes itself as a "safe and supportive sexual assault service for women in Edinburgh" offering support, advocacy, and information within a women-only environment. The charity's inclusion on Amnesty's list, alongside groups like Sex Matters and For Women Scotland, has led to significant backlash.
Rowling argued that Amnesty is no longer an impartial defender of free speech, suggesting it has become an "international witch hunter" that "publicly vilifies and intimidates small campaigning groups." She expressed a desire for Amnesty to explain its actions publicly, questioning why it would use its influence to target organizations with legally protected beliefs.
The Amnesty International UK report, titled "Like a snowball: the growth and impact of the gender critical movement in the UK," claims that gender-critical individuals—those who believe gender is determined by biological sex rather than identity—represent "a movement against the rights of women and LGBTI people." The report, published in May, expresses concern over the growth and normalization of this movement by the media and calls for journalists to qualify the term "gender-critical" in their reporting.
Following the report's release, calls were made for the head of Amnesty International UK to resign. The organization subsequently removed the report from its website, stating it had not undergone established internal review processes. Amnesty UK also referred itself to the charity regulator.
Rowling had previously threatened legal action over the report, which Beira's Place claimed caused "extremely serious" damage, including threats and abuse directed at the service, its staff, and its clients. An Amnesty International UK spokesperson noted that the report examined media coverage of trans issues in the UK and argued that trans voices were often underrepresented in public discourse.