Take five minutes to read this: Riley Gaines raves about JK Rowling's essay on women's rights & calls her "literary genius"

Riley Gaines has lauded JK Rowling's new essay about women's rights and trans activism. It is an update on her essay from June 2020, which she wrote to share her thoughts on modern-day trans activism.

JK Rowling has been vocal about women's rights over the years. She also runs a helpline to help women who are dealing with trauma after abuse or other issues. She also runs an organisation named Beira's Place, which is a women-only service that doesn't offer any services to transgender women.

On Wednesday, October 21, Rowling shared a new essay, which was an update on the one she wrote in June 2020. She wrote on X (formerly Twitter):

"I wrote a new piece about women’s rights and whether or not I want trans people dead. (Spoiler: I don’t)"

Podcaster and conservative activist Riley Gaines shared Rowling's post and wrote:

"Take five minutes to read this. It's almost as if JK Rowling is a literary genius. So good."

In her essay, the Harry Potter author wrote about her reasons for supporting women's rights, especially due to trans activism. She explained:

"This is because we oppose the current, dominant strain of trans activism, which holds that a man who declares himself a woman is, literally, a woman, and is therefore entitled to be treated as a woman in all contexts. Where women go to undress, he, too, should go to undress. If there’s an award or job advertised as exclusively for women, he should be eligible. Should he wish to play sports, he must be on the women’s team."

Rowling shared further such examples, writing that she has faced a lot of abuse for speaking up against this. She wrote that trans-identified men are not predators, but asserted the need for 'male-free spaces' for women.

Also Read: "Stop treating the adult population like children": J.K. Rowling reacts after BBC removes nearly a dozen Mitchell and Webb comedy sketches

Riley Gaines has often shown admiration for JK Rowling for speaking on women's rights

The former collegiate swimmer often praises JK Rowling on social media for her activism and thoughts on women's rights. The author also defended her during an online spat in October 2025.

Riley Gaines shared a picture of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zohran Mamdani, and Bernie Sanders on social media and wrote (via Fox News):

"We are being destroyed from within."

AOC took a dig at Gaines and responded:

"Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster you wouldn’t have come in fifth."

This was in reference to Gaines' swimming race at the 2022 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championship. She was tied for 5th place with the trans-identifying male swimmer Lia Thomas. An X user named Alex Cole then took another dig at the podcaster, writing:

"If you took every trans athlete out of sports, no one would have heard of Riley Gaines. She owes her livelihood to trans athletes."

JK Rowling, however, defended Gaines, responding to Cole by writing:

".@Riley_Gaines_ doesn’t defend women’s rights for attention or money, any more than I do. We fight because it’s the only thing to do if you’re not a coward, a pick me or a living doormat."

J.K. Rowling

@jk_rowling

.@Riley_Gaines_ doesn’t defend women’s rights for attention or money, any more than I do. We fight because it’s the only thing to do if you’re not a coward, a pick me or a living doormat.

Gaines, meanwhile, has labeled JK Rowling a "modern-day civil rights hero" in another X post.

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Also Read: “Now we’ve got to go back and educate people”: Stonewall Inn owners accuse JK Rowling of using global platform to harm LGBTQ+ community

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