Transphobic billionaire author J.K. Rowling has encouraged random people in the United Kingdom to photograph people in women’s restrooms just in case they are transgender. Her advice is likely to result in the public harassment of cisgender women who don’t fit people’s preconceived notions of how a cis woman “should” look — such harassment has occurred many times in the past.

In a Saturday post on X, Rowling noted that someone asked her, “How are you planning to police public toilets” in light of the recent U.K. Supreme Court ruling that the legal definition of men and women in the country’s anti-discrimination law is based on biological sex. After the ruling, the U.K.’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said trans women and men “should not be permitted to use” the public restroom facilities that align with their gender.

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The anti-trans author took to X to suggest that she’s not friends with Fry anymore.

In response, Rowling said that policing trans people in public toilets can be handled, “Quite easily, really. Decent men will stay out, as they always have, so we can assume all who don’t are a threat, given their disregard for women’s and girls’ safety, privacy and dignity. Photographing, reporting and disseminating such men’s images online will be a piece of cake.”

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In the U.K., it is generally illegal to photograph people in restrooms.

In response, freelance columnist Darryl Mott wrote on Bluesky, “In case you can’t tell what just happened, JK Rowling instructed her followers to take photos of anyone in a women’s restroom who doesn’t match their idea of Western feminine beauty standards. Short hair? Thick cheekbones/jaw? Too tall or broad-shouldered? You’re now ‘a man’ and will be harassed.”

Mott is correct.

In March, Phoenix cops burst into women’s restroom to remove butch lesbian, accusing her of being a man. That same month, a 6’4″ cisgender female Walmart employee was followed into a women’s restroom by a customer who verbally assaulted because he thought she was trans.

In January, Anti-trans Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) reportedly told a cis woman in a Capitol women’s restroom, “You shouldn’t be here,” before storming back into the restroom with her transphobic colleague, only to realize the woman wasn’t trans.

“I made an error regarding a mistaken identity,” Boebert said in a statement after the incident. “I apologized, learned a lesson, and it won’t happen again.”

In November 2022, a cisgender woman harassed another cis woman with short hair in the public restroom of the Rampart Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada because she thought she was transgender.

In May 2016, 22-year-old cis woman Aimee Toms was called “disgusting,” flicked off, and escorted out of the bathroom because a woman mistook her for being trans.

If these incidents are any indication, Rowling’s advice is likely to empower others to harass all sorts of women in public restrooms, whether they’re transgender or not — so much for protecting girls’ and womens’ safety, privacy, and dignity.

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