August 02 2025, 08:15 
Pansexual nonbinary drag and theatre performer Jinkx Monsoon mocked transphobic billionaire author Joanne Kathleen Rowling for using the pen name “J.K. Rowling” in order to, allegedly, appear more masculine. Rowling has spent thousands of her own money to help fund anti-trans court cases in her home country of the United Kingdom.
In a recent interview with comedienne Ziwe Fumudoh, Fumudoh asked Monsoon whether J.K. Rowling would “make a good Roxie Hart” in the 1975 stage musical Chicago. In a recent Broadway revival of the musical, Monsoon played Matron “Mama” Morton Hart, a woman’s jail supervisor who grants inmates favors in exchange for bribes. Hart’s character is an anti-hero who murders her abusive extramarital lover, lies about it in court, and then segues her media fame into a career as a stage performer. Her character was played by Renée Zellweger in the musical’s 2002 film adaptation.
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In response to Fumudoh’s question, Monsoon asked, “Who is this Jake? Jake Haye? Who is he?”
Fumudoh responded, “He is a she.”
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Monsoon replied, “Oh, that is not a feminine name in the slightest,” adding, “I know that oftentimes, female authors use initials so that people assume it’s a male writer.”
She continues, “So, I have to presume that J.K. Rowling was unsatisfied with the way the world saw her, and then she transitioned herself into a new personality so that the world would perceive her the way she wanted to be perceived.”
Fumudoh replied, “Gagging.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Fumudoh noted that Monsoon voiced the villain Emerald in the queer-inclusive TV animated series Steven Universe. Fumudoh asked, “Did you do it for the money or just to turn kids queer?”
Monsoon responded, “I have found that the best time to indoctrinate children is at birth, when you decide their gender for them, and then shortly after that, when you decide their religion for them. So by the time that they’re Steven Universe age, I’ve got a lot of indoctrination to fight against, so I have to double down on indoctrinating the kids.”
Elsewhere, Monsoon revealed that she had facial feminization surgery, had her “jaw reduced” and her “brow reduced,” and had “two hair transplants.” She said she didn’t plan on having additional gender affirming surgical procedures. She also said that she has been called anti-queer slurs when travelling home from her Broadway performances.
She also said that she considered Scar, the villainous lion in the 1994 Disney animated film The Lion King, to be Disney’s “fruitiest” villain, commenting, “He probably got that scar being bullied, and that’s why he’s such an ass***e. That’s why he had to steal the throne, because they were never gonna give it to him with his gay a**.”
J.K. Rowling uses her fortune to fund anti-trans legal attacks
Rowling has used her vast wealth, mostly accumulated through the success of her Harry Potter franchise and its many multimedia spinoffs, to personally fund legal cases aimed at diminishing rights and protections for transgender women in the U.K. and Ireland.
A spokesperson for Rowling confirmed that the author’s JK Rowling Women’s Fund (JKRWF) has been quietly operating since late 2024, managing “her ongoing financial support for legal cases involving women’s and girls’ sex-based rights.”
The fund is just her latest effort to end trans women’s rights in the U.K. In February 2024, she pledged a £70,000 (about $89,000) to For Women Scotland (FWS), the anti-trans organization behind the legal challenge that resulted in the U.K. Supreme Court’s ruling that excluded trans women from the country’s law prohibiting sex-based discrimination.
Since late 2024, she has also used JK Rowling Women’s Fund (JKRWF) to offer financial legal support to cisgender women who “have lost their livelihoods or are facing tribunals” due to their anti-trans beliefs, as well as individuals and organizations that are “being forced to comply with unreasonable inclusion policies regarding single sex spaces and services, or female-only clubs and events” or “are challenging legislation which takes away the freedoms or protections [cisgender] women are entitled to.”
HBO is currently producing a Harry Potter reboot to which Rowling will serve as an executive producer. Casey Bloys, HBO’s gay CEO, has repeatedly dismissed concerns about her toxic transphobia, saying that Rowling is “entitled” to “her personal political views.”
According to The Guardian, the Harry Potter franchise is worth an estimated $25 billion. In a May 28 Bluesky post, British barrister Jolyon Maugham wondered how much of Rowling’s fortune would be spent “oppressing a minoritised group she doesn’t like.”
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