Anti-trans crusader J.K. Rowling is calling for a boycott of iconic British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) following an outcry over a transgender employee who was just doing her job.

On Monday, August 4, U.K. outlet The Telegraph reported that M&S apologized to a woman whose teenage daughter was reportedly “distressed” after a transgender woman working in the store’s lingerie section offered her assistance.

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In her complaint to the store, the mother described the employee as a “biological male” and repeatedly misgendered her. According to the Telegraph, the mother said that it was “completely inappropriate” for the trans shop assistant to offer to help her 14-year-old daughter.

“My daughter recoiled, so I politely declined the offer and we left immediately. She was visibly upset and said she felt ‘freaked out,’” the woman reportedly wrote in her complaint.

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The following day, an M&S customer service assistant responded to the complaint. In an email, the assistant said that the retailer was “truly sorry” for the incident and took the mother’s concerns “very seriously.” The retailer said it assured the mother that “a female colleague” would assist her daughter in the future, according to the Telegraph.

In an interview with the outlet, the woman claimed that M&S had acknowledged that the employee “is not female,” but she was unsatisfied with the store’s response.

The outlet noted that per the U.K. Supreme Court’s recent anti-trans ruling — which found that the legal definition of a woman under the country’s 2010 Equality Act is based on “biological sex” — trans people can be barred from entering sex-segregated spaces, like changing rooms, that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth.

However, the alleged incident took place in March, prior to the U.K. Supreme Court’s ruling. What’s more, the Telegraph later reported that the trans employee does not carry out bra fittings, and nowhere in the published excerpts of the mother’s complaint was it indicated that the trans shop assistant offered or intended to enter a changing room with the teenage girl.

That didn’t stop Rowling from insinuating otherwise.

“It’s time for women to vote with their wallets. If stores like M&S continue to flout the Supreme Court ruling on women-only spaces, prioritising the wishes of men who want to undress near, or help fit bras on teenage girls, a boycott seems appropriate,” the Harry Potter author wrote in an August 4 X post linking to the Telegraph story.

Rowling has seemingly made it her personal mission in recent years to undermine the rights of transgender women in the U.K.

The author made headlines in February 2024 when she pledged a £70,000 (about $89,000) donation to For Women Scotland (FWS), the anti-trans organization behind the legal challenge that resulted in April’s Supreme Court ruling. In May, a spokesperson for Rowling confirmed that the author was personally financing a legal defense fund to bankroll cases aimed at diminishing rights and protections for transgender women in the U.K. and Ireland.

In an August 4 statement, a spokesperson for Marks & Spencer responded to the Telegraph’s report.

“We want our stores to be inclusive and welcoming places for our colleagues and customers,” the statement read. “We have written to this customer and explained that our colleagues typically work across all departments in our stores and customers can always ask to speak to the colleague they feel most comfortable with.”  

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