JK Rowling and Elon Musk have taken the lead in mocking the Scottish Government’s latest move to introduce a list of 24 gender identities.
The list is meant to be used by public bodies for data collection and included terms like “genderfluid,” “intersex,” and “neutral.”
As the list sparked a heated debate, the Harry Potter author, 59, weighed in on social media with her signature dose of sarcasm, aligning with her known history of anti-trans rhetoric.
JK Rowling and Elon Musk were at the forefront of criticism against the Scottish Government’s new list of 24 gender identities
The controversial writer questioned whether people whose “astro-identity” don’t match the sign they were assigned at birth would also be formally recognized.
“As the Scottish Endarkenment gathers pace, star signs will follow. As a Nont*, I expect all 336** astro-identities to be recognised.
* Person whose astro-identity doesn’t match the sign they were assigned at birth (NON-Twelver)
** Number may change ***
*** Upwards, obviously,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Not to be left out, tech billionaire Elon also joined the conversation by responding to the author’s tweet.
He posted an emoji of a nut, suggesting that he believes the gender list is “nuts.”
The Harry Potter author, known for her controversial views on gender, took to social media with a sarcastic jab
The Tesla founder has also been vocal about his anti-transgender views in the past, particularly relating to his own daughter.
Scotland’s SNP government included the list of 24 genders in the guidance for public bodies that collect data on sex and gender.
The list allows people to choose their gender from the list, which includes the following terms:
Cisgender, Trans man, Trans woman, Non-Binary, Trans – not otherwise specified, Agender, Trans masculine, Trans feminine, Genderfluid, Genderqueer, Questioning, Intersex, Assigned female at birth – not specified, Assigned male at birth – not specified, Pangender, Bigender, Autigender, Androgynous, Gender non-conforming, Detransitioned, Neutral, Demigender – female, Demigender – male and Demigender – not otherwise specified.
Tech mogul Elon Musk chimed in with a simple emoji response—a nut
“The point of the survey is to collect information on the respondents’ trans history and how they would define it,” a Scottish Government spokesperson said, as quoted by The Scotsman.
“It is therefore important that the survey is designed in such a way that allows that information to be captured,” the spokesperson added.
The release of the list contradicts the views of Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, who previously asserted that there are only two genders.
“There is the male and female gender,” he said during a BBC radio phone-in show in July.
Dr. Genny Beemyn, Director of the Stonewall Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said the Scottish Government’s list is just a small slice of how people define their gender. They pointed out that there could be “hundreds” of ways for individuals to name their gender.
“The 24 is a somewhat arbitrary number. There are hundreds of ways that people name their gender,” they told Bored Panda.
The list contradicts the views of Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, who said he believes there are only two genders: male and female
The nonbinary educator and author has been conducting researching using the Common App, an undergraduate college application, self-described as the largest database that asks the gender identity of college students.
The Common App collected data from 1,254950 students, coming from 1,078 colleges, for the Fall 2024 matriculation. Out of the total number of respondents, 3,570 students “wrote in a trans or nonbinary gender, in addition to 15,016 students marking nonbinary.”
The results for the year 2024, shared with Bored Panda, showed that 43.60% (1,557 students) of the aforementioned 3,570 students identified their gender as “genderfluid.”
“In my research using the Common App (the admission form used by more than a million students to apply to over 1,000 U.S. colleges), I found that students indicated about 100 different genders,” Genny added.
One social media user seemed to suggest that JK Rowling is “obsessed” with the subject of gender with her overly vocal criticism
