JK Rowling says ‘I love it when a plan comes together’ as she celebrates trans court win with cigar on a luxury yacht
JK ROWLING has celebrated yesterday's trans court ruling with a cigar and cocktail on a luxury yacht.
The Harry Potter author, 59, posted the image of herself along with the caption "I love it when a plan comes together" in a nod to the A-Team.
Judges ruled that the terms "women" and "sex" in the 2010 Equality Act referred to biological sex in the ground-breaking Supreme Court decision.
The author - and prominent women's rights campaigner - had also posted on X in light of the announcement, suggesting her and her husband were clinking glasses of champagne following the ruling.
Her smoking selfie was captioned: "I love it when a plan comes together," and has hashtags for the Supreme Court and for women's rights.
Rowling used the quote as a nod to the catchphrase of A-Team character and leader George "Hannibal" Smith.
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The beloved character was played by the late George Peppard in the classic 1980s TV series.
Rowling also hit back at those who suggested she was smoking a "blunt", which is associated with cannabis use.
She said: "To those celebrating the fact that I'm smoking a blunt: it's a cigar.
"Even if it decided to identify as a blunt for the purposes of this celebration, it would remain objectively, provably and demonstratively a cigar."
Rowling told commenters in replies that the photo had been taken by one of her daughters as she sipped on an "Old Fashioned" cocktail.
On Wednesday evening, she had also shared a photo on X which appeared to show two glasses of prosecco under a sunny canopy, as she toasted to the ruling with her husband Neil.
Alongside the picture, she wrote: "We toasted you @ForWomenScot. Neil says it’s TERF VE Day [laughing emoji] #SupremeCourt #WomensRights".
The term "TERF" is used to describe people whose views on gender identity are seen as hostile towards transgender people.
Rowling has been a long standing advocate for women's group For Women Scotland, which she is also believed to have backed with funding.
It was this group which also launched a long-running legal battle with the Scottish government over how a "woman" was defined in Scottish law.
The Scottish government had argued people with gender recognition certificates (GRCs) should be protected from sex-based discrimination, meaning a transwoman would be considered a woman.
However, campaign group For Women Scotland claimed this only applied to people born as a female.
Key points about the Supreme Court ruling
- THE UK’s highest court unanimously ruled the terms “woman” and “sex” as set down in UK law “refer to a biological woman and biological sex”.
- Judges ruled having a
Gender Recognition Certificate stating a trans woman is female does not mean that person should be treated as a woman under the UK 2010 Equality Act. - This means trans women with a GRC can be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate”.
- The ruling will apply to spaces such as changing rooms, homeless hostels or domestic violence refuges.
- NHS guidance on who can be placed on same-sex wards is also now likely to be changed. The current document, set out in 2019, states: “Trans people should be accommodated according to their presentation: the way they dress, and the name and pronouns they currently use.”
- One option is for transgender people to be placed in rooms on their own. Trans people still retain legal protections and cannot be discriminated against, but they cannot acquire protections reserved for women.
Now, the Supreme Court's landmark judgement ruled that it was unanimously determined "sex is binary" and that female-only spaces must be protected on the basis of biology.
Following yesterday's judgement, a top legal expert declared places reserved for women must shut out all blokes — including trans women.
Naomi Cunningham, barrister and chair of campaign group Sex Matters, said: “It is now clear that in any situation in which it is lawful to operate a single-sex or separate-sex service for women, it is not merely lawful but compulsory to exclude all men.
“And ‘men’ for these purposes includes trans women, whether or not they hold gender recognition certificates (GRCs).
"The same is true in reverse of single-sex or separate-sex services for men.”
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Bev Jackson, co-founder of LGB Alliance, said the decision wipes out “any semblance” of doubt about whether males can join women’s spaces.
She said: “The legal definition of ‘woman’ is clear now. This means that any club, association or other group of any size — for example, a lesbian social club — can now legally operate on a single-sex basis.”
Sir Keir Starmer slammed by campaigners
SIR Keir Starmer was yesterday slammed by campaigners and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch for spending years refusing to define a woman.
The PM — who welcomed the Supreme Court judgment — was accused of hypocrisy for previously tying himself in knots over the issue.
In 2022 he declared: “Trans women are women.”
The following year he tweaked his position to say a woman is an “adult female”.
And in 2024 Sir Keir, drew ridicule for insisting 99.9 per cent of women “don’t have a penis” — meaning one in every thousand do.
Ms Badenoch blasted: “The era of Keir Starmer telling us some women have penises has come to an end. Hallelujah!”
Ex-Labour MP Rosie Duffield, now sitting as an independent, joked she wanted to buy him an “I told you so” T-shirt.
She added: “But I would need a different one for every moment of every day.”
A Labour source blamed ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn for the party’s disarray.
The source said: “This just shows why it was so important that Keir hauled the Labour Party back to the commonsense position the public take on these sorts of issues.
“He gradually moved the party from one that took the activist position to a serious, sensible one that protected women’s spaces while allowing for respectful debate.
“It’s one of the reasons the country felt Labour was safe to elect just a few years after the disaster of 2019.”
Despite the defiant statement it took only a few hours for Sir Keir’s wokest MPs to hit out at the decision.
