JK Rowling has announced she is returning the Ripple of Hope award given to her by the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR) organisation, after its president criticised her views on transgender issues.
The award, which recognises a commitment to social change, was presented to Rowling in December for her work with her children's charity Lumos. Previous recipients include Barack Obama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Joe Biden. Rowling had called it "one of the highest honours I've ever been given".
Earlier this month, Kerry Kennedy, president of RFKHR, issued a statement expressing "dismay" over what she called Rowling's "deeply troubling transphobic tweets and statements". The author had sparked controversy in June with a series of tweets arguing that "if sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased". She later wrote an essay detailing her experience of domestic abuse and arguing that trans women who have not undergone hormone therapy or surgical transition should not have access to single-sex spaces.
Kennedy said Rowling's comments "had the effect of degrading trans people's lived experiences" and were "inconsistent with the fundamental beliefs and values of RFKHR". Rowling, however, rejected the accusation of transphobia, stating she had received "thousands of private emails of support" from people within and outside the trans community. She added: "No award or honour … means so much to me that I would forfeit the right to follow the dictates of my own conscience."
