J.K. Rowling says book character in transphobia row has real-life roots
J.K. Rowling said one of the characters in her new crime novel, a male killer who on one occasion disguises himself as a woman to abduct a victim, was loosely based on two real-life murderers. In a vitriolic online debate, pro- and anti-Rowling hashtags trended on Twitter after the novel's publication on Tuesday, because an early review in the Telegraph newspaper said the book's moral seemed to be "never trust a man in a dress". Critics of the "Harry Potter" author accused her of revealing prejudice through a transphobic trope, while supporters defended her right to write fiction without people…