Azealia Banks Backpedals on Past Anti-Trans Comments to Call Out J.K. Rowling’s Rhetoric

Azealia Banks has become more known for her public beefs than her music in recent years, and now, she’s starting a new one with author J.K. Rowling

The rapper — who has herself issued a number of anti-trans rants online — took aim at the bestselling Harry Potter author and noted anti-trans advocate in a pair of posts to her X account on Feb. 4. Responding to a fan asking why Banks’ body looked a certain way, the “212” rapper called out the way people discuss women’s bodies in conjunction with the ongoing issue of “transvestigation” online.

“I think the dolls are fab and do not need to shade them or change myself because my femininity is not threatened by them,” she wrote. “All of the insane anti-trans paranoid people like @jk_rowling feel their femininity is threatened for whatever reason and try to mask that insecurity with ‘science’ like anyone is stupid and doesn’t already know these things.”

In a follow-up, Banks directly addressed Rowling who began following her after her initial tweet. “No shade @jk_rowling thanks for the follow and I love you down sis, but [trans women] are not a threat to your femininity,” she wrote. “You are really too rich and legendary to keep spewing the same stuff over and over and over.”

Continuing, Banks claimed that her own brother identifies as trans, and shared her experiences watching someone struggle with their gender identity. “I have witnessed first hand the type of misery, pain, ostracism, suicide attempts, unnecessary and unwarranted abuse my mother doled out to my brother, the discomfort with his body — it’s not a mental illness it’s a spiritual thing,” she shared. “One would assume that you of all people who have written books about magic and esoteric things would be able to comprehend and understand how states of consciousness vary in a human being. It’s been YEARS sis.”

Closing out her comments, Banks called out Rowling’s views one final time, writing, “I really do think it’s a front for some weird inferiority thing that’s truly just in your mind. I Say this with lots of love and respect.”

The latest tweets represent something of a switch for Banks, who has been criticized multiple times over the past years for her own transphobic comments, in which she’s claimed that transgender women are not real women and spread misinformation about gender-affirming care.

Rowling, meanwhile, has been a vocal critic of transgender issues for years, regularly spreading inaccurate information regarding gender-affirming care, trans women using women’s restrooms and trans youth participating in women’s sports and much more.