'It's censorship' | Worker allegedly ousted from Oxfam for defending JK Rowling in 'TERF' row

An Oxfam worker claims she was forced out of the charity after defending JK Rowling. The Harry Potter author has faced accusations of transphobia amid openly supporting single-sex spaces, which gave her the label ‘TERF’, an acronym for ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’.

In an interview with Unherd, the former employee shared details of an incident which unfolded following a debate on an internal message board, where Oxfam staff were asked "What is your opinion on selling JK Rowling books?", leading to a discussion around whether the author’s work should continue to be sold in the charity’s shops.

The message was put on the chat by a fellow employee who was concerned that ‘Troubled Blood’, a book written by Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, would be ‘highly transphobic’ and unsuitable for sale.

The former-Oxfam employee, who worked as a women’s rights team coordinator, reportedly defended Rowling on the message board saying the author is ‘one of the most important woman writers in the UK’.