An Open Letter to J.K. Rowling, to Billionaires, to Celebrities, to People of Influence, and to All Who Support This Moral Panic

To J.K. Rowling, and to other billionaires, public figures, celebrities, political leaders, religious extremists, MAGA red-hat wearers, and followers around the world who share or amplify these beliefs:

How absolutely absurd—and how profoundly harmful this has become.

I have worked in the beauty industry for nearly 30 years. In that time, I have seen every kind of woman’s face, body, voice, height, bone structure, and physical presentation imaginable. There are countless women who are not gay, not lesbian, not transgender—women who simply inherited their father’s facial features, who have strong jawlines, broad shoulders, larger hands or feet, deeper voices, short hair, athletic builds, or tall frames. They are no less women than anyone else.

What is being demanded now—this idea that women must pass some visual “inspection” or litmus test to be allowed dignity, privacy, and safety in a public restroom—is not protection. It is misogyny, ignorance, and cruelty.

And here is the truth no one pushing this panic wants to confront:

You cannot tell by looking at someone whether they are transgender. You cannot know whether someone has had surgery or medical care. Appearance proves absolutely nothing.

What this obsession actually targets is not transgender women—it targets any woman who does not conform to a narrow, stereotypical idea of femininity. Straight women. Gay women. Older women. Athletic women. Women with hormonal conditions. Women from diverse genetic and ethnic backgrounds.

Most transgender women I know are straight and attracted to men, not women. Meanwhile, the facts remain consistent and undisputed:

• Most pedophiles are straight men

• Most sexual violence is committed by straight men

• There is no widespread reporting—none—of transgender women assaulting women or children in public bathrooms

If such assaults were happening at any meaningful scale, they would appear in police reports, FBI statistics, court records, and nonstop media coverage. They do not.

Transgender people make up 1% or less of the population. That means statistically most public restrooms will never even encounter a transgender person. Many will never see one at all. Bathrooms are not a safety issue. Transgender people are not a threat. One percent—or less—of the population is not endangering the world.

This fear is manufactured.

And that brings us to the deeper question: Why?

Why would a billionaire with immense power and influence obsessively target less than 1% of the population, especially when there is no evidence of harm? Why not use wealth and influence to address real crises—poverty, homelessness, addiction, climate collapse, or the violence that actually exists?

Instead, we are witnessing something darker: the use of money, fame, and platforms to scapegoat the most vulnerable, to create moral panic, and to dress persecution up as virtue.

This is not new. History is full of moments like this.

The British Isles burned their last “witch” in the 18th century. Public executions continued well into the 19th century. The United States carried out its last public hanging in 1936—within the past century. Fear has always found a target.

Had J.K. Rowling lived in those earlier times, she herself might have been imprisoned or executed for writing Harry Potter. She would have pleaded, “I am not a witch.” And the crowd would not have cared.

That is the bitter irony of our moment: someone who would once have been persecuted for imagination and creativity now participates—actively or indirectly—in the persecution of others simply for existing.

And this letter is not only for her.

It is for:

• Billionaires who punch down

• Celebrities who fuel fear

• Politicians who exploit panic

• Fanatical religious movements across the globe

• Followers who confuse righteousness with cruelty

This must end. It must stop.

Transgender people are not harming anyone. Bathrooms are not a safety crisis. One percent—or less—of humanity is not the enemy.

What is destructive is self-righteousness without empathy, fear without evidence, and power without compassion. That is how societies unravel—not because of the vulnerable, but because of those who choose persecution over understanding.

The real question is not who doesn’t belong. It is where is our humanity, our reason, and our compassion?

When Fear Ignores Facts: Bathrooms, Billionaires, and the Manufactured Panic Over Transgender People

By Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler

Public debates often reveal more about our fears than about reality. Few issues demonstrate this more starkly than the current obsession with transgender people and public restrooms—an obsession driven not by evidence, but by imagination, moral panic, and the misuse of power.

Let us begin with something simple: numbers and lived experience.

Transgender people make up about 1% or less of the population. That is not ideology—it is math. In real-world terms, this means that most public restrooms will never encounter a transgender person at all, and many will go years without one ever entering a stall.

So the first question must be asked plainly:

If transgender people are less than 1% of the population, how could they possibly represent a widespread threat?

The answer, of course, is that they cannot.

Asking the Questions Fear Refuses to Ask

If men were disguising themselves as women to enter restrooms and assault women or children, wouldn’t we see it?

• Wouldn’t it appear in police reports?

• In FBI crime statistics?

• In court records?

• In headline after headline, amplified endlessly by the media?

Yet there is no documented pattern of transgender women assaulting women or children in public bathrooms. None. Not locally. Not nationally. Not internationally.

So we must ask another question:

If this were truly happening, why is there no evidence?

The criminal justice system tracks trends relentlessly. Violent crime patterns are identified, categorized, and prosecuted. Bathrooms are not hidden from law enforcement. Victims report crimes. Prosecutors pursue cases. Journalists sensationalize rare events.

And yet—nothing.

Who Actually Commits Sexual Violence?

Here is what does consistently appear in decades of criminology and public health research:

• Most sexual violence is committed by men

• Most pedophiles are straight men

• Most assaults occur in private spaces, by people the victim knows

Sexual violence is a real and devastating issue—but it is not happening in women’s bathrooms at the hands of transgender women.

So the next question becomes unavoidable:

Why are transgender people being blamed for violence they do not commit?

What This Panic Really Targets

I have worked in the beauty industry for nearly 30 years. I have seen every kind of woman imaginable—tall women, broad-shouldered women, women with deep voices, strong jawlines, large hands or feet, short hair, athletic builds, and features inherited from their fathers.

They are not transgender. They are not gay. They are not dangerous.

Yet under this new ideology, any woman who does not meet a narrow, stereotypical standard of femininity becomes suspect.

This panic does not protect women. It polices women’s bodies.

It teaches people to scrutinize, photograph, question, and humiliate women—based on appearance alone.

And that leads to the next question:

When did women’s rights become conditional on looking “feminine enough”?

The Role of Power and Influence

This is where the conversation must turn to responsibility.

When a billionaire with global influence—such as J.K. Rowling—focuses extraordinary energy on less than 1% of the population, it is fair to ask why.

Why not devote that influence to:

• Ending poverty

• Addressing homelessness

• Fighting addiction

• Confronting climate collapse

• Reducing real, documented violence

Instead, we see wealth and fame used to elevate fear, amplify stereotypes, and legitimize persecution, all while claiming moral virtue.

So we must ask:

Why does punching down feel righteous to so many people in power?

History gives us the answer.

A Familiar Pattern

Moral panics have always required a scapegoat.

Not long ago in history:

• People were burned as witches

• Public hangings were community events

• Fear overruled evidence

• “Otherness” became a crime

The irony is staggering.

Someone like J.K. Rowling—a woman who wrote imaginative stories involving magic—would herself have been persecuted, imprisoned, or executed in those earlier eras. She would have pleaded, “I am not a witch.”

And the crowd would not have cared.

Today, the roles have reversed—but the mechanism is the same.

An Open Letter (Conclusion)

A Prayer for Truth, Protection, and Human Dignity

Let us end not with rage, but with intention.

Prayer

May those caught in webs of fear, lies, and deception be awakened to truth. May false narratives dissolve under the light of reason and compassion. May hearts hardened by panic be softened by understanding.

We pray for the protection of all transgender and non-binary people in public spaces. May they be granted dignity, safety, respect, and privacy. May they live their lives free from harassment, scrutiny, and violence.

Teach us to see every human being as worthy of love. To reject cruelty disguised as virtue. To choose empathy over fear.

May justice be guided by truth. May power be guided by compassion. And may we never forget that to harm the most vulnerable is never righteousness.