Judy Blume is 85 years old. She’s generally considered to be a literary icon and very open-minded and liberal-minded. She writes kids’ books and young-adult books, and she’s currently promoting the film adaptation of her iconic book Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. She’s been doing a lot of press in America and Britain, which is why she sat down with the Times of London’s Hadley Freeman. A lot of these British outlets love to ask everyone about Britain’s two favorite “controversies” – the Sussexes or JK Rowling. Blume got the Rowling question and her answer was, within the Times piece, disappointing:

I tell Blume how strangely thrilling it is to see a movie about children where none of them are in possession of magical powers. “Yes, children are so used to superheroes now, aren’t they?” she says. Even in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books the kids are magic, and I love those, I say.

“And I love her,” Blume immediately interjects. “I am behind her 100 per cent as I watch from afar.” Blume is referring to the abuse Rowling has received for speaking up in defence of women’s sex-based rights, and given that Blume has faced repeated attacks since the 1980s, for her books’ descriptions of adolescent sexuality and puberty, she knows what it’s like to be pilloried as an author.

Has she reached out to Rowling? “No, no. I met her very early on in her Harry Potter career, and she said to me, ‘Oh, my sister and I used to read all your books,’ and she talked about Deenie. I think once or twice we sent each other little notes. But I haven’t been in touch with her during this tough time. Probably I should.”

[From The Times]

As many have pointed out, unless you’ve been paying attention online for years, you might believe that Rowling is somehow a victim… of wokeness run amok, or some such nonsense. The truth is, Rowling is a transphobic bigot who uses her wealth, power and legal team to threaten, bully, target and harass trans people and their allies. Thankfully, we don’t have to cancel Judy Blume – it’s more than possible that Freeman removed certain context or even willfully misquoted Blume, because Blume posted a statement and she also spoke to Variety recently, where she got very specific about her allyship and what she thinks of governments banning books about trans rights.

“There’s a little picture book I love [by Jessica Love] called ‘Julián Is a Mermaid,’” Blume added. “He’s a little guy, he likes to dress up in fancy clothes, and he has a wonderful grandmother who has all kinds of beads and feathers. She’s supportive of him. If you go back to the ’80s, it was ‘Heather Has Two Mommies’ [by Lesléa Newman]. That picture book was banned everywhere. Well, there’s a lot of kids who have two mommies or two daddies, and that book is important! Today, they’re considered pornographic by some legislatures.”

“This is the real danger. That a governor can appoint someone to the legislature who’s thinking this way because he’s thinking this way, and getting laws about this,” she said. “We should have laws on the other side! That’s why organizations that work to protect the freedom to read widely and freely are so important.”

“I discovered ‘the little organization that could,’” Blume continued, referencing the National Coalition Against Censorship, which is the nonprofit she’s chosen to highlight as a Power of Women honoree. “NCAC is right there on the front lines. If a teacher, librarian, parent or student needs help as books are being challenged in their classrooms, NCAC is on the other end of the phone to help.”

Blume went on to say, “What are you protecting your children from? Protecting your children means educating them and arming them with knowledge, and reading and supporting what they want to read. No child is going to become transgender or gay or lesbian because they read a book. It’s not going to happen. They may say, ‘Oh, this is just like me. This is what I’m feeling and thinking about.’”

“Or, ‘I’m interested in this because I have friends who may be gay, bi, lesbian.’ They want to know!” Blume concluded. “I just read a book that was wonderfully enlightening to me. It’s called ‘Gender Queer’ [a memoir by Maia Kobabe]. It’s probably the No. 1 banned book in America right now. And I thought, ‘This young person is telling me how they came to be what they are today.’ And I learned a lot, and became even more empathetic. That’s what books are all about.”‘

[From Variety]

Yeah. I believe this version of Judy Blume – the open-minded ally and book-lover, the person who wants kids to be able to read every book they come across to broaden their minds and make them more empathetic people.

Here’s Blume’s statement – it’s as I suspected, she has sympathy for Rowling author-to-author, but Blume has no time for transphobic bullsh-t.

pic.twitter.com/jaRYqNPJv1

— Judy Blume (@judyblume) April 16, 2023

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.