Accusations of “transphobia” are being hurled at author J.K. Rowling after she denounced a new policy in Southern Australia encouraging preferred gender pronouns be used in the courtroom as “a form of state-sanctioned abuse.”

The new protocol will ask a woman to refer to a biologically male rape or assault suspect as “she” in court, Ms. Rowling argued. As a result, she wrote on X, “female victims of male violence are further traumatized by being forced to speak a lie.” The chief justice of South Australia, Chris Kourakis, who released the guidance in a practice note last week, dismissed Ms. Rowling’s opposition as “anxiety” that is “completely unfounded.”

In an additional announcement, Judge Kourakis defended his policy as “a matter of respect” intended to improve “public confidence in the proper administration of justice,” saying it encourages “the correct pronunciation of names and use of the preferred gender pronoun.” Jurisdictions in Victoria and Queensland implemented similar policies earlier this year. 

Such “respect,” Ms. Rowling wrote on X Monday, “goes only one way.” The “Harry Potter” author, who has emerged as a staunch supporter of radical feminism in recent years, asserts that “such women are not merely ‘anxious’, they are furious, about the apparent inability of certain men, judges or not, to understand how dystopian this situation seems to those of us who have suffered male sexual violence.”

Judge Kourakis, in his Monday note, claimed that in the courts of South Australia, “a victim of crime would never be asked to address an accused person in a way which caused the victim distress.” Ms. Rowling admonished the judge, though, for only issuing this assurance after concerns over further traumatizing victims were raised publicly. She added that the practice note does not mention any exemptions to its “ideological position” on pronoun use.

Ms. Rowling cited a 2018 sexual assault case in England involving an attack on an English woman by a much younger transgender woman, a biological male. The victim was denounced by the presiding judge for displaying “bad grace” in failing to use the preferred pronouns of the attacker, who was ultimately found guilty. 

In a more recent case in England, a 19-year-old transgender female was referred to with the honorific “Miss” while on trial for raping a young woman. His defense alleged that the female victim was motivated by transphobia. The jury unanimously found the suspect guilty of the crime.

The turmoil following Ms. Rowling’s comments over the weekend marks the latest outcry by the author against legislative and judicial efforts on behalf of the trans rights movement. Last month, she said she’d spend time in jail if the United Kingdom made it a hate crime to call someone by the wrong pronouns. “I’ll happily do two years,” Ms. Rowling shared on X, “if the alternative is compelled speech and forced denial of the reality and importance of sex.”

Ms. Rowling first came under fire in 2020 for claiming that “if sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.” She has since embraced the term trans-exclusionary radical feminist, which defines women strictly as people who were born female and refutes the notion of gender identity. 

Trans rights activists have directed an onslaught of vitriol toward Ms. Rowling for her rebuke of South Australia’s pronoun policy. “An ugly Nazi” is how one user described her on social media, comparing transphobia to antisemitism. Another threatened, “bitch better hope her house is safe.”

Others, though, are taking Ms. Rowling’s side. Some point to hypocrisy implicit in Judge Kourakis’s guidance. “So,” author Victoria Smith wrote on X, “he’s the expert on what does and doesn’t cause victims distress but also the expert on when female ‘anxiety’ is misplaced.”

With a shrewd sense of sarcasm, Ms. Rowling replied, “I for one am deeply grateful for the men loudly opining on things that by definition can never affect them. It’s very important we hear their views, because otherwise it would just be shrill, hysterical women talking.”

A spokesman for Ms. Rowling declined to comment on the matter. The Courts Administration Authority of South Australia did not immediately respond to the Sun’s request for comment.