JK Rowling launches blistering attack on journalist over claims of 'staged' Nazi salute at feminist rally

JK Rowling has torn strips off a British journalist Patrick Strudwick, after a story he wrote claimed the neo-Nazis who crashed a controversial feminist rally in Australia was planned.

Strudwick wrote an iNews article on about the 'Let Women Speak' rally, at which controversial gender activist Kellie-Jay Keen spoke in Melbourne on March 19.

The rally was a debacle, with pro and anti-trans activists clashing with police and each other.

As @PatrickStrud has blocked me on here (we've never, to my knowledge, interacted on Twitter or anywhere else) I can't challenge him directly about the claim he published in iNews (see below) that a Let Women Speak event in Australia 'staged a mass Nazi salute'. This is a lie so… pic.twitter.com/X6nAA3xxNH

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 29, 2023

A group of about 30 neo-Nazis from the Nationalist Socialist Network also turned up and performed the Hitler salute outside Victoria's parliament building.

"In Melbourne this March, an anti-trans rally organised by British 'gender critical' campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen staged a mass Nazi salute," Strudick wrote.

"She cited this as evidence of far-right influence on those who question elements of the transgender rights agenda, saying there was a 'fascist takeover of transphobic ideas'."

Rowling took great umbrage to the suggestion that Keen, an anti-trans activist, had anything to do with the neo-Nazis who came out in force on the day.

She shared a screenshot of Strudwick's article, alongside the caption: "This is a lie so brazen, so easily disprovable and so libellous, I'm amazed it was allowed into print by a supposedly reputable news source."

The line from the story has now been scratched from the article.

It was not cut before Rowling had a chance to screenshot it and share it with her followers, though.

There is no indication that the group of far-right men from the Nationalist Socialist Network were invited to the event by organisers in any way, shape, or form.

Shortly after the March event, Rowling also tweeted about to controversial rally helmed by Kellie-Jay Keen.

"Actual Nazis have turned up on the fringes of Let Women Speak events for exactly the same reason aggressive, narcissistic trans activists are there,' Rowling tweeted.

"These groups closely resemble each other. Both are rife with misogynistic opportunists who're using a clash of rights to push their own agendas."

The group of about 30 men descended on the rally in March with a sign that read 'destroy paedo freaks'.

I'm a middle aged woman in Melbourne & helped organise this event. We had multiple zoom calls, site visits, spirited debates about how the event would be safely managed. The word Nazi was never mentioned. This is absolutely slanderous and a repugnant slur on everyday women https://t.co/BGAbP4EFh0

— Kassia ♀️ 💜🤍💚🦖 (@FemaleInTheWild) May 29, 2023

They were dressed in black, with some turning out in balaclavas and other face coverings.

Despite multiple recordings, photographs, and eyewitness accounts, Kellie-Jay Keen-denied to PinkNews the neo-Nazis pictured at the ‘Let Women Speak’ event were actually there.

"No men dressed in black block who gave Nazi salutes were at the Let Women Speak rally," she said.

"Standing For Women campaigns for rights of women and the safeguarding of children. Nazis are abhorrent, no right minded person sides with Nazis, they have absolutely nothing to do with Let Women Speak. "

She added: "It’s a real shame, although not surprising, that the focus of our amazing rally with courageous and articulate women has been sidelined by the media who are focussing on what men, who weren’t even at our rally, had to say and do."