What is JK Rowling’s new support centre for and why are some people critical of it?

A new support and counselling service for victims of sexual assault is being funded by J K Rowling in Edinburgh.

The new project, called Beira’s Place, comes after a row about the role of transgenderwomen in rape crisis services in Scotland. It will be managed by two experienced specialists in rape crisis support - Isabelle Kerr and Susan Domminney.

Rowling said: “As a survivor of sexual assault myself, I know how important it is that survivors have the option of women-centred and women-delivered care at such a vulnerable time.”

Beira's Place is a new centre being established by Rowling, who has written about her personal experience as a victim of sexual assault, since she feels there is an “unmet need for women” in the Lothians region in Scotland.

The new project, only eligible for women aged 16 and over, will offer support and advocacy who have experienced sexual violence or abuse at any time in their lives.

Located in central Edinburgh, Beira’s Place will open for confidential off-site assessments and appointments in 2023.

Rowling’s service will only serve, and only employ, cisgender women.

Rape Crisis Scotland officials have called on Rowling to open up her new women’s-only shelter to biological men and transgender people.

It said: “It is crucial that the lifesaving support offered by rape crisis centres is available to trans and nonbinary people. We continue to see the paths to equality for women and trans people as being deeply interconnected and dependent on shared efforts to dismantle systems of discrimination.”

Although transgender individuals are exempt from discrimination under the Equality Act of 2010, services may exclude trans people from single-sex areas if doing so is a “proportionate method of accomplishing a legitimate purpose”.

The fact that the current Edinburgh Rape Crisis centre accepts trans women and nonbinary persons, including biological men, is one of the reasons why Rowling and her colleagues decided to launch the new programme exclusively to cisgender women.

J K Rowling wanted to open a centre that dealt with rape apolitically. As journalist Suzanne Moore explained in an interview in Substack; “Edinburgh’s one Rape Crisis is currently already over subscribed and somewhat controversial. Its stance that survivors may need to be re-educated about trans rights as part of recovering from trauma does not suit many of its users. The idea that survivors who have “unacceptable beliefs” should have their prejudices challenged, begs the question of who the service is for.

“This pushing of a political view onto a woman at a time of profound trauma and crisis does not feel appropriate? Is it ethical? Professional? Many survivors do not feel comfortable about all this and repeatedly ask to be cared for by women. And by women only. Some may even refuse this service as a result.”

It is crucial to be independent and “free from the strain of contemporary political agendas”, according to Kerr, chief executive of Beira's Place and a former manager of the Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis Centre.