John Cleese has been accused of transphobia after joking that he would like to be a Cambodian police woman in a series of tweets defending Harry Potter author JK Rowling.
The British comedian, 81, issued numerous rebukes to fellow Twitter users on Sunday after one reposted a September 30 tweet from Cleese in support of Rowling, 55, who has been repeatedly accused of transphobia.
The September post read: ‘Dear Twits, I have added my name to the signatories of the letter in solidarity with JK Rowling,’ before listing a number of other famous names who had signed the letter including the authors Ian McEwan and Lionel Shriver.
‘Do you actually think there is some deep conspiracy to turn people ‘against their genders’? Or do you like [Rowling] as a person and therefore there isn’t anything she can do wrong? Latter probably,’ the user wrote.
The Monty Python co-creator replied: ‘Deep down, I want to be a Cambodian police woman.
‘Is that allowed, or am I being unrealistic?’ he wrote.
Several Twitter users were upset by the comment which they felt trivialised the experiences of transgender people.
One wrote: ‘You’re simplifying a very complex topic here’.
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