When you’re a celebrity, everything you do is put under the microscope. Just ask Mindy Kaling. She allegedly liked a tweet by J.K. Rowling, which caused an uproar on Twitter. After that, Kaling apparently unliked the tweet and liked other posts that acknowledged the backlash.
What’s all the fuss about? People expressed their disapproval of Kaling liking Rowling’s tweet, due to the Harry Potter author’s transphobic views. One person on Twitter shared a screengrab of Kaling having liked the Rowling tweet, calling it the “NEW REASON TO HATE THE VELMA SHOW.”
While we could not find Kaling’s original “like” of the J.K. Rowling tweet, multiple people shared screenshots on Twitter. In fact, one of the people who shared the image is Shannon Watts, a verified Twitter user who runs a non-profit.
When more and more Twitter users began to catch on that Kaling apparently liked the Rowling tweet, it disappointed many who advocate for trans rights, INTO reported. However, it would appear Kaling has since “unliked” the Rowling tweet and liked another post from one of the people who originally called it out, which we saw for ourselves on Kaling’s “Likes” page on Twitter.
“I see what you did there & appreciate you! An ‘unlike’ & ‘like’ mean more than you know,” one Twitter user told Kaling after following along with all the activity.
The original Rowling tweet, which Kaling apparently liked and then removed the like, featured the author sharing a tweet that was apparently directed at her that asked, “How do you sleep at night knowing you’ve lost a whole audience from buying your books[?].”
Rowling captioned the screen grab, in an apparent response to that question, “I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly.”
Other tweets that Kaling liked included one that insisted the former The Office star acknowledge liking the Rowling tweet was a mistake (since deleted) and another tweet proposing that Kaling liking the Rowling tweet in the first place may have been accidental. We confirmed Kaling “liked” both of the additional tweets, prior to one of the tweets being deleted by its author. A screengrab of the two additional tweets Kaling liked was shared by a Twitter user who said, “Seems like it was a mistake since she hasn’t liked it anymore and has now liked tweets in opposition of JK.”
Kaling, who is a showrunner for the forthcoming Scooby-Doo spinoff, Velma, has yet to publicly acknowledge the incident, beyond liking related tweets.