Daniel Radcliffe responds to J.K. Rowling's tweets: 'Transgender women are women'
Daniel Radcliffe is speaking out after “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling incited a firestorm of controversy over the weekend with comments she made that many felt were anti-trans.
“Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I,” the 30-year-old actor wrote in an essay for The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization serving LGBTQ young people.
Radcliffe, who rose to fame playing Harry Potter in the films based on Rowling’s books, pointed out that 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth have reported being the victim of discrimination.
“It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm,” he wrote.
This past Saturday, Rowling drew ire when she responded on Twitter to an online op-ed titled "Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate." Rowling mocked the article for not calling people who get their periods "women.”
"'People who menstruate.' I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?" she tweeted.
She doubled down on her remarks, too, after people lashed out at her.
In his essay, Radcliffe had a message for "Harry Potter" fans, many of whom have expressed disappointment in Rowling for her remarks.
“To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you,” he wrote. “I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you."
The actor went on to remind people about what the book series represents.
“If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred," he wrote.
"And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you, and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much," he added.
Radcliffe isn’t the only “Harry Potter” star to speak out on the matter.
Katie Leung, who played Harry Potter's love interest Cho Chang in the film franchise, posted a thread on Twitter in which she shared links for her followers to support black trans people.
"#AsiansForBlackLives," she wrote.