The Harry Potter lead, Daniel Radcliffe seems disappointed over J.K. Rowling’s repetitive anti-transgender comments. While speaking of The Atlantic about his upcoming Broadway production, Merrily We Roll Along, the actor opened up about Rowling’s controversial opinions and her support for others with transphobic views.
Daniel talks about J.K. Rowling’s stance
The 34-year-old actor who rose to fame as the titular boy wizard in eight movie adaptations of Rowling’s Harry Potter series from 2001 to 2011 recently said in an interview that he has not spoken to the author in years. He said, ‘It makes me really sad, ultimately, because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic,’ on Rowling’s controversial statements on the transgender community.
Daniel also had the realization that Harry Potter would have not happened without Rowling and nothing in his life would have happened the way it is without her but that doesn’t mean that he owes the things that he truly believes to someone else for his entire life. The English actor was amongst the first ones to come forward and speak out about the author’s anti-transgender comments in 2020. He wrote a statement supporting the trans community for the Trevor Project which said that he realizes that certain press outlets will try and paint this as in-fighting between J.K Rowling and him but this whole situation is about nothing else but what’s really important and added that ‘transgender women are women.
“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 also wrote. “I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you.” The star told The Atlantic that he wrote this statement to highlight that the franchise didn’t support J.K. Rowling’s stances.
J.K. Rowling’s stance on transgender community
The author of the best-selling novel has made headlines many times in recent years for her social media campaigning against the trans rights movement. The most recent controversy that the 58-year-old was involved in was when she responded to a four-year British investigation that claimed that there was no evidence that puberty-blocking interventions for transgender people were safe for the long term.
Rowling took this issue to social media and wrote that the celebrities who cozied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights and who are using their platforms to cheer on minors transitioning should save their apologies for traumatized de-transitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single-sex spaces. The author wanted to highlight that she will not forgive those who support and protect trans healthcare including Daniel Radcliffe and co-stars, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. As for the Harry Potter franchise team, they will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ people and have no further comment on the controversial issue.
