Daniel Radcliffe Says He's "Really Sad" About J.K. Rowling Speaking Out About Transwomen

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is once again speaking out against J.K. Rowling's activism. In a recent interview with The Atlantic, the actor revealed that he has not spoken to the author since June 2020, when she was labeled "anti-trans" for a series of tweets that defended biological women.

“It makes me really sad, ultimately,” he told the outlet. “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.”

Years ago, Radcliffe issued a statement through the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ charity he'd been working with, declaring that "transgender women are women." He continued, “I’d worked with the Trevor Project for 12 years and it would have seemed like, I don’t know, immense cowardice to me to not say something. I wanted to try and help people that had been negatively affected by the comments. And to say that if those are Jo’s views, then they are not the views of everybody associated with the ‘Potter’ franchise.”

Radcliff acknowledged Harry Potter “would not have happened without” Rowling, “so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person.” But “that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.”

You might be wondering what Rowling said was so horrible it warranted Emma Watson and Radcliffe to condemn her. Did she write slurs? Did she say trans people should die? Of course, she did neither of those things. She simply spoke out against the use of nonsensical terms like "people who menstruate," adding how biological sex is real. "If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased," she wrote on June 6, 2020. "I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth."

Rowling even defended trans people's rights to transition. To this day, she is not "transphobic," but she is against the movement of biological men entering women's spaces and erasing womanhood. "I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so."

We've seen what happens to celebrities when they go against Hollywood's "accepted" ideologies. Rowling is one of the few high-profile individuals who decided to stick up for women, even if that meant being shunned by the industry and her friends. That is real bravery, Radcliffe.

Last month, when a fan asked Rowling if she'd ever forgive Radcliffe and Watson for slamming her, she said it's "not safe" to do so, and she's right. "Not safe, I'm afraid," she said. "Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces."

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