Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who portrayed Harry Potter in the celebrated films, recently came forward to speak about transgender women. His comments were prompted by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, as she found herself in the midst of controversy following a few remarks she made about being transgender. The public believed Rowling was saying that trans women weren’t real women because they couldn’t do what biological women could, as well as other remarks, sparking accusations that Rowling was transphobic.
Dia Dipasupil / Staff / Getty Images
On Wednesday, J.K. Rowling returned with an over 3,000-word essay about her stance on trans people and while she’s received quite a bit of hate mail over the years because of her views, she’s not backing down from her position. “I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe,” she wrote. “I believe the majority of trans-identified people not only pose zero threat to others, but are vulnerable for all the reasons I’ve outlined.”
“I’m mentioning these things now not in an attempt to garner sympathy, but out of solidarity with the huge numbers of women who have histories like mine, who’ve been slurred as bigots for having concerns around single-sex spaces,” Rowling added. Later, Emma Watson, the actress who played Hermoine Granger in Harry Potter, tweeted, “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.”
