Harry Potter himself is shutting down his own creator’s views on gender identity and trans people, and his message about equality is pretty magical.
Daniel Radcliffe responded to J.K. Rowling‘s controversial thoughts about the subject through an essay on The Trevor Project — an org that advocates for suicide prevention in the LGBTQ community — and begged J.K. (he calls her Jo) to have a change of heart.
He wrote, “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.”
He went on to cite alarming stats about discrimination against trans youth and non-binary people, writing, “It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm.”
ICYMI … J.K. caught a ton of flak this weekend for nitpicking the phrase “people who menstruate” which she came across in a NYT headline. Her feeling is … only women menstruate, so when talking about that — we supposedly oughta just refer to them.
The Internet fired back at her, pointing out trans men and others who don’t identify with traditional gender identities … can also menstruate. J.K. doubled and tripled down, refusing to cede ground and pissing off many Potter fans in the process.
Daniel even apologizes in his open letter to those same fans, writing … “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. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you.”