Questionable author J.K. Rowling is criticizing Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe, both of whom starred in the Harry Potter series.
In a series of posts on X (previously Twitter) Wednesday, April 10, the storybook collection’s author — who has recently been criticized for anti-transgender comments, as well as her support for others with anti-transgender views — shared a new independent review “of the clinical evidence for transitioning children”.
One disciple responded to her on X, saying, “Merely waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a really common apologies… safe in the knowledge that you will pardon them.” (Neither Radcliffe, 34, nor Watson, 33, have spoken out about their views on medical transitioning of children.)
“No healthy, I’m afraid,” Rowling said. Celebrities who supported a movement that wanted to diminish women’s hard-won rights and who used their platforms to support the transition of minors may keep their apologies for traumatized detransitioners and vulnerable women who rely on single-sex spaces.
On Thursday, April 11, PEOPLE requested posts from Radcliffe and Watson representatives, but they did not respond right away.
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J.K. Rowling in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Feb. 24, 2024.
In a long article about her views on sex that was published in June 2020, Rowling wrote that “I refuse to bow down to a movement that seeks to weaken ‘woman’ as a social and natural class and offer cover to predators like some before it” as an advocate for women’s and children’s rights.
Stating that she’s a survivor of sexual assault and domestic abuse, she continued, “So I want trans women to be safe. I don’t want to make natal girls and women less safe at the same time. Any man who believes or feels he is a woman is allowed to enter the bathroom and changing rooms when you leave the door open.
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis referred to it as a “misinformed and dangerous missive about transgender people” that “flies in the face of medical and psychological experts and devalues trans people’s accounts of their own lives,” prompting LGBTQ activists and numerous Rowling movie stars to speak out against her remarks.
Following the publication of Rowling’s essay, Radcliffe — who played the titular boy wizard in all eight Harry Potter films adapted from Rowling’s books, from 2001 to 2011 — vocalized his support for trans women in a short essay for the Trevor Project.
The Merrily We Roll Along actor, who stated unwaveringly in the article that “transgender women are women,” also remarked in part that “any statement that goes against the advice of professional healthcare organizations, who have much more expertise in this area than Jo or I, erases the identity and dignity of transgender people.
Rowling, who played Hermione Granger, did not specifically mention her, but Watson wrote on X the same day that “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.”
The Beauty and the Beast actress added in a follow-up post, “I want my trans followers to know that I and so many others around the world see you, respect you, and love you for who you are.”
Other Potter alums who have weighed in, in support of Rowling or otherwise, include Jason Isaacs, the late Robbie Coltrane, Harry Melling, Evanna Lynch, and Rupert Grint.
“I firmly agree with the trans community and share many of the sentiments that many of my peers have expressed. Trans women are women. Trans men are men,” said Grint, 35, according to the U.K.’s Sunday Times. “We should all have the right to live in love without fear.”
The actor, who played Ron Weasley, later wrote a piece for The Times’ “What I’ve Learnt” series, revealing his thoughts about “auntie” Rowling, “I don’t necessarily agree with everything my auntie says, but she’s still my auntie…. It’s a tricky one”.
