Recent tweets from J.K. Rowling have now drawn pushback from the boy who lived himself.
Daniel Radcliffe this week publicly rejected yet another series of controversial comments by the Harry Potter author, writing in a blog post for The Trevor Project that "transgender women are women," and "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."
Radcliffe was responding to Rowling's tweets over the weekend that were widely criticized as transphobic. In one, she linked to an article referencing "people who menstruate" and wrote, "I'm sure there used to be a word for those people." She also wrote in another tweet that "if sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives."
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Her comments already faced blowback from one Harry Potter star, with Katie Leung, who played Cho Chang in the films, subtweeting Rowling and linking to resources for black trans women and LGBTQ people of color.
After writing that "we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities," Radcliffe in his post also acknowledged Harry Potter fans who say Rowling's comments have "tarnished or diminished" their experience with the series.
"If you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred," he wrote. "And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much."
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