Following J.K. Rowling’s refusal to forgive Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson for their support of transgender rights, Potterheads have been jumping to the defense of the actors, amid ongoing controversy.
Harry Potter fans have been defending Daniel and Emma, as a person took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to make their stance clear: “J.K. Rowling and her fans once again throwing Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson under the bus.
“All they did was say ‘trans people are valid’, Dan even said he respected/owed his career to her, but because they won’t stand with bigotry she’ll happily publicly shame them.”
Another X user wrote: “I’m sure Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson are devastated J.K. Rowling won’t accept their ‘apologies’ for not [using] their fame and wealth to s**t on trans people.”
Someone else commented: “Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson have never once mentioned J.K. Rowling by name, they’ve simply expressed allyship and compassion towards trans people and she’s taken it as a personal attack on her.
“Says all you need to know.”
Bored Panda has contacted Emma and Daniel’s respective representatives for comment.
Potterheads rallied behind Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, amid J.K. Rowling’s refusal to forgive their support for transgender rights
The support for the Harry Potter stars follows J.K.’s string of posts on X about the release of the long-awaited Cass Review.
The review, by pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, was published after an analysis of gender identity services for minors in the UK concluded that there was a “lack of high-quality research” on the effects of puberty blockers on children.
Following the release of the Cass Review, the 58-year-old author took to her social media to express her “anger” over what she called “severe medical malpractice.”
In a series of X posts shared on Wednesday (April 10), J.K. wrote: “Even if you don’t feel ashamed of cheerleading for what now looks like severe medical malpractice, even if you don’t want to accept that you might have been wrong, where’s your sense of self-preservation?
“The bandwagon you hopped on so gladly is hurtling towards a cliff.
“If I sound angry, it’s because I’m bloody angry.
“I read Cass this morning and my anger’s been mounting all day.
“Kids have been irreversibly harmed, and thousands are complicit, not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations.”
Puberty blockers can be used to delay the changes of puberty in transgender and gender-diverse youth who have started puberty, the Mayo Clinic states. The medicines most often used for this purpose are called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogs.
Moreover, the renowned medical institution explains that GnRH analogs do not cause permanent physical changes. Instead, they pause puberty, which offers a chance to explore gender identity. It also gives youth and their families time to plan for the psychological, medical, developmental, social, and legal issues that may lie ahead.
When a person stops taking GnRH analogs, puberty starts again, Mayo Clinic notes.
J.K’s jibe at Daniel and Emma came after a fan commented on her X posts saying: “Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology … safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them.”
“The bandwagon you hopped on so gladly is hurtling towards a cliff,” the author said in reference to people’s support of transgender rights
The writer subsequently responded by hitting out at the actor, suggesting she wouldn’t accept their apology. She wrote: “Not safe, I’m afraid.
“Celebs who cozied 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 traumatized detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single-sex spaces.”
The philanthropist has often been accused of perpetuating harmful ideologies against transgender people and aligning with TERF values.
TERF stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.” It refers to individuals or groups within feminism who exclude transgender women from their definition of womanhood and feminist spaces.
They often hold beliefs that biological sex is the sole determinant of gender and may oppose transgender rights and inclusion in women’s spaces. TERF ideology has been widely criticized for being transphobic and exclusionary.
Recent events have strengthened the LGBTQIA2S+ (abbreviated LGBTQ+) communities’ growing disappointment over the author who has inspired so many young readers.
The British native provoked controversy in the past couple of years due to her responses regarding proposed changes to UK gender recognition laws, and her views on sex and gender, which are topics that have divided politics in various countries.
The best-selling author started to fuel debates on transgender rights in 2020, when she wrote on X that transgender people should live their lives as they pleased in “peace and security”, but questioned women being “force[d] out of their jobs for stating that sex is real”.
Following the initial post, J.K. continued to express controversial statements, with another X publication in the same year, where she mocked an article for using the phrase “people who menstruate”, and reshared that women’s rights and “lived reality” would be “erased” if “sex isn’t real”.
“People who menstruate” has been an accepted term to use in order to be more inclusive of people who do not identify as female, but still have their period.
Moreover, sex and gender have been scientifically proven and accepted to be different concepts, with The World Health Organisation explaining that sex refers to “the different biological and physiological characteristics of males and females, such as reproductive organs, chromosomes, hormones, etc.”
Additionally, gender refers to “the socially constructed characteristics of women and men – such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men.”
J.K.’s jibe at Daniel and Emma came after a fan commented on her X posts saying: “Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology”
In October 2023, J.K. claimed she would “happily” go to jail in order to keep misgendering people in a post on X.
The mom-of-three was reacting to unverified reports about the UK’s Labour Party and their plans to amend an already existing hate crime law to better protect gender identity.
At the time, the writer: “I’ll happily do two years if the alternative is compelled speech and forced denial of the reality and importance of sex.
“Bring on the court case, I say. It’ll be more fun than I’ve ever had on a red carpet.”
She also went on to reply a simple “no” to a photo posted on X which showed the phrase, “repeat after us: trans women are women” being projected on a government building.
Tia Latham, an intersex woman with what she has described to be a transgender experience told Bored Panda in reaction to J.K.’s X transphobic rants: “The impact is detrimental to the trans community, it plays into many misinformed views that have been curated by people in positions of power to sensationalize, hyper-sexualize, and attack some of the most vulnerable people in society.”
Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault, according to a new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
J.K. Rowling’s criticism of puberty blockers and the actors continued to ignite heated reactions on social media
