Daniel Radcliffe responds to JK Rowling tweets in ongoing transgender row

The Harry Potter actor posted a statement on the Trevor Project website

Daniel Radcliffe responds to the JK Rowling tweets

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has spoken out over a transgender row involving author JK Rowling by posting a lengthy response to her controversial tweets.

Author Ms Rowling tweeted comments taking issue with the term “people who menstruate” leading people to accuse her of being anti-trans.

Many on twitter highlighted that trans men will experience menstruation while trans women will not, and that the authors tweet did not take people across the gender spectrum into account.

Daniel Radcliffe, who shot to fame playing the eponymous boy wizard in the film franchise adaption of Ms Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, wrote a statement on the website for the Trevor Project, a charity that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention to the LGBTQ youth and one that Radcliffe has been involved with for the past 10 years.

The 30-year-old actor wrote: “I realise that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what’s important right now.

“While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honoured to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment.

“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.

“According to The Trevor Project, 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported being the subject of discrimination due to their gender identity.

“It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm.”

Radcliffe also addressed those who expressed a new disconnect with the Harry Potter books and stories since JK Rowling’s comments.

He said: “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.

“If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or

bisexual; 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.

“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.”

The full statement is on the Trevor Project website.

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