JK Rowling once indicated that she would never forgive Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe for their support of trans rights.
The creator of Harry Potter has been the center of attention in recent years following her controversial comments about the transgender community in June 2020, during the peak of the Covid pandemic.
Rowling seemed to dismiss efforts to be inclusive towards transgender individuals by sharing a link to an article titled: “Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate.”
Additionally, she remarked: “‘People who menstruate’. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
In response to her comments, Rowling faced significant backlash, with Harry Potter stars Watson and Radcliffe expressing their support for the transgender community.
Radcliffe apologized for ‘the pain’ Rowling’s comments had caused and wrote an essay for The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ organization.
Watson, meanwhile, assured her trans followers that she and ‘so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are’.
Despite expectations that Rowling might avoid making further comments, she stirred further controversy earlier this year within the trans community.
She shared a deleted tweet about the Cass Review, which investigates gender services for young people in the UK, focusing on the use of puberty blockers.
Rowling described Dr. Hilary Cass’ report as ‘the most robust review of the medical evidence for transitioning children that’s ever been conducted’.
She argued that the findings indicated ‘kids have been irreversibly harmed’, adding: “Thousands are complicit, not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations.”
Following her post, a Twitter user remarked to Rowling: “Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology … safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them …”
However, Rowling replied, indicating that the actors she had worked with for years were not ‘safe’ in expecting forgiveness.
“Not safe, I’m afraid,” she wrote. “Celebs who cosied 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 traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.”
Rowling has made it clear that she will not retract her stance on misgendering transgender individuals, stating that she would not ‘delete posts calling a man a man’.
She also mentioned she would ‘happily’ accept a prison sentence rather than using a transgender person’s preferred pronouns, stating: “I’ll happily do two years if the alternative is compelled speech and forced denial of the reality and importance of sex.”