Daniel Radcliffe reignites row with JK Rowling and says her views on trans ... trends now
Daniel Radcliffe has reignited his row with JK Rowling after admitting her views on trans people have left him 'really sad'.
The author, 58, has frequently expressed her views that biological sex is more important than gender identity and that women's spaces - such as changing rooms and prisons - should remain single-sex and not be open to trans-identified people.
Daniel, 34, who shot to fame playing Harry Potter in the movie adaptations of her beloved children's books - does not agree with Rowling and has said he believes 'trans women are women'.
He told The Atlantic: 'It makes me really sad, ultimately, because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.'
Daniel acknowledged the author - who he has hasn't spoken to since she began voicing her opinions on trans issues - had played a key role in the path his life has taken, but insisted that doesn't mean he 'owes' his beliefs to her.
Daniel Radcliffe has reignited his row with JK Rowling after admitting her views on trans people have left him 'really sad' (pictured in October 2023)
The author, 58, has frequently expressed her views that biological sex is more important than gender identity and that women's spaces should remain single-sex (JK Rowling pictured in 2022)
Daniel, 34, who shot to fame playing Harry Potter in the movie adaptations of her beloved children's books - does not agree with Rowling and has said he believes 'trans women are women' (L-R Radcliffe, Rowling, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson in 2004)
He said: 'Jo, obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person. But that doesn't mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.'
Last month, in response to the publication of the Cass review - which claimed, among other recommendations, there was no good evidence to promote puberty-blocking treatments for trans-identifying young people - Rowling insisted she wouldn't forgive stars who had spoken out against her, including Daniel and his Harry Potter co-stars.
When one fan said they were 'just waiting for Dan and Emma [Watson' to offer a 'very public apology' knowing they'd be safe in the knowledge the author would forgive them, she wrote: 'Not safe I'm afraid. 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.'
In response, Daniel said: 'I will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ people, and have no further comment than that.'
The Kill Your Darlings actor has long been a supporter of the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ suicide-prevention hotline and crisis-intervention resource, and he felt he had to speak out against Rowling in the wake of her initial tweets in 2020 when she questioned the use of the phrase 'people who menstruate' in place of 'women'.
He said: 'I'd worked with the Trevor Project for 12 years and it would have seemed like, I don't know, immense cowardice to me to not say something.
'I wanted to try and help people that had been negatively affected by the comments.
'And to say that if those are Jo's views, then they are not the views of everybody associated with the Potter franchise.'
Daniel said: 'It makes me really sad, ultimately, because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic'
Daniel acknowledged the author - who he has hasn't spoken to since she began voicing her opinions on trans issues - had played a key role in the path his life has taken, but insisted that doesn't mean he 'owes' his beliefs to her (Rowling pictured in December 2023)
He said: 'Jo, obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person. But that doesn't mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life'
The Kill Your Darlings actor has long been a supporter of the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ suicide-prevention hotline and crisis-intervention resource (pictured in 2001)
In a series of tweets after following the Cass report's publication, Rowling wrote: 'Over the last four years, Hilary Cass has conducted the most robust review of the medical evidence for transitioning children that's ever been conducted. Mere hours after it was released to the press and public, committed ideologues are doubling down.
'These are people who've deemed opponents 'far-right' for wanting to know there are proper checks and balances in place before autistic, gay and abused kids - groups that are all overrepresented at gender clinics - are left sterilised, inorgasmic, lifelong patients.
'I understand that the review's conclusions will have come as a seismic shock to those who've hounded and demonised whistleblowers and smeared opponents as bigots and transphobes, but trying to discredit Hilary Cass's work isn't merely misguided. It's actively malign.
'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.
'And 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.
'The
