Daniel Radcliffe Says That J.K. Rowling’s Anti-Trans Rhetoric Makes Him “Really Sad"

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Daniel Radcliffe has responded to J.K. Rowling’s expectation of an “apology” for his advocacy on behalf of trans youth.

On Tuesday, The Atlantic published a lengthy profile of the former Harry Potter actor, in which he went deep on a number of topics, including his long history of support for LGBTQ+ people. Radcliffe has long been an outspoken advocate for the rights of trans youth even as Rowling has become one of the U.K.’s most infamous TERFs, and even as she has directly called him out. In a recent post on X, Rowling responded to a fan who said that they were waiting on a “very public apology” from Radcliffe and his co-star Emma Watson, calling the two actors “celebs who cozied up to a movement intent on eroding women'’ hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors.”

In response to that specific incident, Radcliffe merely told The Atlantic, “I will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ+ people, and have no further comment than that.”

Elsewhere in the profile, though, Radcliffe spoke to the general tenor of his relationship with the author — or lack thereof. He revealed that he has had no direct contact with Rowling since June 2020, when she first published the lengthy blog post in which she repeated well-worn anti-trans tropes, including the specious idea that trans activism clears the way for men to impersonate women in order to assault “natal” women in bathrooms and changing rooms. (Never mind that almost half of all trans people have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives and are four times more likely than cis people to be victims of violent crime, including rape and sexual assault.) “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,” Radcliffe said.

He added that he and his co-stars, including Watson and Rupert Grint, were often subjects of mockery by the British press for showing support for trans people. “There's a version of ‘Are these three kids ungrateful brats?’ that people have always wanted to write, and they were finally able to. So, good for them, I guess,” he said. The actor added that while “nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without” Rowling, “that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.”

Radcliffe also said that his work with the LGBTQ+ suicide prevention organization The Trevor Project made him feel as though not speaking out “would have seemed like, I don’t know, immense cowardice.”

“I wanted to try and help people that had been negatively affected by the comments,” the actor said. “And to say that if those are Jo’s views, then they are not the views of everybody associated with the Potter franchise.”

The author said on X that celebs who stood by trans rights can “save their apologies.”

Elsewhere in the profile, Radcliffe touched on his history with The Trevor Project, which he’s been working with for 12 years. When he was first introduced to the organization in 2009, the actor said he saw an opportunity to help: “If there was any value in a famous straight young actor who was from this film series that could be useful in the fight against people killing themselves, then I was just very keen to be a part of that.”

Lastly, that work helped him realize that Harry Potter is a low-key gay icon. “A lot of people found some solace in those books and films who were dealing with feeling closeted or rejected by their family or living with a secret,” he said. (After all, Potter did literally live in a closet cupboard under the stairs.)

Even though Rowling’s TERFery has a been a massive blow to LGBTQ+ Harry Potter fans, at least Radcliffe is here to ensure that our childhoods aren’t totally ruined.

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Originally Appeared on them.