Daniel Radcliffe has won the hearts of young fans once again and this time he needed no wizarding hat to do so.
The ‘Harry Potter’ star has put out a statement in response to JK Rowling’s comments on the transgender community, which was posted on a suicide prevention charity website.
In the strongly worded statement, Radcliffe said: “Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people.”
Writing on The Trevor Project’s website, Radcliffe further stated that he was sorry to anyone whose “experience of the [‘Harry Potter’] books has been tarnished.”
“If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe... that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups… 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,” he stated, adding: “I hope that these comments will not taint that too much.”
Rowling has drawn criticism for posting tweets taking issue with the phrase “people who menstruate”, while sharing an opinion piece online. “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out,” she had tweeted earlier, resulting in many calling her out for being transphobic.
Rowling followed that tweet up by criticising the idea that someone’s biological sense isn’t real, causing further uproar.
Radcliffe also stated his comments should not be construed as “in-fighting between JK Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what’s important right now.”
