J.K. Rowling rips Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson for trans criticism

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Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling says she’s done with the film’s stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson after they criticized her views on trans issues.

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The bestselling author first faced backlash for her beliefs in 2020, when she questioned an opinion piece published by the website Devex that used the phrase “people who menstruate.”

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“I’m sure there used to be a word for those people,” Rowling tweeted. “Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

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Rowling then shared her beliefs when it comes to biological identity.

“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction,” she tweeted. “If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.”

Rowling’s posts drew the ire of Harry Potter fans and immediately found her at the centre of a debate surrounding identity politics.

In response, Potter star Daniel Radcliffe published an open letter on the Trevor Project’s website in which he proclaimed, “Transgender women are women.”

“To all the people who now feel that their experience of the (Harry Potter) 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,” he wrote in part.

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Watson piled on Rowlling, taking to X to proclaim “trans people are who they say they are.”

“I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are,” Watson also wrote at the time.

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After Rowling shared a recent medical review showing “kids have been irreversibly harmed” by undergoing transitioning procedures this week, one follower predicted there would come a day when Radcliffe and Watson would offer up a “very public apology… safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them…”

“Not safe, I’m afraid,” Rowling replied. “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.”

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“It is unusual for us to give a potentially life-changing treatment to young people and not know what happens to them in adulthood,” wrote pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass. 

Rowling’s dig at Radcliffe and Watson came amid a tweetstorm in which she shared her thoughts about Cass’ conclusions.

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“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,” Rowling wrote.

“Mere hours after it was released to the press and public, committed ideologues are doubling down. The consequences of this scandal will play out for decades. You cheered it on. You did all you could to impede and misrepresent research. You tried to bully people out of their jobs for opposing you. Young people have been experimented on, left infertile and in pain … The #CassReview may be a watershed moment, but it comes too late for detransitioners who’ve written me heartbreaking letters of regret.”

She continued, “Today’s not a triumph, it’s the laying bare of a tragedy. 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.”

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Earlier this month, Rowling dared Scottish police to arrest her after the country passed new speech laws which could see people arrested for using a transgender person’s wrong pronouns.

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In a series of social media posts, Rowling referred to several prominent trans women as men.

Rowling wrote that “if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested.”

“Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal,” she said.

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