Rowling says 'Harry Potter' stars who challenged her anti-trans beliefs 'can keep their apologies'

J.K. Rowling's anti-transgender ideas have alienated the "Harry Potter" cast. Rowling responded to a fan's X post about feeling "safe in the knowledge" that she would forgive "Harry Potter" stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who have criticized her anti-trans sentiments, by saying, "Not safe, I'm afraid."  

She said, "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."  

Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint, who played Harry Potter, Hermoine Granger, and Ron Weasley from childhood to young adulthood, have in recent years supported the trans community. In June 2020, Rowling wrote a personal post about "trans activism" and teenagers outgrowing gender dysphoria. Several "Harry Potter" cast members called her statements transphobic.  

"I support the trans community and agree with many of my classmates. Trans women are female. Trans men are male. Grint told The Sunday Times, "We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment."  

Radcliffe repeated that "transgender woman are women," in an essay for LGBTQ non-profit The Trevor Project, and Watson wrote in X that trans people "deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren't who they say they are. Thanks accompanied the "Harry Potter" stars' criticism.  

Grint told Esquire in 2021 that he's "hugely grateful" for Rowling's work but added, "I think also you can have huge respect for someone and still disagree with things like that." Radcliffe said Rowling is "unquestionably responsible" for his life, but he still feels "compelled to say something at this moment."

Ralph Fiennes, who played Voldemort (Tom Riddle), told The Telegraph in 2021 that he couldn't "understand the vitriol directed at" Rowling. "I can understand the heat of an argument, but I find this age of accusation and the need to condemn irrational," he remarked. Rowling has been criticized and defended for her anti-trans views since 2019, when she supported Maya Forstater, a researcher who was fired for arguing that biological sex cannot be changed. An employment appeal panel sided with her.  

Gender-critical beliefs, which include the belief that sex is immutable and not to be conflated with gender identity" were protected under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and the Equality Act 2010's "religion or belief." However, discrimination and harassment laws apply to such utterances. The 'Harry Potter' cast said what?Rupert Grint labels J.K. Rowling connection 'tricky  

Rowling has spoken out on social media about Scotland's new hate crime law, her concern over minors detransitioning, and the Cass Review's few dozen recommendations for improving the National Health Service's gender identity services, including using "extreme caution" when prescribing gender-affirming hormone therapy to 16- to 18-year-olds.  

Rowling listed 10 trans women, including a convicted rapist, sex abusers, and high-profile activists on X, as men in response to Scotland criminalizing "stirring up hatred" for age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and transgender identity.  

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