Controversial Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has made headlines again, this time for responding to some of the backlash her views on trans rights have received from the main stars of the blockbuster movie adaptations in the past.
Rowling's X posts followed the release of an independent review of gender identity services for children and young people delivered by Britain’s National Health Service. The report notes that health care providers and patients “have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
The writer was not happy with the amount of backlash to these findings, which she has taken as vindication of her views.
"If I sound angry, it's because I'm bloody angry," she said in one of her posts. "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."
Those "celebrity mouthpieces" include Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who have made their positions on the transgender debate very clear in the past.
“Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology … safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them,” one of Rowling's followers wrote in the replies. “Not safe, I’m afraid," she responded. "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.”
It's worth noting that other Harry Potter cast members have come out in support of Rowling.
“I mean, I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women,” Voldemort actor Ralph Fiennes told the Times. “But it’s not some obscene, über-right-wing fascist. It’s just a woman saying, ‘I’m a woman and I feel I’m a woman and I want to be able to say that I’m a woman.’ And I understand where she’s coming from. Even though I’m not a woman.”
You can check out Rowling's full thread along with a link to the review below.
Last year, Warner Bros. Discovery officially announced that a new Harry Potter series is currently being developed for the HBO Max streaming service. The show will fully reboot the popular movies with an entirely new cast, and the plan is to re-adapt the source novels with each season dedicated to one of the seven books.
The news received a somewhat mixed response, and not just because so many fans feel that the films adapted the story perfectly well. The fact that Rowling is involved has come in for a lot of backlash, but HBO Chairman Casey Bloys dismissed concerns as a "very online conversation" at the time.