JK Rowling won’t forgive Harry Potter stars over pro-trans views

Author JK Rowling has reignited a bitter row with stars Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe for using their celebrity platform to ‘cheer on’ the transitioning of children.

JK Rowling said stars had "cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights"

Author JK Rowling has hit out at celebrities who “used their platforms to cheer on” the transitioning of children, suggesting that she would not forgive Harry Potter film stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson if they were to apologise.

Radcliffe and Watson are among the film’s cast members who spoke out against Rowling’s stance on gender identity in 2020.

Her criticism of the actors came in a series of posts on X following the publication of the Cass Review, which raised concerns about gender identity services for under-18s, which Rowling, 58, described as “a watershed moment.”

Author JK Rowling with young actors Emma Watson, Rupert Grint & Daniel Radcliffe at the premiere for the third Harry Potter film, The Prisoner of Azkaban, in 2004.

Responding to a post suggesting Radcliffe and Watson would be “safe in the knowledge,” the author would forgive them should they offer her a public apology, Rowling wrote, “Not safe, I’m afraid.”

“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.”

Not safe, I'm afraid. 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.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 10, 2024

Since 2020, Rowling has faced accusations of transphobia by a number of powerful transgender rights activists and LGBTQ+ lobbying groups after she published a 3,700-word essay on gender, sex, and abuse: “I refuse to bow down to a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators,” she wrote at the time.

Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson with the author JK Rowling at the premiere of the first Harry Potter film in 2001. Picture: AP Photo/William Conran

She has denied being transphobic, previously saying she respects “every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them... I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans.”

The publication of her essay saw Harry potter stars such as Radcliffe, Watson, Rupert Grint and Katie Leung distance themselves from the author and speak out to affirm transgender identities.

In June 2020, Radcliffe, who had played Harry Potter throughout the eight films, put out a statement through the LGBTQ youth suicide prevention group saying “transgender women are women.”

“Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”

Watson said: “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.”

Earlier this month Rowling directly challenged police in Scotland, where she lives, to arrest her after new hate crime laws came into effect