J.K. Rowlings Blasts Harry Potter Stars and "Mouthpiece" Celebrities as Trans Rights Controversy Intensified by New Medical Report

Summary

J.K. Rowling defends stance on gender debate against celebrity criticism.
Rowling calls out media, celebs supporting child transitioning without checks.
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson distances from Rowling’s transgender comments.

J.K. Rowling has hit back at “celebrity mouthpieces” following the release of a new gender identity-related medical report that claims there is “no good evidence one the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.” This seems to include former Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who have previously opposed Rowling’s often controversial comments about children being allowed to choose to change their gender.

After a lengthy post, in which the Harry Potter author said she was “angry” at the way “opponents” of transitioning children have been dubbed “far-right for wanting to know there are proper checks and balances in place,” she noted that “not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations” have also been complicit in hopping on “the bandwagon.”

On the back of this, one person commented, “Just waiting for Dan[iel Radcliffe] and Emma [Watson] to give you a very public apology…safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them.” However, the author fired back that this is not necessarily the case. She replied:

“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.”

You can see Rowling’s full statement as shared on X/Twitter below:

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. Mere hours after it was released to the press and public, committed ideologues are doubling down. These are people who’ve deemed opponents ‘far-right’ for wanting to know there are proper checks and balances in place before autistic, gay and abused kids – groups that are all overrepresented at gender clinics – are left sterilised, inorgasmic, lifelong patients.

I understand that the review’s conclusions will have come as a seismic shock to those who’ve hounded and demonised whistleblowers and smeared opponents as bigots and transphobes, but trying to discredit Hilary Cass’s work isn’t merely misguided. It’s actively malign. Even if you don’t feel ashamed of cheerleading for what now looks like severe medical malpractice, even if you don’t want to accept that you might have been wrong, where’s your sense of self-preservation? The bandwagon you hopped on so gladly is hurtling towards a cliff. 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.

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.

I thought the last tweet was going to be my last, but I just burst into tears. The #CassReview may be a watershed moment, but it comes too late for detransitioners who’ve written me heartbreaking letters of regret. Today’s not a triumph, it’s the laying bare of a tragedy.

Wizarding World

J.K. Rowling’s involvement in the upcoming Harry Potter TV show brought up more than three years of discourse that have seen the author constantly bombarded with online hate over her views on the transgender community.

The author has split not only her fans, but also the stars of the Harry Potter franchise, with some supporting the author’s comments, while others such as Radcliffe and Watson have publicly distanced themselves from Rowling with their own statements. Back in 2020, Radcliffe shared his thoughts on the matter on the back of one of Rowling’s tweets, in which he stated:

“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. According to The Trevor Project, 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported being the subject of discrimination due to their gender identity. It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm.”

Watson shared similar comments at the time, saying:

“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.”

In the wake of the conclusions of the four-year study, more information on the report can be found here, it is clear that this debate is still a long way from finding a middle-ground where everyone agrees with the outcome.