Daniel Radcliffe responds to J.K Rowling's tweets on gender identity

[EddyF]

Daniel Radcliffe responds to JK Rowling’s tweets: “Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people”

Daniel Radcliffe Responds to J.K. Rowling’s Tweets on Gender Identity – The Trevor Project

FULL STATEMENT

I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what’s important right now. While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment.

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.

I am still learning how to be a better ally, so if you want to join me in learning more about transgender and nonbinary identities check out The Trevor Project’s Guide to Being an Ally to Transgender and Nonbinary Youth. It’s an introductory educational resource that covers a wide range of topics, including the differences between sex and gender, and shares best practices on how to support transgender and nonbinary people.

To all the people who now feel that their experience of the 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. If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much.

Love always,
Dan

An author called Jeremy Duns has come out in support too. I hadn't heard of him but he's a blue tick and I will be having a look at his books now, he also reviews for The Times.

While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken

You owe her everything, Daniel Radcliffe. Without her it's very unlikely you'd be a multi millionaire or working as an actor in such a competitive industry.

You can disagree with her but maybe this wasn't a good time when she is under such vicious attack.

Do you menstruate, Dan?

YgritteSnow

I know, it's infuriating. But there are women here who have been looking at this for years.

We know, we absolutely know the process. It's happened on these very boards.

People think you're being homophobic, they think it's about section 28, they want you to be nice. They don't get the passion. Because they don't understand what is at stake.

And, to the uninitiated, it can sound a bit six of one.

Ask any of those people, Osman, Radcliffe, any of them, whether or not convicted male rapist should be housed in female prisons, and they will wonder what the fuck you're talking about.

Because they have no idea.

And although this looks one-sided, it isn't. It's just people beginning to talk about it.

Honestly, that is all it needs.

A public broadcast asking the right questions. Women's sport, prisons, rape refugees.

They think this is just a superficial social nicety. They don't realise what's at stake.

So we just have to keep going.

@LouHotel

I had to reply to someone Facebook about this and was actually fairly innocuous and more a out DR apologising on behalf of JKR. I'm now getting a fucking pile on.

Apparently hes not apologising hes showing empathy as in 'I'm sorry for your loss'

No ones fucking died!

Yes but they coooooould! Because of the betrayal!

I can't remember paying so very much attention to 'life changing' books or films as a young person. I was too busy living.

DR is an actor. Actors live in a luvvie world where woke identity politics is the norm. Actors tend to follow the crowd and not rock the boat in case they don't get parts which is how people like Harvey Weinstein got away with his abuse for so long.
JKR is an author. Authors are less swayed by herd mentality particularly those who are now financially independant.
Im disappointed in DR but not surprised.

@SirVixofVixHall

Nooo not Sara Pascoe ! She seems so lovely.

Sara Pascoe talks about having PCOS in her shows. She knows full well what biological sex is, and that you can't identify out of having a medical condition only women can get. So why say that identity overrides biological reality? I don't get how the disconnect isn't obvious to people who say TWAW but also know full well that TW can't have PCOS or cervical cancer or endometriosis for example. I'd love to identify out of my medical conditions, sadly not gonna happen

"It is also possible that at least some of the trans exclusion is due to the fact that for some people, sexual orientation might be not (just) about a partner’s gender identity, but attraction to specific body types and/or judgment of reproductive capabilities."

Most people. If it's not "all" it's pretty damn close.

Why are (some) younger feminists anti those who are born of the female sex?
Why are they undoing all we have fought for the women movement all my life?

Because it is a religion. A cult. And they are competing for the title of the most righteous among all.

@MorganKitten

JK used the LGBTQ community when it suited her and she made money off of it, and goes against things she wrote about. She’s an awful women and lies each time she is is vile and says it’s down to being ‘middle age’.

How did she use the LGBTQ community? What has she lied about?

Only women menstruate no matter how they personally identify.

I have been reading about the Yazidi girls put in metal cages and burnt alive , five years ago today.
I suppose Daniel and his supporters think those girls could have just told their cagers that they were actually boys ?
I am furious about this now.

No man can ever tell me what a woman is. He can fuck off.

He's cursed with shallow thinking and attempting to people please.

I'm past upset and I'm now fucking livid, do they not get what shes trying to protect!

There's an article on the guardian that's gotten hardly any coverage on social media of three girls being taken by their father to a doctor under the disguise of having a virus vaccination and instead sedated before an FGM procedure was completed, this is in Egypt where FGM is illegal.

FEMALE genital mutilation, they couldn't identify out of what their father has done to them.

Has any transwoman been subjected to FGM?

Did they speak up for them?

I suspect if the people burned alive in a cage were there on the basis of their 'gender' rather than sex we would have had marches, a national day, a flag, a ribbon, a charity single...

This is exactly what I'd like to put to Idiot Radcliffe.

Please explain your decision to:

Females who now can't use public facilities, often due to race, culture, disability, trauma.
Females who are in danger of losing female HCPs and cannot or will not access medical care otherwise
Females who will be locked up with a sex offender serving a sentence for multiple rapes and sex attacks on females
Females who are being told they must learn to overcome their homosexuality to give sex to males, with the best they can expect being 'learn to cope' with the experience with sex not being for their pleasure but an act of social justice duty.

This is homophobic male supremacism, with a side order of racism and a lot of classism and agism involved too.

I'm so disappointed, but not surprised. Why is it always transgender women are women. Why not say transgender men are men

Have any of the blue ticks supporting the TWAW stance condemned the abuse JK Rowling has had?

Because I am (unlike most of them) genuinely tolerant and open minded, I can forgive people have that opinion. I can’t forgive people wading in to spout about what is and isn’t feminism while standing idly by while a woman gets pilloried for having an opinion.

Okay: so you're one of the people who has no respect for women. Ask your mum what she thinks of this and of you.

I never used to understand how people as obviously pathetic as Hitler and Post Pot had managed to persuade the people to do unspeakable things. I used to think that surely the average person was more intelligent, more humane, than that. But no.

I hope Daniel Radcliffe's mother and grandmother will have a word with him. There won't be an adult woman over the age of 40 in the world who doesn't read that arrogant guff and think 'You little shit.' This will make women stronger and lots of parents will be having conversations with their children and ensuring that they understand that transwomen are men.

And I’m gutted about Richard Osman retweeting something with the probably false suggestion that it “isn’t a zero sum game”. Sorry Richard, it actually is.

I think he’s intelligent and well meaning and would love to sit him down for a coffee and try to explain it to him because it just isn’t sustainable to hold that position once you acknowledge and respect women’s wishes and boundaries.

@FlowersAreBeautiful

I'm so disappointed, but not surprised. Why is it always transgender women are women. Why not say transgender men are men

Not many Tras men in hollywood though are there? Transwome and some 'non binary' and 'queer' folks.

As far as I can gather, the complaint about LGBTQWERTY and JK Rowling is that she engaged in "queer baiting" which is supposedly a situation where an author/scriptwriter/producer/show-runner engages in getting the fanbase all worked up pre-production by supposedly promising a gay relationship between two of the characters, then not delivering.

(Notes with interest that I am capable of giving a better explanation of the accusation and its content than those throwing it around with slurs attached. Not the brightest bunnies in the forest, are they?)

It was an accusation thrown at Sherlock a lot - because a lot of fans engaged in writing "slash" about Sherlock and Watson (homoerotic fanfiction centring round the two of them getting it on), and there were lines in the TV show dialogue which could be interpreted as flirtatious if you were of a mind to take them that way, apparently it was "queer baiting" because the show runners supposedly cynically hyped up the homoerotic subtext to gain audience figures, then didn't have the two of them end up in bed together on screen.

Ditto with Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Apparently JK saying Dumbledore might well have been gay meant it should have formed a central part of the Fantastic Beasts Franchise. I mean, what did they want by way of making good on this alleged promise? Sex scenes in a kids' movie? (No, don't answer that... I've been around fandom long enough to know that there will have been a subsection of very vocal fans who did think this was entirely what ought to have happened. Not for nothing did a friend of mine describe Archive of Our Own - which I love, btw - as being like "dumpster diving in the collective subconscious").

You’re absolutely right Datun I remember a few years ago following Janice Turner on twitter and being horrified when she commented on a trans issue, immediately unfollowed her. Then realised what she was talking about, looked at the treatment of Germaine Greer and realised what was at stake.
I shared a piece on Facebook (back when it was moderately ok) about ‘the female penis’ and was met with laughter and disbelief. I saw Deborah Orr being abused, along with Julie Bindel. Paris Lees being lauded for her bravery and journalism.

I’ve been met with blank misunderstanding faces when talking about it with groups of friends, then outrage as they realise what the implications are.

I feel sad and upset that people accuse me of bigotry and I constantly question myself, have I misunderstood? But then I read those pieces about how biology is a lot more complex than I imagine and I think back to how that must have been the reason women were paid less, were criminalised for having abortions, and could be legally raped by their husbands. If only they’d realised.

Silly little twat. Absolutely, actors have to be uber woke or lose work. Writers, not so much.

I do appreciate him saying it's not a falling out though. He's mature enough at least to say that while he disagrees with her, he still respects her. That's a huge step against cancel culture.

It's almost impossible to disagree on social media without loathing people and wanting them erased from public life. All this debate needs is daylight, clarity and dialogue. That's what the TRA are so desperate to suppress.

I’m not on Twitter and wouldn’t know how to use it but those of you who are, do you feel safe and comfortable to respond to Daniel Radcliffe and his supporters? Or are you shouted down if you do, branded transphobic? Are people tweeting support for JK? High-profile people?