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

Report the transphobic threads

willowflower19 why don't you go and read any one of about a thousand posts on Feminism Chat that will clear that up for you.

Unless you are trying to derail this thread.

I'd imagine JKR is too gracious to respond to this publicly.

@Fanthorpe

Osman has got teenagers, so probably like Ross has had it explained to him by them.

Lord, if I lived my life as 'educated' by my teenager that would be interesting, wouldn't it?

But as a responsible adult, I spend my time actually parenting him. I wonder at what age these 'celebs' started taking orders from their overprivileged and bubble-lived offspring?

I just clicked on it here in the thread.

Sorry that was to wildflower, if you see transphobic posts don't just ignore them, report them.

"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."
Nonsense of course, and rather a clumsy sentence, but not actually grammatically incorrect lamahaha - break it down -
who have ... expertise than Jo (has)
who have ... more expertise than ... I (have)
Just think of the Queen saying 'My husband and I'...

@Beamur

I'd imagine JKR is too gracious to respond to this publicly.

She's probably snorting in derision somewhere.

"Radcliffe's parents had both acted as children. His father is a literary agent. His mother is a casting agent...."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Radcliffe#Early_life,_family,_and_education

Almost as good as Nick Hornby's "I thought this would make a great screenplay, so I asked my wife who's a film producer..."

Almost as good as Johnathan Ross giving a good review on the BBC film programme neglecting to mention that his wife had written the screenplay. Ross then suceeded as Flim prog presenter by Claudia Winkleman, the wife of the Executive Producer of Stardust.

It's a small world.

Yes Batshite. Non trans people shouldn't be speaking for or defining the experience of transpeople. Non BAME people should not be speaking for or defining experiences of racism. Women talking about their experiences, well everyone can speak over and tells us what to do and think.

I see the tweets of guns pointed at JK. How in any way is that acceptable.

Why not cis?

Because it's a lie. I do not identify as a woman. I do not accept that my gender identity matches my sex.

. I am clearly one. But I don't see myself as one if you get my drift. If I dream I am as likely to be male as female.

Being a woman is a curse I could well do without. I hate the body and the restrictions and abuse that are associated with that. I hate the way people make assumptions about who I am based on that body

But it's the only body I have, and most of the reason I have such an objection is because of how other people dismiss me because of it, ie because of what is externally projected onto me when people see woman

Joanne Harris (author of Chocolat) has tweeted about being disappointed by feminists of her generation

I'm almost a decade younger than Rowling and tend to think of people Radcliffe's age who I knew when they were children as still sort of being children. If you as an adult first meet someone as a child it sort of sets the tone for the way you relate to them in such a way that it's hard to really see them as adults for a while, you know? So I'd imagine from her perspective this is all coming across as a bit Kevin The Teenager.

@TheProdigalKittensReturn

"Because men matter. Even men in lipstick with silly pronouns."

People making comments of this calibre are not aiming for subtlety.
I find it hard to believe they're unaware of their own transphobia.

If you have an answer to my question, I'd be genuinely interested. I'm not trying to upset people.

Many news outlets have covered DR's statement including the Guardian and CNN "Trump's favourite newd company not" However, what I found interesting were the comments on their Twitter feeds. These are for the great majority on JK's side interesting and hopeful given their readership and viewers?

In truth, the only reasons I don't identify as transgender or none binary are

Firstly I think some people have much greater distress than I do
Secondly, the transgender community refuses to accept sex as a significant attribute that affects people's lives and opportunities distinct from whatever gender assumptions are made

News not newd

There are a lot of emotional posts here, a few of which are incredibly transphobic and I will dismiss out of hand. But I'd like to ask those of you who've given your opinion without being offensive- why do you consider this term pejorative?

Several reasons, all of them underpinned by sexism.

Firstly, one of the explanations for cis is that you 'identify with the gender that matches your sex'. Gender is a set of stereotypes assigned to the people on the basis of their sex. Most women, particularly feminists, do not identify with the set of gender stereotypes society would like to ascribe to them. They form a hierarchy with women at the bottom. Women are disadvantaged on the basis of their sex, and gender is the means by which it's done. Think about it. Even what looks like a positive stereotype keeps women down. Women are nurturing, caring, supportive, available for sex, objectified, and across the world, killed, and not even born on the basis of being lesser than.

Secondly, it's in an attempt to make women a subset of their own sex. Not only physically impossible, but sexist.

And thirdly it means you're not trans. Specifically you're not a transwoman. A transwoman is a man who identifies as a woman. So you are being described as 'not a man' who does something.

Women, strange as it may seem, are human beings in their own right. An entity and a concept who exist without reference to men.

We are real, you know. We all share characteristics that put us in the same category.

We don't need to be recategorised, so that men can colonise that category.

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

If FMG, sex trafficking (99% female), sexual assault/rape (90% female victims),
arranged marriage, denial of education,
majority of domestic abuse victims, Etc, etc, etc, where based on 'gender' and not sex, how many adult males would claim womanhood?

Who knew all we had to do to stop it all was wear pants and say we are men.

If it were females who committed 98% of sex crimes with mostly male victims, they would have us all on a permanent curfew.

Most men will always protect their own interests. Even the nice ones. They still like the hierarchy their sex affords them.

How DARE he apologise for JKR? A mediocre man who is only famous and successful because of HER creation. How DARE he?

@lucymaudmonty

That's an interesting point.

I know that the term 'cis woman' has become more common in recent years- have you personally ever experienced an incident where your ability or right to self-identify as a "woman" has been refuted?

I don’t think it has become common wildflower at all. If I said to anyone in real life I was a cis woman. They would be like wow. What the heck is that and think I was bonkers

Sorry willowflower not wildflower

Again, willowflower, if you have a mental list of people who you already plan to dismiss then tell them who they are so they don't waste their time responding to your question.

I don't like being called "cis" because I don't "identify" as a woman and never chose any of the ways in which my life has been restricted by being one. Nobody really gets to choose how they "identify", that's just not how societies work. Other people will decide which demographic they believe you belong you and treat you according to their beliefs about that demographic regardless of how you feel about it. If it was possible to identify out of oppression everyone would do so, but as we can see in the current protest set off by the murder of George Floyd if you are in an oppressed group that option is simply not available to you.

Only very privileged people are able to say "my identity is this, and you will respect it" and have others actually do so.

Oh I don’t identify as a woman. Am just a women. Was a baby girl then a girl now a woman