In some ways I’m heartened by this, in general I think it’s a good thing to be able to fundamentally disagree with someone about something but still respect and love them and it should be encouraged in this very black and white world we seem to live in.
I also don’t presume to know anything about JKR and EWs friendship (if that’s what it was) but I do remember when it all unfolded back in 2020 and JKR did her tweet and her essay in which she explained in very personal terms why she felt the way she did. I remember being quite shocked to see the glib EW tweet of “TWAW & TMAM and so sad for my trans fans and also donate to Mermaids”
shortly afterwards. It seemed a very odd and fairly cruel public response from a colleague/friend who positioned herself as a feminist to someone who was apparently close to her and had laid themselves bare in terms of detailing precisely why the abuse she had suffered from men meant that she thought self id was a bad idea and single sex spaces were important.
Fair enough if EW disagreed but she had the option of not saying anything given that JKRs views had absolutely nothing to do with her or even saying something along the lines of “I don’t agree but obviously she has the right to an opinion based on her own life experience”.
The what felt forced responses of the HP actors to JKR in 2020 when, on the face of it, there was no need for any of them to say anything at all, brought home to me how deeply this stuff was embedded and how powerful the forces were that were promoting it. Genuinely interested to know what the HP actors really think now and also why they all felt they had to put out public statements in response to what a woman who wrote the books that were made into films that they starred in years before as children said on Twitter.