Rupert Grint has now spoken out against J.K. Rowling‘s anti-trans brigade, making that three from three of the key Harry Potter stars speaking out. We! Love! To! See! It!
Grint – who obvs played Ron Weasley in all eight films – joined his co-stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter himself) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) in denouncing the transphobic views from the woman responsible for all their careers.
“I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers,” he said in a statement to The Times.
“Trans women are women. Trans men are men. We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgement.”
The Harry Potter cast group chat – which we confirmed earlier this year exists – must be going wild right now. Who’s next? Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom)? Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley)? Katie Leung (Cho Chang) is a little busy right now advocating for Black Lives Matter, but you never know.
Rowling, of course, released an essay yesterday outlining why she doesn’t believe sex and gender are different things (which is not a medical view) and claiming that women-only spaces, such as bathrooms and changing rooms, are under threat.
“When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside,” she wrote. (Spoiler: this argument has been debunked, repeatedly.
After she published her essay, Watson tweeted that “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.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpEVnWjhYE0/
And Radcliffe has already made his views on this crystal clear: trans women are women. J.K. Rowling does not know better than the experts. And Harry Potter fans devastated by Rowling’s bigotry should separate their love of the series from the woman who created it.
“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,” he said.
“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, non-binary, 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.”
Our faves forever.
