In June 2020, Harry Potter author JK Rowling posted a series of transphobic comments on Twitter—remarks she's only doubled down on since, per Variety. Her remarks led Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who played Harry Potter himself in the hit movie franchise, to publish an open letter on gender identity and transgender rights to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that works with the LGBTQ community on suicide prevention efforts. "It's clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm," Radcliffe wrote at the time.
Now, Radcliffe is talking more about why he wrote that letter more than two years ago for the organization he's been involved with for over a decade. "I ... felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did ... because, particularly since finishing Potter, I've met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter on that," the 33-year-old tells IndieWire, which notes Rowling's stance is especially baffling as the book and movie series is "a seemingly positive fantasy tale about acceptance of differences." "Seeing them hurt on that day I was like, I wanted them to know that not everybody in the franchise felt that way," Radcliffe continues. "And that was really important."
Indeed, more players from the franchise feel as Radcliffe does, including Tom Felton, the actor who played Draco Malfoy and talked to the Independent recently about the matter. "The obvious things to say are that I'm pro-choice, pro-discussion, pro-human rights across the board, and pro-love," Felton told the outlet last month. "And anything that is not those things, I don't really have much time for." He added, "With my friends, we all have differing opinions on various matters, and we celebrate our own choices. We certainly don't take any pleasure in putting crosshairs on people that may have said things that we disagree with." (More Daniel Radcliffe stories.)
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