J.K. Rowling remains unwavering on her opinions concerning the trans community despite increasing criticism. A string of Harry Potter actors, including Eddie Redmayne, Paapa Essiedu, and Katie Leung, signed a pro-trans open letter last week after the UK Supreme Court ruling to define “woman” and “sex” strictly on biological sex. The action has stirred the controversy ongoing as the author criticized the actors.
J.K. Rowling did not mince her words as she supported the essay in public on X while making blistering remarks on her “back-stabbing colleagues”, adding that their act was “motivated by fear.” She wrote on X, “In light of recent open letters from academia and the arts criticising the UK’s Supreme Court ruling on sex-based rights, it’s possibly worth remembering that nobody sane believes, or has ever believed, that humans can change sex, or that binary sex isn’t a material fact.”
She added, “These letters do nothing but remind us of what we know only too well: that pretending to believe these things has become an elitist badge of virtue.”
J.K. Rowling Defends Her Stance
In her long message on social media, the author continued, “Some argue that signatories of these sorts of letters are motivated by fear: fear for their careers, of course, but also fear of their co-religionists, who include angry, narcissistic men who threaten and sometimes enact violence on non-believers; back-stabbing colleagues ever ready to report wrongthink; the online shamers and doxxers and rape threateners, and, of course, the influential zealots in the upper echelons of liberal professions.”
Somewhere in her note, she also commented that the “court losses” against the trans community, “are starting to stack up, meanwhile, “women are fighting back and winning significant victories.” At the end, she called out the people who signed the pro trans letter, however, she did not drop any names, as reported by The New York Post. She wrote, “I wonder if they ever ask themselves how they got here, and I wonder whether any of them will ever feel shame.”
Harry Potter stars and Other Celebrities Who Signed the Letter
The open pro trans letter was adorned with over 2,000 signatures that claimed that the court’s decision “undermines the lived reality and threatens the safety of trans, non-binary and intersex people living in the UK.” Redmayne, who appeared in teh Harry Potter prequel series, The Fantastic Beasts, signed the letter. Leung, a cast member of the original Harry Potter series, was also among the signatories. Essiedu signed the letter and is lined up to play Severus Snape in the new Harry Potter series on HBO.
Other British actors among the signatories include Bella Ramsey, Nicola Coughlan and Joe Alwyn.
