Here's Why Daniel Radcliffe Decided to Speak Against J.K. Rowling

"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," Radcliffe said. "And so seeing them hurt on that day I was like, I wanted them to know that not everybody in the franchise felt that way. And that was really important," Daniel Radcliffe told IndieWire.

Back in 2020 the Harry Potter star published an open letter to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that focuses on suicide prevention among the LGBTQ community expressing his support for transgenders saying that "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 [J.K. Rowling] or I," Radcliffe's open letter reads.

The award-winning British actor said that it was really important for him to speak up since he worked with the Trevor Project for more than a decade. "I don't think I would've been able to look myself in the mirror had I not said anything," he added.

J.K. Rowling came under heavy fire over her comments about the transgender community in June 2020. In a series of her tweets she said that discussing gender identity negates biological sex. In particular she tweeted that "if sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased."

Daniel Radcliffe was not the only one to speak out against the writer who he owes his acting career. Emma Watson best known for playing Hermione Granger in all eight of the big-screen adaptations echoed her co-star Daniel Radcliffe tweeting 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."

And another Harry Potter star, Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the franchise, has recently also criticized Rowling. "I'm pro-choice, pro-discussion, pro-human rights across the board and pro-love. And anything that is not those things, I don't really have much time for," Felton told The Independent in October.

In contrast, Ralph Fiennes has recently come to J.K. Rowling's defense telling The New York Times that the writer is "not an über right-wing fascist" and that the verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting. The Voldemort actor said that he could understand that people might be angry at what Rowling says about women but he does not find it obscene.

"It's just a woman saying, 'I'm a woman and I feel I'm a woman and I want to be able to say that I'm a woman.' And I understand where she's coming from," the Oscar-nominated actor said.