Daniel Radcliffe spoke out in support of the LGBTQ+ community after J.K. Rowling made transphobic comments because he wouldn’t have been able to look himself in the mirror otherwise.
The Harry Potter author came under fire in June 2020 over her views on sex and gender, which many have deemed transphobic. After she made her comments, Harry Potter star Radcliffe wrote an open letter supporting the transgender community.
Reflecting on his decision in an interview with IndieWire, the British actor explained that he had to take a stand for all the people who were hurt by the writer’s remarks and show them that Rowling does not represent everybody in the movie franchise.
“The reason I was felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did was 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. 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,” Radcliffe explained.
The 33-year-old published his letter on the website of The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organisation which focuses on suicide prevention in the LGBTQ+ community.
“It was really important as I’ve worked with the Trevor Project for more than 10 years, and so I don’t think I would’ve been able to look myself in the mirror had I not said anything,” he added. “But it’s not mine to guess what’s going on in someone else’s head.”
Radcliffe’s co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint followed in his footsteps in distancing themselves from Rowling’s controversial views.
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