J.K. Rowling is embroiled in a fresh row with another Harry Potter actor over transgender rights.

Following exchanges of fire with Daniel Radcliffe and others, Rowling has blasted David Tennant after the Goblet of Fire star voiced strident views on those who speak out against trans rights.

During an appearance at the British LGBT Awards over the weekend, he called on British equalities minister Kemi Badenoch to “shut up” after she advocated for banning trans women from entering women’s toilets and sports teams.

In an interview at the same event, Tennant called transgender critics “a tiny bunch of little whinging f*ckers who are on the wrong side of history, and they’ll all go away soon.”

Earlier in the week, Rowling branded people like Tennant the “gender Taliban.” In posts on X (once Twitter) on Friday, she expanded her comments to address Tennant’s “wrong side of history” quote.

Rowling wrote: “This man is talking about rape survivors who want female-only care, the nurses currently suing their health trust for making them change in front of a man, girls and women losing sporting opportunities to males and female prisoners incarcerated with convicted sex offenders.”

She added: “For a man who’s supposedly a model of compassion and tolerance, he sure does want a lot of people to cease to exist.”

Previously.

  • Tennant called transgender critics “a tiny bunch of little whinging f*ckers who are on the wrong side of history, and they’ll all go away soon.”

    Is the real headline here. And good for him.

    I’d rather not give what’s her name any more attention over this crap.

    Also, calling Tennant a “Harry Potter actor”, while true, feels like a calculated insult to a man who has played Doctor Who, The Purple Man, and Crawley.

    • Also, calling Tennant a “Harry Potter actor”, while true, feels like a calculated insult to a man who has played Doctor Who, The Purple Man, and Crawley.

      I’m not sure it’s a “calculated insult” but it did read a but oddly (I assumed initially that it was referring to someone else). I presume the writer or their editor went with that angle because because his having appeared in the Harry Potter movies is relevant to an article and fitted the wider context of JK Rowling falling out with HP cast members. I’m not convinced it was the right approach.

      • I’m not sure it’s a “calculated insult” but it did read a but oddly (I assumed initially that it was referring to someone else).

        Yeah. My choice of words was a bit unnecessarily inflammatory. I struggled to find the words for how weird a choice of introduction it is, but don’t mean to actually assign malice.

        I don’t really think the article author meant anything by it necessarily.

        Your point about the context of the cat relationships makes sense. Probably why they went for it.

  • Thankfully the vast majority of the cast of the Harry Potter movies ended up being decent people. They are the ones that young people should look up to, not whatever the fuck Joanne has become.

    She’s taking the Graham Linehan route, dedicate your whole life to bashing trans people and spreading hate against them, to the point where you ruin your entire legacy and your own personal relationships.

    She can keep fighting against trans people’s right to exist, but trans people will just fight back at every turn.

        • I don’t understand this sports metaphor but that’s on me for chiming in on a British community discussion of a British celebrity that I do in fact no a little bit about. The good news is you can tell me its from basically any sport y’all like on the isles and I’ll be like “wow so fascinating”

          •  casmael   ( @casmael@lemm.ee ) 
            link
            fedilink
            English
            64 days ago

            Haha that’s fair I realised afterwards that you probably weren’t talking about English football, but the concept I guess is the same - to waste time in a match where they’re ahead and only a few moments of the game remains, a football player might dribble the ball slowly and without a sense of purpose into the corner of the field. There is a flag in each corner of the pitch, marking the point where a corner kick can be taken. Are you American, by chance?

  •  Zip2   ( @Zip2@feddit.uk ) 
    link
    fedilink
    English
    195 days ago

    The sooner JK Rowling is charged with hate speech, the better. How the fuck has she been allowed to get away with it for so long I don’t know.

      • I think this is a good place to add context for those outside the UK that don’t pay attention to politics, especially foreign politics:

        The UK is having elections on July 4th. The House of commons has… 650 seats, of which the Conservatives (Tories, equivalent UK version of US Rupublicans) have ~350 seats.

        They are expected to literally lose hundreds of seats in this elections and fall out of power. Labour (UK equivalent of US Democrats) has not been as progressive as people expected/wanted, but they are expected to be the big winners. Hopefully the UKs situation improves from the past 14-15 years of the Tories rule… seems like they’ve gone scorched earth, and the UK is a shadow of what it was even a decade ago.

        Those same whiners in power, are about to experience a near political power extinction event.

        • Lmmfao, ok, if we’re going for context, you’ve managed to conveniently leave out a massive bit of it - that Sir Starmer, the current Labour leader and as much a part of the establishment as any Tori politician is, has not only publicly declared transphobic shit like men = penis woman = vagina, but is now also taking advice from Joanne herself, after she called him out for not being a big enough terf, and he in turn and without even blinking, willingly obliged to prove her wrong (and that he aspires to be just as prolific a transphobe as she is).

          The idea that only Tories are responsible for the institutionalised transphobia in this country, and that blue Labour is going to do anything but continue toeing exactly the same line, is not only laughable, but glaringly and wilfully ignorant.

          So yeah…

          you’ve not been paying attention…

          • My reply said nothing about only Tories being solely responsible, only that they have been primarily in charge/in power for the last 14 years and are about to take a major fall from power in the upcoming election this week.

            I didn’t praise Labour, merely said they will be the primary benefactor of the change in power, and that they are the UK equivalent of Democrats in the US (a simplified comparison for a non-UK audience, that happens across this thread); which isn’t untrue in general, even with your above complaints.

            This is indeed a UK thread, but JK and Tennant are world renowned, and having them both in the title will draw in a larger audience.

            • Hopefully the UKs situation improves from the past 14-15 years of the Tories rule

              This is all the confirmation it takes. You’re close, but if you still think Starmer’s Labour is going to change anything fundamental about how things are run, you’ve not been paying attention.

              • Sounds like they were just hoping things would at least improve, which means not get actively worse nor remain strictly the same, but does not mean things become absolutely good and fixed. You’re the one putting “fundamental changes to how things are run” as their claim.

                I found their comment quite helpful, and the content of the addition that labour may not do much better was also useful and fit in the framework they gave.

                I don’t think the aggression was warranted or helpful, and only served to stagnate the discussion.

                • I don’t think the aggression was warranted or helpful, and only served to stagnate the discussion.

                  Lmfao, whatever makes you feel better and not have to confront realities that make you uncomfortable… 🙄

                  (E: realities that you actively contribute to by tone policing, and framing and dismissing people whose rights, and lives, are being abused and put at risk as “aggressive”, which is a classic and well documented silencing tactic, whether you knew you were doing it or not. You also literally contributed nothing to the conversation. So basically your entire reply is one big projection, almost impressive)

      •  Echo Dot   ( @echodot@feddit.uk ) 
        link
        fedilink
        English
        2
        edit-2
        4 days ago

        I think it’s simpler. Those who are in power are gar too full whitted to really do not care and do not really consider this to be an issue. It’s not so much that they agree or disagree with her, it’s more that they just don’t care

        I’m not sure that’s actually better really but isn’t any important distinction.

    •  rah   ( @rah@feddit.uk ) 
      link
      fedilink
      English
      13 days ago

      charged with hate speech

      I’m curious whether she has actually come out with any hate speech. Can you point to anything she’s said which is hate speech? By which I mean real hate speech and not just speech whose underlying motive you believe to be hate?

      For example, this is hate speech:

      “Illegal immigrants are lazy good-for-nothings and should all be deported.”

      This is not hate speech:

      “Illegal immigration is terrible and I wish the government would do something about it.”