Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling indicated she would not forgive actors who "cosied up" to transgender activism and disavowed the author's opposition to the movement.
On Wednesday, Rowling praised British medical doctor and a consultant in pediatric disability Hilary Cass' review on medical gender transitions for minors. The author said the findings of Cass' report would be a "seismic shock to those who've hounded and demonised whistleblowers and smeared opponents as bigots and transphobes."
"Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology," one user responded to the author's post in reference Harry Potter actors Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who have previously come out against Rowling's opposition to transgender activism.
The user went on to suggest Rowling would forgive the actors once they came around to acknowledging Rowling's perspective.
"Not safe, I'm afraid," Rowling responded. "Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatized detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces."
Rowling initially indicated her opposition to transgender activism after expressing support for researcher Maya Forstater, who lost her job over alleged transphobic posts to X, then Twitter.
However, Rowling explicitly expressed her opposition to transgender activism in a June 2020 post to the platform.
"'People who menstruate.' I'm sure there used to be a word for those people," Rowling wrote. "Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?"
The author went on to suggest, "If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction."
"If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased," she said at the time.
Later in 2020, Radcliffe came out against Rowling's remarks insisting "Transgender women are women" in a statement released by The Trevor Project,
"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 or I," Radcliffe's statement continued.
Radcliffe was later joined by Watson, who portrayed Hermione Granger in the film series.
"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," she wrote on X.
"I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers," wrote fellow Harry Potter co-star Rupert Grint, who portrayed Ron Weasley, in a statement to The Sunday Times. "Trans women are women. Trans men are men."
"We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment," he added.
However, fellow Harry Potter stars Jason Isaacs and the late Robbie Coltrane have previously thrown support behind Rowling for her stance on transgender activism.
“There’s a bunch of stuff about Jo,” Isaacs said in a 2022 statement to The Telegraph. “You know, I play complicated people, I’m interested in complicated people. I don’t want to get drawn into the trans issues, talking about them, because it’s such an extraordinary minefield.”
Isaacs added he "was not going to be jumping to stab [J.K. Rowling] in the front – or back."
In a 2020 statement to The Independent, Coltrane said he didn't believe Rowling's opinion was offensive.
"I don't know why, but there's a whole Twitter generation of people who hang around waiting to be offended," he said. "They wouldn't have won the war, would they?"
Radcliffe, Watson, nor Grint have responded to Rowling's post as of Friday morning.
