The star of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Eddie Redmayne has recently revealed how appaled he is by JK Rowling’s tweets regarding the trans community. Redmayne, portrayed Newt Schmander in the film franchise and he proudly stands with the trans community, despite Rowling’s issues with it. A couple of weeks ago Rowling decided to take her frustrations out with the trans community on Twitter, which caused a lot of backlash for the world renowned author.
Image via Twitter
Rowling’s tweets were in response to this article, which said, “People who menstruate”. Rowling felt offended considering women are the ones who menstruate, but she failed to realize that transgender men still get their period.
Image via ETonline
Redmayne stated that he disagrees with Rowling’s comments. He believes trans women are women, and trans men are men, and non-binary identities are vaild. Back in 2015, Redmayne portrayed a transgender woman in the film, Danish Girl. The film is an autobiographical tale of Lili Elbe, who is the first known person to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Then in the same year he starred in Jupiter Ascendening, where he was directed by two transgender women, the Wachowskis.
Other stars from the franchise have spoken out, including Danial Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Evanna Lynch, Katie Leung, and Bonnie Wright, along with many others. All of the stars disagree with Rowling’s comments and stand with the the trans community. It’s nice to see that the stars of the franchinse are standing in solidarity, especially since Harry Potter is a source of escape for a lot of people all over the world. It would be terrible to tarnish a beautifully written series because the author is struggling to be more open minded. Harry Potter is more than just a book series, it was my escape as a child, and whenever I read it I think about the little girl I was, and how much joy those books brought me. Don’t forget how the books make you feel, the books no longer belong to Rowling, they’re very much ours now.
