Radcliffe criticizes Rowling’s tweets about transgender women
J.K. Rowling, the creator of the popular “Harry Potter” series, came under fire from LGBTQ groups after she took aim at an article that referred to “people who menstruate.”
The online op-ed article posted last month, with the title “Creating a More Equal Post-COVID-19 World for People Who Menstruate,” highlighted some of the risks faced by primary caretakers, “particularly women in the household and health care workers,” during the coronavirus pandemic.
The article explored how women still need “menstrual materials, safe access to toilets, soap, water and private spaces” during lockdown conditions.
“An estimated 1.8 billion girls, women and gender nonbinary persons menstruate, and this has not stopped because of the pandemic,” wrote the authors of the article, published on the media platform Devex.com.
On Saturday, Rowling wrote on Twitter, where she has 14.5 million followers: “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people.
Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
Her Twitter post appeared to be responding to a line that described the “menstrual health and hygiene needs of girls, women and all people who menstruate.”
On Monday, Daniel Radcliffe, the lead actor in the “Harry Potter” films, responded to Rowling’s comments.
“Transgender women are women,” Radcliffe wrote in a blog post for the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention group. “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.”
He noted that a Trevor Project survey found that 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported being the subject of discrimination because of their gender identity.
“It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm,” he said.