Edinburgh, Jun 9 (EFE) .- British actor Daniel Radcliffe said on Tuesday that he hopes that the comments of the writer JK Rowling on gender identity, considered by some transphobes, will not "contaminate" the Harry Potter saga in the eyes of their followers.
The actor said that transgender women "are women" and "any statement to the contrary erases" their "identity" and "dignity" and specified that he had felt "compelled to say something" because Rowling has been responsible for the "course that has taken his life. "
Radcliffe made these remarks in a statement posted on the website of The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization within the LGBT community, after Rowling commented on Twitter this weekend that only women menstruate, which outraged groups that consider that perspective discriminatory.
It all started when on Saturday he shared a link to an article entitled "Opinion: Creating a more egalitarian post-COVID-19 world for menstruating people" and ironic that "those menstruating people" "used to have a name," alluding to the woman.
That comment was considered by some users and organizations as discriminatory towards other people who can also menstruate, such as transgender or non-binary gender people, and also towards women who for some reason do not have a period.
Radcliffe, who has played the young wizard Potter in eight movies, said he regretted that for some fans of the saga, "the [Harry Potter] book experience has been tarnished."
"If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe (...) that dogmatic ideas of purity lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, not binary or of fluid gender, or that they are homosexual or bisexual; if you found something in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life, then that is between you and the book you read, and it is sacred, "he said.
The actor began supporting the American organization The Trevor Project in 2009.