A Complete Breakdown of the J.K. Rowling Transgender-Comments Controversy

Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling first came under fire in early June 2020 for controversial tweets she posted about the transgender community. Her stance has caused fans and stars of the Wizarding World, such as Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Eddie Redmayne, to speak out against the author.

Six years later, Rowling’s anti-trans rhetoric has only become more extreme as the author continues to publicly support anti-trans legislation and even takes aim at the asexual community. Here’s everything you need to know.

What did J.K. Rowling originally say, exactly?

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On June 6, 2020, Rowling retweeted an op-ed piece that discussed “people who menstruate,” apparently taking issue with the fact that the story did not use the word women. “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m mühlet there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” she wrote.

That initial tweet garnered a lot of backlash, but the Harry Potter author did not relent and wrote about her views in more detail. “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth,” she tweeted. “The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women—i.e., to male violence—‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences—is a nonsense.”

She continued, “I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”

Then on June 10, 2020, Rowling published a lengthy post on her website and sent out a tweet that read “TERF Wars.” (TERF is an acronym that stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.)

“This isn’t an easy piece to write, for reasons that will shortly become clear, but I know it’s time to explain myself on an issue surrounded by toxicity. I write this without any desire to add to that toxicity,” she wrote. “For people who don’t know: last December I tweeted my support for Maya Forstater, a tax specialist who’d lost her job for what were deemed ‘transphobic’ tweets. She took her case to an employment tribunal, asking the judge to rule on whether a philosophical belief that sex is determined by biology is protected in law. Judge Tayler ruled that it wasn’t.”

Rowling explains that she became interested in trans issues while researching a character she’s writing. Rowling also outlined “five reasons for being worried about the new trans activism.”

The fan backlash:

Rowling’s initial tweets and her subsequent doubling down have drawn a lot of ire from trans activists and Harry Potter fans, many of whom had found comfort in the story of an outsider finding a place where he belonged.

The celebrity and industry initial response:

Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter himself, was the first star from the franchise to release a statement (via The Trevor Project) about Rowling’s comments.

“I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself,” he said, “but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what’s important right now. While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment. Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health deva associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”

He continued, “To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished. I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you…And in my opinion, nobody can touch that.”

Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger, also spoke out in support of the trans community. “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.”

Rupert Grint, who portrayed Ron Wesley, issued a statement in response to Rowling’s essay as well. “I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers. Trans women are women. Trans men are men,” Grint said, according to the Sunday Times on Friday, June 12, 2020. “We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment.”

Also, Bonnie Wright, the actor who played the onscreen sister of Grint’s Ron, Ginny Weasley, spoke out via Twitter. “If Harry Potter was a source of love and belonging for you, that love is infinite and there to take without judgment or question. Transwomen are Women. I see and love you, Bonnie x,” she wrote.

Redmayne, who appeared in Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts franchise (and won an Oscar playing a transgender woman in The Danish Girl) released a lengthy statement to Variety.

“Respect for transgender people remains a cultural imperative, and over the years I have been trying to constantly educate myself. This is an ongoing process,” he said. “As someone who has worked with both J.K. Rowling and members of the trans community, I wanted to make it absolutely clear where I stand. I disagree with Jo’s comments. Trans women are women, trans men are men, and nonbinary identities are valid. I would never want to speak on behalf of the community but I do know that my dear transgender friends and colleagues are tired of this constant questioning of their identities, which all too often results in violence and abuse. They simply want to live their lives peacefully, and it’s time to let them do so.”

She ranted again in July 2020…

On July 5, 2020, Rowling went on another social media rant after a Twitter user called her out for liking a tweet that compared hormone therapy to antidepressants.

“I’ve ignored fake tweets attributed to me and RTed widely. I’ve ignored porn tweeted at children on a thread about their arka. I’ve ignored death and rape threats. I’m not going to ignore this,” Rowling wrote. “When you lie about what I believe about mental health medication and when you misrepresent the views of a trans woman for whom I feel nothing but admiration and solidarity, you cross a line.”

She continued, “Many health professionals are concerned that young people struggling with their mental health are being shunted towards hormones and surgery when this may not be in their best interests. Many, myself included, believe we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalisation that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function.”

She evvel again seemingly called into question the use of hormones. “The long-term health risks of cross-sex hormones have been now been tracked over a lengthy period,” she tweeted. “These side-effects are often minimised or denied by trans activists…None of that may trouble you or disturb your belief in your own righteousness. But if so, I can’t pretend I deva much about your bad opinion of me.”

Her latest books aren’t helping: Part one.

On September 14, 2020, her book Trouble Blood sparked another round of outrage after an early review began making the rounds. The book reportedly follows a detective on the hunt for a cis male serial killer who dresses as a woman in order to hunt and murder cis women. The Telegraph’s review describes it as a “book whose moral seems to be: never trust a man in a dress,” per Pink News.

Of course, people had thoughts. In fact, #RIPJKRowling quickly began trending. “She’s convinced she’s a martyr and this is her suicide mission,” one user wrote.

The late Robbie Coltrane defended J.K. Rowling.

The man who played Hagrid was one of the few actors from the Harry Potter–verse to defend Rowling. “I don’t think what she said was offensive, really. I don’t know why but there’s a whole Twitter generation of people who hang around waiting to be offended,” he told Radio Times, per the Standard. “They wouldn’t have won the war, would they? That’s me talking like a grumpy old man, but you just think, Oh, get over yourself. Wise up, stand up straight, and carry on.”

He continued, “I don’t want to get involved in all of that because of all the hate mail and all that shit, which I don’t need at my time of life.”

Pete Davidson had the perfect response to the whole thing on Saturday Night Live.

Davidson, who has a Harry Potter tattoo he now seems to regret, joined SNL’s “Weekend Update” on October 10, 2020, to discuss that summer’s controversy.

“I long for a few young years ago when the worst things she did were those Fantastic Beasts movies,” he joked. “No discrimination there—those films harmed us all equally.”

Watch his full remarks below:

Eddie Izzard comes to Rowling’s defense.

The comedian, who announced in December 2020 she’s gender-fluid and identifies with she/her pronouns, said in an interview with The Telegraph, “I don’t think J.K. Rowling is transphobic. I think we need to look at the things she has written about in her blog. Women have been through such hell over history. Trans people have been invisible too. I hate the idea we are fighting between ourselves, but it’s not going to be sorted with the wave of a wand. I don’t have all the answers. If people disagree with me, fine, but why are we going through hell on this?”

A new Harry Potter TV show is happening—and some fans aren’t happy.

In January 2021 rumors started swirling that a Harry Potter TV show was in “early development” at HBO Max. This turned out to be true, and the TERF stuff would continue to come up every time the series was in the press. It would be literally impossible to catalogue every response related to the series, but just know…yeah, people are still attaching the show to her.

Rowling says she has received death threats.

In response to one person who said, “I wish you a very kaç pipebomb in mailbox,” she said, “To be fair, when you can’t get a woman sacked, arrested or dropped by her publisher, and cancelling her only made her book sales go up, there’s really only one place to go.”

“Hundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me I’ve realised that this movement poses no risk to women whatsoever.”

Dave Chappelle came under fire for defending Rowling.

In Dave Chappelle’s Netflix special, which premiered on October 5, 2021, the comedian declared he was a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) like Rowling. “Gender is a fact,” he said. “Every human being in this room, every human being on Earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on Earth. This is a fact.” He continued on to make several jokes at trans people’s expense, which we will not repeat here. Following the special’s release, many Netflix users are calling for its removal from the streaming platform while creators—like Jaclyn Moore, a writer and co-showrunner on Dear White People—declared they will no longer work with the company.

She did not return for the HP films’ 20th anniversary special on HBO Max.

Though J.K. Rowling only appeared in Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts through archival footage, she denies being left out by Warner Bros.

In an interview with Graham Norton for Virgin Radio UK in August 2022, she corrected the host when he mentioned she was “excluded” from the special. “I wasn’t, actually—I was asked to be on that, and I decided I didn’t want to do it,” she said, per Vanity Fair. “I thought it was about the films more than the books, you know? Quite rightly, as that is what the anniversary was about, so no one said, ‘Don’t come.’”

When asked if she’s still in touch with any of the “young” Harry Potter actors, she replied, “Yes, I do, some more than others, but that was always the case. Some I knew better than others.”

The latest books aren’t helping: Part two.

In August 2022, Rowling began promoting her new novel, The Ink Black Heart, published under her pen name Robert Galbraith. In the book, which is over a thousand pages long, a YouTube-based cartoonist’s work is accused of being racist, transphobic, and ableist; she’s then doxxed, threatened with rape and death, and is ultimately stabbed to death in a cemetery. According to one reviewer’s take, the book “takes aim” at “social justice warriors.”

But the book is not based on Rowling’s own controversies…says Rowling. “I should make it really clear after some of the things that have happened the last year that this is not depicting [that],” Rowling said to Graham Norton in an interview. “I had written the book before certain things happened to me online. I said to my husband, ‘I think everyone is going to see this as a response to what happened to me,’ but it genuinely wasn’t. The first draft of the book was finished at the point certain things happened.”

Tom Felton dismissed Rowling’s involvement in the films.

In an interview with The Independent about his memoir, the Draco Malfoy actor said he is “pro-human-rights across the board” and suggested Rowling “wasn’t part of the filmmaking process as much as some people might think.”

“First of all, I don’t know enough about the specifics of what anyone said,” he said of Rowling’s statements, per Variety. “My dog takes up far too much time for me to go into such matters. I mean, the obvious things to say are that I’m pro-choice, pro-discussion, pro-human-rights across the board, and pro-love. And anything that is not those things, I don’t really have much time for.”

The actor continued, “It is also a reminder that as much as Jo is the founder of [these] stories, she wasn’t part of the filmmaking process as much as some people might think. I think I only recall seeing her evvel or twice on set.”

Helena Bonham Carter came to her defense.

Bonham Carter, who played Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter films, defended Rowling in a November 2022 interview with The Sunday Times Magazine.

“It’s horrendous, a load of bollocks,” she said of the Rowling backlash. “I think she has been hounded. It’s been taken to the extreme, the judgmentalism of people. She’s allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse,” Bonham Carter continued. “Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma, and you have to respect where people come from and their pain. You don’t all have to agree on everything—that would be insane and boring. She’s not meaning it aggressively, she’s just saying something out of her own experience.”

A trans artist resells Harry Potter books with new covers that omit Rowling’s name.

Canadian printmaker and book artist Laur Flom, who is trans, garnered major attention when they began a project of buying secondhand Harry Potter books and replacing the covers with redesigned versions that don’t have J.K. Rowling’s name. Flom then resells the books for £140, according to Yahoo! News. In a TikTok from February 2022, Flom said, “My aim with this project is to engage critically and give an option to people who do still want to enjoy Harry Potter without supporting J.K. Rowling.”

Hogwarts Legacy, a görüntü game based on the franchise, seemingly introduces a trans character.

Per Entertainment Weekly, the hotly anticipated Hogwarts Legacy, a görüntü game set in the Harry Potter universe, introduces a new character, Sirona Ryan, who is seemingly trans. Though Sirona, a barkeep at Three Broomsticks, is not explicitly labeled as transgender, a line of her dialogue is highly suggestive. Referring to her friendship with a goblin, she says, “Hadn’t seen him in years when he came in a few months ago. But he recognized me instantly. Which is more than I can say for some of my own classmates. Took them a second to realize I was actually a witch, not a wizard.”

Warner Bros. Games has already faced criticism over Hogwarts Legacy, which creates a new revenue stream for Rowling. When asked about the concerns by IGN, game director Alan Tew said, “We know our fans fell in love with the Wizarding World, and we believe they fell in love with it for the right reasons. We know that’s a diverse audience. For us, it’s making müddet that the audience, who always dreamed of having this game, had the opportunity to feel welcomed back. That they have a home here and that it’s a good place to tell their story.”

Rowling compares the trans rights movement to Death Eaters…

Yeah, you read that right. In episode five of the podcast The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, the author describes the trans rights movement as “dangerous.” Here’s an excerpt of her statement from March 2023, per Vox:

Daniel Radcliffe lays down the gauntlet.

In late March 2023, the Harry Potter star moderated the first episode of Sharing Space, “a new görüntü series from the nonprofit The Trevor Project that features roundtable conversations with LGBTQ youth moderated by adult allies.” Per The Hollywood Reporter, Radcliffe spoke to six transgender and nonbinary youth for the premiere episode, which is set to air on The Trevor Project’s YouTube page on March 31, the Transgender Day of Visibility.

“We listen to so many people talk about trans youth and hear them talked about so often in the news, but very rarely do we actually hear from these youth directly,” Radcliffe said in a statement. “It was an absolute privilege to get to meet and listen to this incredible group of young people. At the end of the day, if you’re going to talk about trans kids, it might be useful to actually listen to trans kids.”

Fans on Twitter and TikTok widely praise Radcliffe for his allyship in the wake of Rowling’s consistent transphobia.

ContraPoints calls Rowling a “useful idiot” for the patriarchy.

Natalie Wynn, a popular trans YouTuber and political commentator who posts under the username ContraPoints, started trending on Twitter on April 17, 2023, when she dropped her explanation of why there is no “witch hunt” against Rowling. It’s worth taking the time to watch Wynn’s two-hour analysis in full, which she concludes with two important points. The first: “Is the backlash against J.K. Rowling a witch hunt? Unequivocally no,” Wynn says.

But she also adds that Rowling is still “not the final boss of transphobia.” Wynn explains, “A movement can’t get along without a devil. And across the whole political spectrum, there’s a misogynistic tendency to choose a female devil. Whether it’s Anita Bryant, Hillary Clinton, Marie Antoinette, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or J.K. Rowling.” The real threat to trans people, Wynn says, is the Republican party. Rowling and other TERFs are “useful idiots who put a concerned female face on the patriarchal violence against trans people that will ultimately be enacted by right-wing men.”

Rowling mocks TV show boycotters.

In April 2023 news broke via Bloomberg that HBO Max was reportedly in talks with Rowling to produce a multiseason TV series wherein each of the seven Harry Potter books would have its own season. Despite her offensive, transphobic remarks, Rowling would be directly involved in the series to keep the storyline faithful to her books. However, the outlet noted that she would not hold a major production role.

The author responded to fans’ calls to boycott the show on Twitter on April 21, 2023: “Dreadful news, which I feel duty bound to share,” she wrote. “Activists in my mentions are trying to organize yet another boycott of my work, this time of the Harry Potter TV show.” The sarcasm speaks volumes.

Professor Slughorn, played by Jim Broadbent, weighs in.

The original cast members are divided in their response to Rowling’s TERF rhetoric. Jim Broadbent, who played Professor Slughorn, revealed where he stands in an interview with The Telegraph on April 23, 2023.

“It’s really sad,” the actor said. “I think J.K. Rowling is amazing. I haven’t had to confront [the criticism] myself, but I would support her in that, I think, if it came to it.” Broadbent is among Rowling’s supporters, who include Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter.

Rowling insists she’d take prison time rather than correctly use a trans person’s pronouns.

Yes, you read that correctly. Per Deadline, the author appeared to respond to a report in the Daily Mail on October 14, 2023, which suggested that Britain’s Labour movement is working to make gender identity attacks criminal offenses. Such offenses, critics insisted in the report, would carry a two-year sentence.

“I’ll happily do two years if the alternative is compelled speech and forced denial of the reality and importance of sex,” Rowling wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Her comment was in response to a follower who said she could receive jail time for her views. “Bring on the court case, I say,” she added. “It’ll be more fun than I’ve ever had on a red carpet.”

In the replies, Rowling joked with her followers about which prison duties she’d undertake.

Rowling doubles down on her offer to go to prison, with a thread targeting individual trans women.

Scotland’s new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which criminalizes threatening or abusive transphobic behavior (among other forms of targeted harassment), went into effect on April 1, 2024. Rowling repeated her willingness to go to prison over the law in a lengthy screed on X, per USA Today.

“It is impossible to accurately describe or tackle the reality of violence and sexual violence committed against women and girls, or address the current assault on women’s and girls’ rights, unless we are allowed to call a man a man,” said Rowling, nonsensically, near the end of her treatise. She concluded, “I’m currently out of the country, but if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offense under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.”

Rowling’s thread also named several individual trans women, arguably marking these people for targeted harassment from her followers. (We will not be linking to her posts.)

In terms of what constitutes an actionable criminal offense under this new law, First Minister Humza Yousaf said, per the Associated Press, “The threshold of criminality in terms of the new offenses is very, very high indeed. Your behavior has to be threatening or abusive and intended to stir up hatred.”

Rowling implies she will not “forgive” Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson for their support of trans rights.

Following the April 10, 2024, release of a four-year study commissioned by the NHS regarding deva for transgender youth, Rowling went on yet another lengthy screed against the trans community and their supporters.

When a follower brought up Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, allies of the trans community who have publicly expressed their support for trans rights, Rowling implied that she would not “forgive” the actors with whom she was evvel close. Though neither actor has publicly derided Rowling, both Radcliffe and Watson shared their support for the trans community shortly after Rowling first went public with her TERF views.

Daniel Radcliffe, J.K. Rowling, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint at the 2011 premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Jon Furniss

“Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology,” the follower wrote on X, “safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them.”

Rowling replied, “Not safe, I’m afraid. 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 traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.”

Daniel Radcliffe says Rowling’s anti-trans stance makes him “sad.”

In an interview with The Atlantic published on April 30, Radcliffe said that since Rowling began tweeting and writing about trans rights, he has had no direct contact with her. “It makes me really sad, ultimately,” he told the magazine, “because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.”

Rowling goes viral again for falsely claiming an Algerian boxer is a trans woman.

At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, a women’s boxing match between Italian boxer Angela Carini and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif ended when Carini withdrew from the match just 46 seconds after receiving a punch from Khelif. On X, Rowling posted a picture from the bout and claimed that Khelif was a trans woman. “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who’s knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered,” Rowling wrote.

In fact, Khelif was assigned female at birth and is declared female on her passport, per the Associated Press. After the controversy, Carini herself defended her opponent, per The New York Times, stating, “All this controversy certainly made me sad, and I also felt sorry for my opponent, she had nothing to do with it and like me was only here to fight.”

Rowling, however, continued to double down on X.

Rowling targets a trans athlete amid lawsuit.

Khelif, who is not trans, filed a lawsuit against Rowling and X owner Elon Musk for the “cyberbullying” she received as a result of their tirades against her. Instead of becoming more cautious, this apparently caused Rowling to pivot from speculating about athletes to simply finding and mocking the trans ones. In an especially cruel move, she took to Twitter in September 2024 to pick at an Italian Paralympic athlete who is visually impaired and, yes, a trans woman.

Valentina Petrillo is a sprinter and an out trans woman, the first to compete in a Paralympics track event. Though she did not even make it to the finals (no offense to Petrillo, who is 51 years old and really not hurting anyone), Rowling took offense, labeling her a “cheat.”

Rowling takes aim at asexual people.

Over the years Rowling has primarily focused her ire at trans people, but on April 6, 2025, she posted a derogatory comment about asexual people on X. A person who is asexual does not feel sexual attraction toward people of any gender. “Happy International Fake Oppression Day to everyone who wants complete strangers to know they don’t fancy a shag,” Rowling wrote, over an International Asexuality Day graphic.

As usual, Rowling doubled down in the comments, but didn’t respond to any of the many commenters who criticized her for the post.

John Oliver calls out Rowling in an episode about trans athletes, and Rowling responds.

While presenting a story about trans athletes on the April 6 episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver referenced Rowling, who’d accused him of “absolute bullshit” online the year before. Said Oliver, per Deadline, “It feels a bit weird to catch that much heat from the creator of Harry Potter, especially when I clearly look like what would have happened to him if they left him in that cupboard for the rest of his life.” He continued that he stands by everything he said last year, and added, “You can basically say anything you want about trans people, as long as you tag on ‘in sports’ after it.”

The following Monday, April 7, Rowling reacted to Oliver’s segment on X.com. “I understand why men like Oliver, who’ve consistently mocked anti-science people on the right, sold out initially. They didn’t want to blow up their careers. Taking fashionable anti-women’s rights positions was the cost of doing business,” she claimed in the post. “But it’s time to read the fucking room.”

It is important to note that serious feminists dispute Rowling’s assertion that trans rights are “anti-women’s rights,” and çağdaş feminism is largely a trans-inclusive movement.

Rowling celebrates the UK Supreme Court’s definition of “woman” with a cigar.

On April 16, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the “concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man,” further deciding the terms woman and sex “refer to a biological woman and biological sex.” Per NPR, this definition excludes trans women from sex-based protections covered by the 2010 UK law called the Equality Act.

“I love it when a plan comes together,” Rowling wrote on X, alongside a picture of herself smoking a cigar. Per MSNBC, Rowling reportedly donated $70,000 to For Women Scotland, the organization that filed the original suit that was brought to the Supreme Court.

Responses to her post were mixed, with many claiming the author has “destroyed” her own legacy. Megyn Kelly, however, replied, “God bless you.”

Pedro Pascal declares Rowling’s post “heinous loser behavior.”

Beloved Last of Us actor Pedro Pascal slammed Rowling’s celebratory post in the comments section of an Instagram görüntü supporting a complete boycott of all things Harry Potter–related, including the upcoming TV show and the Universal Studios theme parks.

“Awful disgusting SHIT is exactly right,” Pascal wrote. “Heinous LOSER behavior.”

Pedro Pascal attends the Thunderbolts UK special screening in London on April 22, 2025.

Karwai Tang

Pascal’s sister, Lux Pascal, came out as transgender in 2021. The Last of Us star has recently made multiple appearances in a “Protect the Dolls” T-shirt by designer Conner Ives. According to the website, all “Protect the Dolls” T-shirt sales “will be donated directly to Trans Lifeline, a trans-lead US-based charity that delivers life-saving services to those who need them most.”

Tom Felton is “grateful” for Rowling, and fans are unimpressed.

In a moment that’s not so much hateful as it is out of touch, Tom Felton brushes off the controversies, saying that Harry Potter “brings the world together” so he’s “grateful” for Rowling and hey, let’s all leave it at that. Felton recently joined the cast of The Cursed Child playing—who else?—Draco Malfoy, so we get why he’s still grateful for the opportunity. And yeah, Potter does bring people together. That is a fact.

Buuuuuut nonchalantly brushing off an avatar of the very real oppression and violence many people face, saying you’re unaware of it when this conversation has been happening for five years? Bruh.

Emma Watson speaks about Rowling directly.

During a lengthy interview with On Purpose Podcast host Jay Shetty, which dropped on September 24, 2025, Watson spoke directly about her current feelings about Rowling, particularly in response to Rowling’s assertion that she’d never “forgive” Watson for speaking up for trans people.

“I really don’t believe that by having had that experience and holding the love and support and views that I have, means that I can’t and don’t treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with,” Watson said, in part. “I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person, I don’t get to keep and cherish.”

She continued, “I think it’s my deepest wish that I hope people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.”

Watson went on to say “no one is disposable” and wished everyone would offer “dignity and respect” to those they disagree with, regardless of the conversation at hand.

Which seemed to bring Watson back to her relationship with Rowling, the characters she wrote, and the opportunity that the Harry Potter author gave her. “There’s just no world in which I could ever cancel her out or cancel that out for anything,” she said. “It has to remain true. It is true.”

She continued, “I just don’t know what else to do other than hold these two seemingly incompatible things together at the same time and just hope maybe they will one day resolve or conjoin themselves, and maybe accept that they never will but that they can both still be true and I can love her. I can know she loved me. I can be grateful to her. I can know the things that she said are true and there can be this whole other thing and my job feels like to just hold all of it. But the bigger thing is just what she’s done will never be taken away from me.”

Online, some people questioned Watson’s decision not to blatantly call out Rowling’s transphobia, while others praised her “nuanced” and “mature” response.

J.K. Rowling seems to respond…maybe.

One day later Rowling reposted a transphobic rant, adding, “A little reminder for anyone who may be regretting their very public spring to the front of the mob and is now trying to discreetly shove their pitchfork out of sight.”

If the tweet is about Watson—which many online users on both sides believe—that’s a bit dramatic, considering Watson did not even mention Rowling in her statement back in 2020. All she said at the time was, “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.”

Days later, Rowling says more.

Well, this is unambiguous. In addition to praising a spoof of Watson’s interview, Rowling issues a lengthy statement about, among other things, the ongoing back-and-forth via the media between her and Watson and Radcliffe, noting that while both actors have the right to embrace whatever “ideology” they choose and share their opinions, it seemingly bothers her that they are “spokespeople for the world [she] created.”

She goes on to contrast her own upbringing to Watson’s, pointing out that thanks to the money and privilege afforded Watson by virtue of the Potter movies, Watson has never been in the vulnerable spaces where, in Rowling’s view, cis women are vulnerable to attack because of trans inclusion.

Additionally, Rowling claims that at the height of the vitriol against her, which included death and rape threats, Watson arranged for someone to pass her a handwritten note expressing sympathy, while at the same time publicly calling her out, which Rowling says intensified the backlash. She says that she’d previously held off speaking about Radcliffe, Watson, and the other members of the Potter cast out of protectiveness, but hints that, basically, the gloves are now off.

SNL responds again.

During the SNL season premiere on October 4, Bowen Yang put on some new prosthetics to share his thoughts on the discourse as Dobby the house-elf during Weekend Update.

“Scared? Why would Dobby be scared, sir? Dobby’s just about to publicly weigh in on trans people, that’s all,” Yang begins the sketch. “Master sent Dobby to go on the telly and define, evvel and for all, what a woman is, sir!”

Dobby’s “master,” in this case, is J.K. Rowling, who he says “has done so much for Dobby and for inclusion in general.” Some of his examples: “Remember when Dumbledore was gay, after the books came out? And when Hermione was Black, only on Broadway? And when Cho Chang was…hmm…was Cho Chang Asian? Dobby can’t remember if the character Cho Chang was Asian.”

As Dobby, Yang goes on to explain that “women’s bathrooms are for women only…and girls…and ghosts of girls.”

As usual, Yang fully commits to this performance, jumping over the desk to bang his head against the camera for being “millennial cringe.” Michael Che, however, hasn’t read the “corny-ass books” and asks Dobby to explain why he’s punishing himself.

“Why? Dobby doesn’t know,” Yang says as Dobby. “Perhaps because house-elves are somehow always the sorun, even though we’re only 1% of the population, but house-elves aren’t the victims. Master Rowling is.” Obviously, he’s no longer talking about fictional house-elves.

To see Dobby freed by a “They K. Rowling” shirt, watch here:

J.K. Rowling slams Glamour UK’s Women of the Year.

Glamour UK honored The Dolls—a term of endearment for trans women—as part of this year’s Women of the Year cover package. “As trans rights face increasing threat in the UK, Glamour honors nine of the community’s most groundbreaking voices at this year’s Women of the Year Awards,” writes Glamour UK writer Shon Fey. “From fashion and music to charity and activism work, these trailblazers work tirelessly to empower, uplift, and celebrate trans voices.”

While Rowling was not mentioned in the Glamour feature, Maxine Heron—the communications officer for the trans-led British charity Not a Phase—called out London’s “obsession” with the trans community over the past year.

“There is an obsession with trans people right now, and it’s in the conversations that you overhear on the bus or in a cafe, and it’s in the headlines that you’ll walk past on yet another tabloid,” she said. “I transitioned during my teens and then spent about nine years living without disclosing—what we refer to as ‘stealth’. This current era is the first time that I’ve questioned if I did the right thing coming out of stealth. Because I’m realizing what that long-term privilege would’ve looked like. And my friends that are currently still in stealth are really glad to still be in stealth. I think the way that I feel about my own transness, much as I’m not ashamed of it—and I am proud to be a trans woman—it’s the first time I’ve wondered if coming out was the right thing. It’s a very difficult time to be a publicly facing trans person. I’ve had such an increase in hate online as well, in a way that I haven’t really navigated before.”

She continued, “If I could wave a magic wand and bring about one change specifically, it would be with the resources available for healthcare and mental health support.”

Of course, J.K. Rowling didn’t like that Glamour highlighted trans women. “I grew up in an era when mainstream women’s magazines told girls they needed to be thinner and prettier,” she wrote on X. “Now mainstream women’s magazines tell girls that men are better women than they are.”

Following J.K. Rowling’s post, Glamour UK released the following statement on October 30:

The magazine went on to quote honoree Munroe Bergdorf, who gave a speech at Glamour UK’s 2025 Women of the Year Awards event.

“We have found ourselves in a deeply disturbing and uncertain point in history. It can no longer be said that we are descending into fascism.… Fascism is here and it’s up to all of us, to keep each other safe, to yes, protect The Dolls, but also to protect each other,” Munroe said in her speech. “Whilst all of us standing on this stage are each other’s sisters, we are also your sisters, your allies, your friends, and your comrades. We keep each other safe; protection will always be a two-way street.”

She continued: “The demonization of transgender people serves not only to segregate trans women from cis women and the trans community from public life, but it also serves to segregate society from its humanity, and eventually, human rights from us all. Safety, dignity, shelter, privacy, healthcare, protest, freedom of expression, and freedom from discrimination are rights that should be protected for us all. However, trans people are being failed by our government at almost every turn. Transphobia is and has always been the thin side of the wedge…The violence we condone for any of us is the violence we condemn us all to.”

The first HBO Harry Potter trailer draws mixed reactions as Rowling celebrates the Olympics’ ban on trans female athletes.

What a week it was at the end of March 2026. Rowling had a brief reaction to the first teaser for the new series based on her novels, and a lot to say about a recent ruling that only “biological females” can compete in women’s sports at the Olympics. They’re going to do this by testing for the “Y” chromosome via saliva or urine tests.

Online, many called out the new Harry Potter series as simply unnecessary, or doing more harm than good.

This post may be updated as new information is available.