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J.K. Rowling is embroiled in a fresh row with another Harry Potter actor over transgender rights.

Following exchanges of fire with Daniel Radcliffe and others, Rowling has blasted David Tennant after the Goblet of Fire star voiced strident views on those who speak out against trans rights.

During an appearance at the British LGBT Awards over the weekend, he called on British equalities minister Kemi Badenoch to “shut up” after she advocated for banning trans women from entering women’s toilets and sports teams.

In an interview at the same event, Tennant called transgender critics “a tiny bunch of little whinging f*ckers who are on the wrong side of history, and they’ll all go away soon.”

Earlier in the week, Rowling branded people like Tennant the “gender Taliban.” In posts on X (once Twitter) on Friday, she expanded her comments to address Tennant’s “wrong side of history” quote.

Rowling wrote: “This man is talking about rape survivors who want female-only care, the nurses currently suing their health trust for making them change in front of a man, girls and women losing sporting opportunities to males and female prisoners incarcerated with convicted sex offenders.”

She added: “For a man who’s supposedly a model of compassion and tolerance, he sure does want a lot of people to cease to exist.”

Previously.

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 21 points 21 hours ago

Wait... The UK has a minister of Equalities and they're against equality? What the fuck?

[-] Emperor@feddit.uk 9 points 17 hours ago

Welcome to thr Bizarro World of Tory politics. We've got an Environment Minister who doesn't care that the rivers and overflowing with excrement. The Housing Minister hasn't overseen much housebuilding. And on and on.

[-] disgrunty@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago

Yeah, this government is messed up. I don't think there's a single drop of humanity between them.

[-] sirico@feddit.uk 5 points 20 hours ago

What till you see what the fairly resent exchequers did with money

[-] Ibaudia@lemmy.world 26 points 23 hours ago

This man is talking about rape survivors who want female-only care, the nurses currently suing their health trust for making them change in front of a man, girls and women losing sporting opportunities to males and female prisoners incarcerated with convicted sex offenders.

It's hilarious that she's making these seem like widespread issues when most of them are literally just one incident, or aren't happening at all. These are the best examples she can come up with of legitimate grievances against trans people?

How about "bullied to suicide, denied medical care, housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and getting violently hate crimed at enormous rates" for the other side of this issue? Even if you think trans identities are invalid, at least pretend to treat them with the same respect you would other human beings. But no, trans people who are just trying to survive day-to-day are nonchalantly grouped in with pedophile rapists, as if those two things are in any way equivalent.

It's easy to hate someone when you just ignore what they really are and supplant it with something else entirely.

[-] norimee@lemmy.world 15 points 21 hours ago

As a cis female rape survivor I would choose the care of a compassionate trans woman over a judgemental TERF anytime!

[-] HauntedCupcake@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago

I 100% agree with your post. The issues she raises are nonexistent or extremely rare. In my personal life I believe and practice "trans-women are women" as for all intents and purposes it's true.

I am however concerned that I don't really have a response to anyone who doesn't believe that, particularly women with some sort of past trauma that gives them an instinctual fear response. It feels insensitive to tell them to get over it or go to therapy. Particularly if they've been exposed to one of the extremely rare examples Rowling has presented. But I think going to therapy is probably what needs to happen.

My other conflicting thought is that therapy or condemnation it is what we would say to people being racist, but there seems to be a societal agreement that we need women only spaces. And we don't say "get over it" in regards to men trying to enter a women's shelter, we offer an amount of sympathy and understanding to the women and allow them that space. Which means there is some amount of gender discrimination is desired/needed. This also indicates there there should be a line or set of fuzzy criteria that determines if we treat trans-women as women or not. But this obviously also feels wrong, and I hate it.

Sorry if this was insensitive, I mostly just want to gather thoughts as I'm not confident in my thinking. I don't think these issues deserve the amount of attention transphobes are giving them, but we're here now, so I want to try and figure out a solution or response to more "reasonable" transphobes that I could potentially change the minds of

[-] Omgboom@lemmy.zip 38 points 1 day ago

The irony is that the Taliban agrees with JK Rowling on matters of gender and sexuality lol.

[-] veganpizza69@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Conservatives & Projection

[-] norimee@lemmy.world 9 points 21 hours ago

Could the witch woman please shut up.

[-] obinice@lemmy.world 94 points 1 day ago

Harry Potter actor? This man is the Doctor.

He's a national treasure.

[-] Etterra@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

To be fair his character in HP was a murderous psychopath.

[-] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 6 points 1 day ago

Didn't even know he was in it, so I had to look it up. Apparently he played Barty Crouch Jr. in the Goblet of Fire.

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 5 points 21 hours ago

yeah he was on screen there for a solid 3 or 4 short scenes. That man is the Doctor, not a side-ish character in one of the Harry Potter movies (Well technically the twist villain in the story but Tennant didn't get to play him much due to shape-shifting shenanigans)

[-] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 4 points 20 hours ago

Yeah, that's likely why I don't even remember him being there. My guess is they mentioned his role in Harry Potter to make his relationship to Rowling more relevant to the story.

[-] Snowclone@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

He was hardly in it, storywise he's Mad Eye Moody for a whole year, but they didn't hang any actual polyjuice potion for filming

[-] kerrigan778@lemmy.world 67 points 1 day ago

Where can I get my membership card, shirt, and other swag as a member of David Tennant's Gender Taliban

[-] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago

Putting all the politics aside, man I wish he got more roles. The purple man was the best part of Jessica Jones.

[-] Snowclone@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago

Broadchurch was a very strong performance as well.

[-] FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago

Good Omens also fantastic and not just because of him

[-] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

David Tennant’s Gender Taliban

New band name. We play LGBTQ+ Punkry & Western.

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[-] Default_Defect@midwest.social 29 points 1 day ago

Glad to not see the usual "separate the art from the artist" crowd that can't stop giving her money to continue to be a fucking plague on humanity.

[-] norimee@lemmy.world 6 points 21 hours ago

The worst is, that she feels validated in her hateful opinions by the money she makes.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

What always gets me about those people is if it's real art, the artist is putting their message into the story. When I was young and in the target demographic, I stopped reading halfway through because the message of the story was getting confusing or annoying. I don't think I've ever seen a main character get more selfish in their character arc. I later found out that Harry's solution to owning a house with severed heads everywhere was to put doilies over them during the holidays.

The books are bad and where probably only tolerable in the beginning because of the editor.

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[-] ytg@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

that can’t stop giving her money

well… I mean… you don't have to

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[-] Etterra@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago

I expect in a Rowling vs. Tenant fight, Tenant is gonna come out with a win every time. That woman has a damaged moral compass on a good day.

[-] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 8 points 1 day ago

Headline blasted by grammar "Nazis" for having "too many" quotes to be taken serious

[-] shasta@lemm.ee 1 points 14 hours ago
[-] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 203 points 1 day ago

Tennant called transgender critics “a tiny bunch of little whinging f*ckers who are on the wrong side of history, and they’ll all go away soon.”

Is the real headline here. And good for him.

I'd rather not give what's her name any more attention over this crap.

Also, calling Tennant a "Harry Potter actor", while true, feels like a calculated insult to a man who has played Doctor Who, The Purple Man, and Crawley.

[-] Emperor@feddit.uk 46 points 1 day ago

Also, calling Tennant a “Harry Potter actor”, while true, feels like a calculated insult to a man who has played Doctor Who, The Purple Man, and Crawley.

I'm not sure it's a "calculated insult" but it did read a but oddly (I assumed initially that it was referring to someone else). I presume the writer or their editor went with that angle because because his having appeared in the Harry Potter movies is relevant to an article and fitted the wider context of JK Rowling falling out with HP cast members. I'm not convinced it was the right approach.

[-] III@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

Tennant, who once lowered himself to appear in a Harry Potter film, stated....

Better?

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[-] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 110 points 1 day ago

Thankfully the vast majority of the cast of the Harry Potter movies ended up being decent people. They are the ones that young people should look up to, not whatever the fuck Joanne has become.

She's taking the Graham Linehan route, dedicate your whole life to bashing trans people and spreading hate against them, to the point where you ruin your entire legacy and your own personal relationships.

She can keep fighting against trans people's right to exist, but trans people will just fight back at every turn.

[-] stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub 162 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Tennant: TERFs are whiny fucking babies

JK Rowling, Court Jester: whines like baby

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this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2024
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