J.K. Rowling Criticizes David Tennant and the ‘Gender Taliban’ After Actor Slammed Trans Critics as ‘F—ers’ Who ‘Are on the Wrong Side of History’
David Tennant is the latest “Harry Potter” actor to be called out by J.K. Rowling for publicly supporting trans rights. It all started when Tennant, the “Doctor Who” favorite who also played Barty Crouch Jr. in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” accepted a prize at the British LGBT Awards and called out Kemi Badenoch, the U.K. Minister for Women and Equalities who has said she would exclude trans women from certain spaces.
In his acceptance speech, Tennant said that he was “a little depressed” over getting an award for simply saying obvious facts like “everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone.”
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“It’s human decency,” Tennant added. “We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist anymore — I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up — whilst we do live in this world I am honored to receive this.”
Tennant’s speech started a war of words with Badenoch, who later took to social media to say she would not shut up as the actor suggested. She went on to call Tennant “a rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only Black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end.”
Rowling shared an article on X that covered the public row between Tennant and Badenoch and suggested the actor was receiving less harsh media coverage despite attacking Badenoch because he’s a member of the “Gender Taliban” and thus “receives special dispensation, for they are a holy caste.”
In a separate red carpet interview on the awards ceremony, Tennant was asked to respond to critics of the transgender community. He responded: “[They’re] a tiny bunch of little whinging fuckers who are on the wrong side of history, and they’ll all go away soon.”
Rowling later shared this Tennant quote on her X profile and criticized the actor, writing: “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.”
Several members of the “Harry Potter” cast have spoken out against Rowling in recent years for her controversial views on the transgender community. In an interview with the Atlantic earlier this year, Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe revealed that he has had no direct contact with Rowling since her tweets in June 2020 that were criticized by many as anti-trans.
“It makes me really sad, ultimately,” he said of the situation. “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.”
At the time Rowling’s 2020 tweets, Radcliffe decided to issue a statement through the Trevor Project — a LGBTQ charity he’d long been associated with — in which he spoke out against Rowling and proclaimed “transgender women are women.”
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. pic.twitter.com/6C7yNC4TCt
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 28, 2024
But the utterances of the Gender Taliban receive special dispensation, for they are a holy caste. https://t.co/LvaD7M8NO0
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 26, 2024
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