JK Rowling has branded 'Harry Potter' actor David Tennant the "gender taliban" after he said transgender critics are on the "wrong side of history."

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.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukOPEnglish
    46·
    5 months 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.worldEnglish
      261·
      5 months ago

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

      Better?

    • MajorHavoc@programming.devEnglish
      14·
      4 months ago

      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).

      Yeah. My choice of words was a bit unnecessarily inflammatory. I struggled to find the words for how weird a choice of introduction it is, but don’t mean to actually assign malice.

      I don’t really think the article author meant anything by it necessarily.

      Your point about the context of the cast relationships makes sense. Probably why they went for it.