​Daniel Radcliffe reaffirms LGBTQ+ support after JK Rowling's latest TERF tantrum

Daniel Radcliffe is reaffirming his support of the entire LGBTQ+ community — and specifically, trans people — in the wake of J.K. Rowling's public comments insinuating she would never forgive the Harry Potter stars for supporting trans youth.

Radcliffe was interviewed by The Atlantic earlier this year, although the piece was only released this Tuesday. It was inevitable that the once beloved children author's ongoing determination to rail against trans rights and equality on social media would come up, especially as Radcliffe has pointedly declared his support for trans people in the past.

"It makes me really sad, ultimately," he said of what Rowling has become, "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."

A recent series of tweets in early April saw her celebrating a highly controversial report that encourages cutting back access to care for trans youth. She also demonized anyone with opposing views, including "celebrity mouthpieces."

When it was suggested to Rowling by a follower that she would immediately forgive Radcliffe and fellow Harry Potter star Emma Watson if they apologized for the heinous crime of supporting trans youth, Rowling made it clear she wasn't interested.

"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," she wrote.

Although Radcliffe's interview was conducted prior to Rowling's statement, he touched on something that seems to repeatedly come up in conversations between the author and the fans who still adore her online, as well as rightwing media.

"There’s a version of 'Are these three kids ungrateful brats?' that people have always wanted to write, and they were finally able to," he said. "Jo, obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person," he continued. "But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life."

That's a concept a number of people who still support Rowling can't seem to grasp. It's frequently insinuated — if not said outright — by these critics that Radcliffe, Watson, and Rupert Grint should be in constant deference to Rowling and everything she believes just because they were cast in an adaptation of her books when they were young children.

But they're all grown adults with their own lives, personalities, and beliefs, and have made it repeatedly clear that Rowling's views, as Radcliffe says, "are not the views of everybody associated with the Potter franchise."

The Atlantic did follow up to see if the actor had any additional remarks specifically in response to being dragged back into the conversation by Rowling's disinterest in offering forgiveness he (and the others) don't appear to have ever requested.

"I will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ people," he said, "and have no further comment than that."