To play down or minimise the damage JK Rowling has done through her rhetoric on X is to dismiss and disregard the feelings and rights of thousands of trans individuals across the world.
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After recently coming to the defence of co-star Tom Felton, it’s unsurprising that former Harry Potter star Jason Isaacs is doubling down on his rather weak stance regarding JK Rowling’s public tirade against the trans community.
In a lengthy feature for Vulture, Isaacs, who recently was lauded by critics and fans for his performance in season three of The White Lotus, was asked by the interviewer: “I’m curious if you have thoughts about J.K. Rowling and what seems to be her fixation on trans women, specifically her belief that trans women’s rights erode biological women’s rights.”
The actor’s immediate response was “You’re asking me to be Jo’s spokesperson and unpack what’s going on in Jo’s head?” Not an ounce of defensiveness detected there of course…
Prompted once more by the interviewer about his thoughts on the matter, Isaacs delivered a schpiel about the fact that he’s only met Rowling once, “for about two minutes,” before launching into a rather self-serving statement:
“People want me to talk about J.K Rowling’s attitude to trans people all the time. And initially, I went, ‘I don’t know her well enough, and I’m a straight white man in late middle age, and it’s not for me to opine on feminist and trans issues.’ But then I championed this fabulous trans comedian, Jordan Gray, and wrote about her, and I suddenly became a poster boy for trans rights.”
The actor continued: “It was interpreted as me putting the knife into Jo, and it wasn’t. I don’t understand who she is on Twitter. But then that’s true of almost anybody online. It’s a place where people scream abuse at each other. And I’ve heard her arguments when she explained herself in that seven-part podcast, The Witch Trials of J.K Rowling, which I listened to. She says something like, ‘I may be on the wrong side of history, but this is what I feel very strongly.’ It’s not my argument or discussion to have. But if there’s a vote, I know which side I’ll be voting.”
While it is not Isaac’s responsibility to speak on Rowling’s behalf, saying that he doesn’t “understand” who she is on Twitter feels like a cop out. She’s transphobic. See? Easy.
To play down or minimise the damage Rowling has done through her rhetoric on X is to dismiss and disregard the feelings and rights of thousands of trans individuals across the world. It wasn’t hard to understand what the author meant when she rather gleefully declared that “there are no trans kids” on X back in December 2024.
There are no trans kids. No child is ‘born in the wrong body’. There are only adults like you, prepared to sacrifice the health of minors to bolster your belief in an ideology that will end up wreaking more harm than lobotomies and false memory syndrome combined. pic.twitter.com/yyc4MxgfOk
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 28, 2024
Also, nothing is ever isolated to social media these days. Indeed, Rowling played a massive role in a political crusade that ultimately resulted in the unanimous passing of “a ruling that limited the definition of a woman to be based on ‘biological sex’ under Britain’s Equality Act, excluding trans women from being protected from discrimination.”
So, Isaac’s rather blasé comments are not only unhelpful, they’re harmful. Right now, the former Harry Potter cast seems to be diving towards that sinking ship.
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