Harry Potter actor Harry Melling supports trans rights after JK Rowling comments
"I do believe that everybody has the right to choose," the Harry Potter actor has said.
Harry Potter actor, Harry Melling, has supported trans rights following JK Rowling airing her views on sex and gender.
The Harry Potter author has stirred controversy multiple times over the last few years with her views. This has caused several of the series’ stars including Daniel Radcliffe to counter her view views with their own comments.
Speaking to the Independent, Melling, who played Potter’s bully of a cousin, Dudley Dursley, joined his fellow wizarding actors.
“I can only speak for myself, and what I feel, to me, is very simple,” he said in response to the novelist’s views.
“Transgender women are women and transgender men are men. Every single person has the right to choose who they are and to identify themselves as what’s true to themselves,” he continued.
Melling added: “I don’t want to join the debate of pointing fingers and saying, ‘That’s right, that’s wrong,’ because I don’t think I’m the correct spokesperson for that.
“But I do believe that everybody has the right to choose.”
Rowling published an essay on transgender issues in 2020. She also tweeted: “‘people who menstruate’: “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”.
After this, Radcliffe declared “trans women are women”. Last November, Radcliffe said he “needed to say something” after meeting so many queer fans of the series.
He told Indiewire: “Seeing them hurt on that day I was like, I wanted them to know that not everybody in the franchise felt that way. And that was really important.”
Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger, has also been vocal in supporting the trans community. She declared at the 2022 BAFTAs: “I’m here for all of the witches.”
Tom Felton, Rupert Grint, and Eddie Redmayne, who stars in the Fantastic Beasts series, have also distanced themselves from Rowling’s ideas.