Rupert Grint felt he needed to stand up for transgender people, following controversial comments from J.K. Rowling.
Rupert Grint
The 32-year-old actor - who portrayed Ron Weasley in the big-screen adaptation of Rowling's 'Harry Potter' series - spoke out after the author came under fire for invalidating transgender people, when she took to Twitter to slam an article for using the phrase "people who menstruate" rather than "women".
Rowling later shared a personal essay on her website, in which she doubled down on her beliefs and Rupert joined co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in speaking up for the rights of transgender people.
Explaining his decision, he told Esquire: "I am hugely grateful [for] everything that she’s done. I think that she’s extremely talented, and I mean, clearly, her works are genius. But yeah, I think also you can have huge respect for someone and still disagree with things like that.
"Sometimes silence is even louder. I felt like I had to because I think it was important to. I mean, I don’t want to talk about all that…Generally, I’m not an authority on the subject. Just out of kindness, and just respecting people. I think it’s a valuable group that I think needs standing up for.”
Rupert previously told The Times newspaper: "I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgement."
Radcliffe, who played titular hero Harry, said in a statement to the Trevor Project, which is focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth: "Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I."
And Watson, who starred as Hermione Granger, tweeted: "Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren't who they say they are.
"I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are."
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