JK Rowling says David Tennant is part of “gender Taliban” after actor calls trans critics “little whinging fuckers”

29 June, 2024

JK Rowling David Tennant

JK Rowling has hit back at David Tennant after he said critics with anti-transgender views are “little whinging fuckers”, calling the actor a member of a “gender Taliban”.

On Wednesday (June 26), JK Rowling quote-tweeted Billy Bragg, who had shared a screenshot of a BBC article reporting Tennant’s recent comments about Kemi Badenoch, the British Minister for Women and Equalities.

In May, Badenoch proposed the mandatory implementation of single-sex toilets in public spaces across Britain, claiming it contributes to “ending the rise of so-called gender-neutral mixed sex toilet spaces”, as reported by BBC. The proposal has since been heavily criticised by transgender rights groups, who argue that gender-neutral toilet spaces help protect trans people from discrimination.

The night before (June 25), Tennant was present at the British LGBT Awards to accept the LGBT+ Celebrity Ally award. During his speech, he addressed Badenoch, saying: “I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up.” Since then, Badenoch fired back in a tweet criticising Tennant as a “rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology.”

In her Bragg quote-tweet, Rowling lamented that such comments like Tennant’s are “the utterances of the Gender Taliban” and that they “receive special dispensation for they are a holy caste.”

In a tweet published yesterday (June 28), the Harry Potter author shared a screenshot of a quote by Tennant, taken from an interview he did at the British LGBT Awards red carpet. On critics with anti-transgender views, he said: “It’s a tiny bunch of little whinging fuckers who’re on the wrong side of history and they’ll all go away soon.”

“This man is talking about rape survivors who want female-only care,” Rowling tweeted, “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.”

Rowling further criticised Tennant in a follow-up tweet in response to another user, saying: “For a man who’s supposedly a model of compassion and tolerance, he sure does want a lot of people to cease to exist.”

Tennant, who starred in 2005’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is famously not the only Harry Potter alumnus to publicly speak out against Rowling’s anti-trans sentiments.

In May, Daniel Radcliffe reflected on her controversial views in an interview with The Atlantic. “It makes me really sad, ultimately,” he said. “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 empathetic.”

In 2020, Radcliffe wrote an essay in support of the trans community, referencing Rowling. “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.”

Earlier this week, it was reported that Harry Potter fans are up in arms over Rowling’s involvement in the upcoming TV series based on the books.

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