Rowling has always been an 'advocate for the most vulnerable members of society'
The actress who played Luna Lovegood in the
Harry Potter series has defended
JK Rowling - who continues to be engulfed in "anti-trans" outrage - and said she now has a far greater appreciation for "both sides of the argument".
Evanna Lynch has long described herself as a friend and admirer of Rowling and has defended the author who first angered the LGBTQ+ community in 2020. Read a full breakdown of her comments
here.
At the time, Lynch joined fellow co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, calling out Rowling's insensitivity, but she has since called for "grace" from others still going after the writer who she says has always been an "advocate for the most vulnerable members of society".
She told
The Telegraph: "I was very naive when I was dragged into that conversation. I didn’t even know there were two sides. I had a view of, like, good and bad.
"I do have compassion for both sides of the argument. I know what it was like to be a teenager who hated my body so much I wanted to crawl out of my skin, so I have great compassion for trans people and I don’t want to add to their pain."
Lynch went on to say she thinks it is "important" that Rowling has been "amplifying the voices of detransitioners".
"I had this impulse to go, ‘Let’s all just stop talking about it’, and I think probably I’m a bit braver now about having uncomfortable conversations… I just felt that her character has always been to advocate for the most vulnerable members of society. The problem is that there’s a disagreement over who’s the most vulnerable.
"I do wish people would just give her more grace and listen to her."
Fellow Harry Potter actress Helena Bonham-Carter has also defended Rowling, saying the author is "allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse".
"Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma, and you have to respect where people come from and their pain," Bonham-Carter said.
https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1480836412098420736
In 2020, Radcliffe wrote an essay for The Trevor Project to show his support for the trans community.
Two years later, he explained his reasoning for speaking out against the woman's whose books made him a superstar, saying he felt like he absolutely needed to say something since finishing the series, because, "I’ve met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter on that.
"And so 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."
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