Paapa Essiedu, who is set to star in the HBO “Harry Potter” series, has made a public statement in support of trans, non-binary, and intersex communities. Essiedu signed an open letter calling for film and TV industry action to protect trans rights after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that gender is defined by biological sex. That action goes directly against Essiedu’s producer, J.K. Rowling, who created the “Harry Potter” franchise and is producing the Max series.
In addition to Essiedu, stars Harris Dickinson, Nicola Coughlan, Bella Ramsey, Jack Rooke, Faye Marsay, Kate Herron, director Molly Manning Walker, and more than 400 other filmmakers supported the open letter, which was first circulated by Motive Pictures producer Sid Strickland and script editor Jack Casey. The letter asks organizations such as BAFTA, BFI, Directors U.K., Picturehouse, BBC, Writers Guild, and Channel 4 to commit to protecting trans people.
“We the undersigned film and television professionals stand in solidarity with the trans, non-binary and intersex communities who have been impacted by the Supreme Court ruling on April 17,” the letter, as circulated by Deadline, reads. “The Supreme Court’s ruling that, under the Equality Act, ‘woman’ is defined by biological sex, states that ‘the concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man’. We believe the ruling undermines the lived reality and threatens the safety of trans, non-binary and intersex people living in the U.K. Film and television are powerful tools for empathy and education, and we believe passionately in the ability of the screen to change hearts and minds. This is our opportunity to be on the right side of history […] We wish to add our voices to the 2000+ signatories of the Open Letter from U.K. Writers to the Trans Community published last week and call upon members of our industry and cultural bodies to join us.”
Read the full letter here.
The U.K. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on April 17 that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law. Public spaces such as restaurants, theaters, shops, and hospitals will no longer allow trans women to use the women’s restrooms, as stated by the Equalities & Human Rights Commission guidance.
Of course, notorious TERF-er (and Essiedu’s soon to be collaborator) Rowling celebrated the ruling on social media. “‘Womanhood’ is not some quasi-mystical state into which men can identify. Pretending it is makes both studying the harms done to actual women, and enforcing women’s rights, impossible,” Rowling wrote. “A straight man who likes wearing stockings is not a lesbian. Wanting breasts doesn’t make a teenaged boy a girl. Both are male, and giving them access to women’s single-sex spaces has caused proven harm to women and girls. How does taking away single-sex spaces away from vulnerable women advance feminism? How did three men occupying the medal podium at a women’s sporting event help female athletes? You cannot describe what you’re too frightened to admit. You cannot defend what you can’t define. The last decade has seen a wholesale attack on the rights our foremothers fought for. It continues to astound me that privileged young women who’ve benefited from those advances all their lives are proudly urging on the dismantling of the protections and spaces that were so hard won, and pretending this is progressive.”
HBO CEO Casey Bloys previously said that Rowling was “fairly involved in the process of selecting the writer and director” for the series and that she also gave her “opinions on casting.” He added that Rowling’s anti-trans statements “haven’t affected the casting or hiring of writers or production staff” for the series.
John Lithgow, who also will star in the “Harry Potter” show, told The Times of London that he did not expect to receive backlash for joining the cast. There too was an open letter directed to Lithgow in particular, titled “Please Walk Away from Harry Potter,” due to Rowling’s political views. Lithgow said that “a very good friend who is the mother of a trans child” first gave him the letter; however, he did not reconsider taking the role of Dumbledore because of it.
“I thought, ‘Why is this a factor at all?’ I wonder how JK Rowling has absorbed it,” Lithgow said. “I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her, and I’m curious to talk to her.”
