EastEnders first transgender star Riley Carter Millington calls on JK Rowling to apologise for anti-trans comments
RILEY Carter Millington wants JK Rowling to apologise for her ongoing attacks on the transgender community. The actor became the first transgender person to star on EastEnders and appeared on Loose Women to explain why JK’s most recent comments were so hurtful to the transgender community. He said: “For me personally at the end of […]
RILEY Carter Millington wants JK Rowling to apologise for her ongoing attacks on the transgender community.
The actor became the first transgender person to star on EastEnders and appeared on Loose Women to explain why JK’s most recent comments were so hurtful to the transgender community.
He said: “For me personally at the end of the day I think people like JK Rowling need to recognise the influence they have and how detrimental their words can be.”
“If anything it’s very ill-timed and distasteful.”
He also admitted: “At the end of the day I want people to be willing to be educated.”
The Harry Potter author came under fire again this week for comments she made that many said were anti-transgender.
JK, 54, jumped on Twitter in a huff after seeing an article that described “people who menstruate”.
The phrase is used to acknowledge that some people who are gender non-binary and transgender men also get their periods.
She wrote on Twitter: “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
But when criticism of her tweet mounted, JK, who is said to be worth £765million, doubled down in her beliefs.
She responded: “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.
“I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.
“The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women – ie, to male violence – ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences – is a nonsense.”
The UK government says “gender identity is a personal, internal perception of oneself and so the gender category someone identifies with may not match the sex they were assigned at birth”.
JK’s controversial tweets got thousands of responses, including from many celebrities such as Sarah Paulson, Jameela Jamil and Jonathan Van Ness.
Even Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, stepped in to defend the transgender community.
The film star, 30, penned an open letter in which he told fans of the wizarding franchise: “I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you.”
Daniel voiced strong objections to her words in his statement via US organisation The Trevor Project, which aims to prevent suicides in the LGBTQ community.
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He wrote: “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.”
In a bid to play down any clash between the pair, he continued: “I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between JK Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what’s important right now.
“While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment.
“To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you.”
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