“Just get out of people’s way”- David Tennant joins Chorus of stars calling out J.K. Rowling over ‘demonizing’ trans community

During an interview with ITV show The Assembly, David Tennant shared that though he wishes J.K. Rowling no "ill will," he hopes society can "just get out of people's way." He was answering questions from the neurodivergent panel.

David Tennant is an actor who has appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a movie adaptation of J.K. Rowling's book of the same title. J.K. Rowling is popularly known as the author of the Harry Potter series.

According to Variety, David Tennant shared in a recent episode of The Assembly that,

"JK Rowling is a wonderful author who’s created brilliant stories, and I wish her no ill will, but I hope that we can all as a society, just let people be. Just get out of people’s way."

According to multiple reports, during his appearance in The Assembly, Tennant shared that Trans people are being "demonized" and compared the treatment of transgender people to the 1988 policy introduced by the UK Government, aka Section 28, which prohibited local authorities from "promoting homosexuality by teaching or by publishing material."

According to multiple reports, on April 16, the UK Supreme Court reportedly ruled that the terms "women" and "s*x" in the 2010 Equality Act only refer to "biological women" and "biological s*x". According to Deadline, Rowling donated £70,000 to Women Scotland, who brought the case to court. Rowling also took to X to celebrate the ruling.

For more context, multiple reports state that there has been another instance of "clash" between Tennant and Rowling. In June 2024, Tennant reportedly said at the British LGBT Awards that politician Kemi Badenoch should "shut up" after Badenoch called for the ban of trans people in single-sex spaces.

Afterward, when Badenoch became the leader of her political party in November, Rowling took to X (formerly Twitter) to sarcastically share that her "thoughts and prayers" were with Tennant "at this very difficult time."

Other actors have also called out J.K. Rowling for her anti-trans views

David Tennant is not the only actor who has publicly disagreed with Rowling's anti-trans views. Recently, Pedro Pascal commented under activist Tariq Ra'ouf's Instagram video criticizing Rowling for celebrating and supporting the Supreme Court ruling. Pascal, who has a trans sister, commented that,

"Awful disgusting S--T is exactly right. Heinous LOSER behavior."

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According to US Weekly, other actors like Nicola Coughlan (known for her roles in Bridgerton and Derry Girls), Charithra Chandran (known for her role in Bridgerton), and Bowen Yang (known from SNL and Wicked) also spoke up against Rowling's stance.

Previously, in 2019, J.K. Rowling openly supported British researcher Maya Forstater, who was fired from her job for making transphobic comments. In June 2020, the author defended herself in a reportedly anti-trans essay. Following this, the cast of Harry Potter, including Daniel Radcliffe, Eddie Redmayne, Emma Watson, and others, tweeted in support of trans people and their rights.

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