Once again Eddie Redmayne is speaking out about J.K. Rowling, but this time he's diluting the value of his previous comments condemning her transphobic comments by speaking out about the “absolutely disgusting” “vitriol” that has been sent her way.
Rowling was condemned by trans activists after she voiced concern over trans women being allowed access to single-sex spaces earlier this year and faced a new wave of backlash this month after her latest book, Troubled Blood, based its plot around a doctor believed to have been murdered by a cross-dressing man.
In a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Eddie said that he was alarmed by the “vitriol” sent to Rowling, which he said was “absolutely disgusting.”
Redmayne once again stated that he strongly disagreed with Rowling’s views, saying that trans people are “having their human rights challenged around the world and facing discrimination on a daily basis.” However, he also called the “vitriol” against Rowling “absolutely disgusting” and said he sent out a personal note of support to her.
Redmayne went on to say that he has “trans friends and colleagues. Their human rights challenged around the world and facing discrimination on a daily basis. There continues to be a hideous torrent of abuse towards trans people online and out in the world that is devastating.”
Well, Eddie, you have Rowling to thank for helping flame that anti-trans agenda.
Redmayne Isn't the Only Person Who Is Standing Up for Rowling
Authors Ian McEwan and Lionel Shriver, actors Griff Rhys Jones and Frances Barber, and TV writer Graham Linehan are among 58 people who signed the letter supporting the author over allegations of transphobia and “an insidious, authoritarian and misogynistic trend in social media”
Comments wishing Rowling dead on social media are “just the latest example of hate speech directed against her and other women that Twitter and other platforms enable and implicitly endorse,” it said.
Also signed by playwright Sir Tom Stoppard and actors Alexander Armstrong, Ben Miller and James Dreyfus, the letter continued: “We are signing this letter in the hope that, if more people stand up against the targeting of women online, we might at least make it less acceptable to engage in it or profit from it.”
Rowling showed her appreciation to the letter on Twitter:
My weekend was heavy (in the very best sense!) on family and light on reading the news, so I only realised this morning that this letter appeared in the Sunday Times yesterday.
I'm profoundly grateful to all the signatories, not only on a personal level, (though believe me, I'm EXTREMELY grateful on that level), but because the signatories are showing solidarity with all the women who're currently speaking up for their own rights and facing threats of violence and even death in return.
This is also an opportunity to express my gratitude once more to the thousands of people who've sent me personal emails and letters of support. I'm trying to respond to all of them, so please forgive me if I haven't yet got to yours!
