Actor Nick Frost, who first rose to fame whilst working alongside his long time friends and collaborators Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright on the cult comedy series Spaced, has recently received criticism from members of the LGBTQIA+ community and its allies after it was announced that he would be playing the role of Rubeus Hagrid in the new HBO adaptation of the children's book series Harry Potter.
The source of this criticism came from the fact that the books author, JK Rowling, who sometimes works under the name Robert Galbraith (seemingly named after Robert Galbraith Hearth, a man who pioneered the torture practice of conversion therapy on queer people), seems to have dedicated herself to combating the rights and freedoms of the transgender community.
Rowling's history of anti-trans views is a long one, mainly beginning with her 'accidentally' liking a transphobic tweet by a notable 'gender critical', and has culminated in her creating a fund to pay for court cases against trans people and their rights, her entire social media presence being dedicated towards attacking members of the trans community, and her celebrating the loss of trans rights on her super yacht like a terrible Bond villain.
JK Rowling has become so notable as the 'face of transphobia' that anti-trans campaigners have waved banners with her name on it, worn masks of her face, and quoted her words when attacking the trans community. This has resulted in vocal opposition to her, with many former fans refusing to have anything to do with the Harry Potter fandom. As such, many people found Frost's willingness to work on this new project to be a misguided move at best, and an outright slap in the face of the queer community at worse.
Speaking to The Observer, Frost has tried to defend his decision to work on the show. Speaking about Rowling and her views on trans people he said 'She’s allowed her opinion and I’m allowed mine, they just don’t align in any way, shape or form'. Frost says this like Rowling's views happen in a vacuum, and that they can easily not align with his own with no real affect, reducing her disdain for trans people to being akin to disagreeing on a sports team or favourite film.
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| JK Rowling celebrating the UK Supreme Court ruling on her super yacht |
In reality, Rowling's huge wealth and fanbase has given her opinions huge weight, to the point where she has been quoted in anti-trans actions across the world. He also seems to be ignoring the fact that by working on this series, a series that will directly give money to Rowling thanks to her involvement, he is helping to fund her actions. Rowling's newly created 'Women's Fund' pledges to give money to court action against trans individuals, and broader trans rights; something she has already done when she donated £70,000 to the For Women Scotland case that resulted in a rollback in trans rights across the UK.
Frost seems to know that Rowling is something of a contentious subject though, as when he announced his role as Hagrid on his Instagram account he turned comments off, seemingly aware that his choice to be involved with Rowling would be divisive at best, if not outright damaging to his image. Speaking further on the matter he said 'But maybe it shouldn’t blow over? We shouldn’t just hope it will go away, because it makes it easier. Maybe we should educate ourselves'.
Perhaps I could suggest then, Nick, that you educate yourself on the mountain of things that Rowling has said against the transgender community. The times that she has shared lies and disinformation of trans rights, healthcare, and actions. The times she has misgendered or deadnamed individual trans people. The times she engaged in Holocaust denialism to try and score a point against the trans community. The times that she has celebrated the indignities, reduction in rights, and attacks on the trans community. Perhaps you could actually learn a little something about the woman you're agreeing to work with, the person who will profit off your work, and whose profit will go towards further attacks against a minority community. Perhaps don't be a coward, engage with people whose lives are being made worse by Rowling, and made a moral stance on the matter.
Any adult choosing to work on the new Harry Potter series has no excuse for doing to. It's not hard to learn about Rowling and her actions, to see the demonstrable damage she's causing to a minority group. Call these people out, try to educate them, try to convince them to think better of their decision; but leave the child cast alone. These children should be left in peace, but folks like Nick Frost, Katherine Parkinson, Bertie Carvel, John Lithgow, Paul Whitehouse, Paapa Essiedu, and Janet McTeer absolutely need to be called out.
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