Daniel Radcliffe says adults need to ‘trust kids to tell them who they are’ in roundtable with trans youths

‘There are some people in the world who are not trying to engage in this conversation in any kind of good faith,’ said the Harry Potter star

Daniel Radcliffe has said that adults need to “trust” transgender children when they “tell them who they are”.

The Harry Potter star made the remark while hosting a roundtable discussion with transgender youths for the LGBT+ suicide prevention nonprofit ,The Trevor Project.

Radcliffe has worked with the Trevor Project for more than a decade, and was honoured with a Hero Award from the organisation in 2011.

While his latest remarks were mischaracterised by some media outlets as suggesting that parents should consent to their children’s immediate medical transition, Radcliffe spent much of the disucssion hearing from young trans people who had spent years waiting for hormone therapy, and whose traumatic gender dysphoria had been downplayed or ignored by their parents.

With the NHS currently in crisis, trans healthcare is notoriously slow to access in the UK, and patients sometimes face waits of years simply to access a first appointment. Demand for gender identity treatment for under 18s has risen in recent years, a trend that many attribute to growing awareness and acceptance among younger demographics. Minors are not allowed to surgically transition, but can be prescribed hormone replacement therapy (HRT) provided they meet a strict set of criteria.

In the video, which was filmed for The Trevor Project’s new YouTube series Sharing Space, Radcliffe also criticised the attitudes of “condescending” adults when it comes to trans children.

“There are some people in the world who are not trying to engage in this conversation in any kind of good faith,” said the actor.

“I think a lot of the time it’s just because people don’t know a young trans person so there’s just this theoretical idea about this in their head.”

During the session, Radcliffe heard from a number of young trans people, who described their experiences growing up trans. The full video can be watched here.

Daniel Radcliffe on ‘Sharing Space' (The Trevor Project)

Radcliffe’s comments and involvement in the event were met with praise from many people on social media, while others continued to accuse him of “betraying” JK Rowling.

Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, has faced extensive criticism from many in the LGBT+ community for her repeated remarks about trans people.

Radcliffe and other stars of the Harry Potter film adaptations, including Emma Watson, have distanced themselves from the views of the author, who has denied she is transphobic.

In 2020, Radcliffe wrote an essay in support of the trans community while also addressing Rowling’s comments.

“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.

“The reason I felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did was because, particularly since finishing Potter, I’ve met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter on that.”

“And so seeing them hurt on that day I was like, I wanted them to know that not everybody in the franchise felt that way. And that was really important.”