David Tennant, aka everyone’s favorite “I know him from somewhere” actor (he was Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and, oh yeah, Doctor Who, NBD), has officially entered the chat — and he’s not here for J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans hot takes.
In a recent episode of The Assembly (shoutout to smart people podcasts), Tennant, 55, served some gentle but firm truth, reacting to Rowling’s weirdly celebratory tweet after the U.K. Supreme Court decided that trans women should not be recognized as women under the Equality Act. Which is about as uplifting as being told “you can’t sit with us” by a group of people you didn’t even want to sit with.
David, being the absolute polite king that he is, broke it down by reminding us that back when he was a teen, Margaret Thatcher’s government cooked up Section 28 — a law that basically made it illegal to even mention that gay people existed in schools. Yes, that was an actual thing. It sounds like a plot from a bad dystopian YA novel but, no, it was real life.
“We look back on that now and go, ‘Wow, that was medieval, like, full-on knight armor and dragons medieval,’” David said (okay, not verbatim, but spiritually). He pointed out that demonizing the trans community today is giving exactly the same energy — the “yikes, what are we even doing” energy.
And because David Tennant is a classy dude and not just here to throw shade (even though he could and we would support him), he added:
“J.K. Rowling is a wonderful author who’s created brilliant stories, and I wish her no ill will — but also maybe let’s not ruin lives over your Twitter opinions?”
In short: David Tennant said trans rights, be kind, mind your business, and go touch some grass.
