Sigh. Alan Cumming interview.

I mention how Twitter/X amplifies hate speech. Cumming, who once told Harry Potter producers to “f*** off” during negotiations for the role of Prof Gilderoy Lockhart (eventually played by Kenneth Branagh), has opinions on the views pushed by JK Rowling about trans people. “I thought feminism was about equality,” he says. “Women being equal with everyone else in society. And yet it appears…”

He focuses his thoughts. “I’ve kind of moved away from being obsessed with the horror of things that have come out of that quarter, of trans rights being perceived as anti-women’s rights. But there’s several things that stick out to me – and I don’t want to get into a battle at all with her, because I feel that the best way to deal with her is to give her less attention.”

What are “trans rights”?

Some purported trans rights are anti-women’s rights. The ones that allow men to take prizes and jobs and refuges that were intended for women, for instance.

“But there was a thing,” he continues, “where she very kindly gave money to open a rape crisis centre in Edinburgh – a great thing to do. I mean, bravo. But then she said that trans women were not allowed… That’s transphobia. At the worst and the most awful time a person could experience, you’re saying, ‘No, I’m not going to help you, because you are trans.’ I just feel like we have to call it what it is.”

Men are not allowed in rape crisis centres intended for women. If Alan Cumming wants to open rape crisis centres for trans women or trans people he should do that thing, but women need rape crisis centers that don’t include men. The issue is not that they’re trans, the issue is that they’re men.

It’s really not that difficult.