Daniel Radcliffe Shows Up for Trans People Once Again in New YouTube Series

A long-rumored Harry Potter series may finally be in the works at HBO Max, and according to Deadline, controversial author J.K. Rowling is in talks to produce the seven-season series. The announcement comes at a time when support of Rowling is at an all-time low. Her continued transphobic rhetoric has caused even Harry Potter’s biggest stars to denounce her, including Daniel Radcliffe, who has led the charge as one of the most vocal supporters of the transgender community from the start. And while HBO and Rowling attempt to squeeze every last bit of life out of the Potter series, Radcliffe is using his star power to instead amplify trans voices in a different series, The Trevor Project’s Sharing Space.

In the first episode of the series, which premiered on YouTube on March 31, Radcliffe hosts a roundtable of six transgender and nonbinary young people who share their personal journeys and the challenges they’ve faced in being accepted for who they are. Through discussions of gender euphoria and pronoun usage, the group explains what allyship means to them. Radcliffe guides the conversation, prompting the group to share their own experiences with people who use ignorant language or spread misconceptions while he, in an example of his own allyship, just sits back and listens.

Radcliffe has long been a supporter of The Trevor Project, first appearing in a PSA for the organization in 2012. When Rowling published a thread of anti-trans tweets in 2020, he was among the first to speak out with an open letter showing support for the trans community and providing resources for being a better ally on The Trevor Project website just a few days later. He specified that he didn’t want the letter to be seen as in-fighting with the creator who gave him his start, but emphasized that he couldn’t stay silent.

The actor has stood as a beacon for fans, many of whom are queer, who found comfort and community in the Harry Potter series despite its creator’s bigoted views. In that 2020 letter, Radcliffe spoke directly to those fans:

I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you. If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred.

Now in Sharing Space, he’s supporting a new avenue for people to find that same comfort and community outside of the wizarding world. The Trevor Project will release more episodes of Sharing Space periodically throughout the year, each with a different theme, host, and group of LGBTQ young people, all on its YouTube channel.

Brianna Wellen is a TV Reporter at Primetimer who became obsessed with television when her parents let her stay up late to watch E.R.