Succession star Brian Cox defends JK Rowling from trans activists and says she's been mistreated

Brian Cox has defended JK Rowling over her transgender remarks and believes she’s been ‘mistreated’ by the public.

The billionaire author caused controversy when she fired off a series of tweets about the trans community.

In June 2020, Rowling retweeted an op-ed piece that discussed ‘people who menstruate’, and criticized the article for not labeling cis-gendered women.

She added: "If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction. If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.

"I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives.”

Her comments sparked outrage, with many of her former colleagues, including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, denouncing her.

But during a recent appearance on BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Brian Cox came to the author’s defence.

During a discussion about the Succession actor's home country Scotland passing the Gender Recognition Reform bill, which easily allows trans people to change their gender legally, the conversation swiftly moved to Rowling.

While he’s 'proud' of the passing of the Gender Recognition Reform bill, he has disapproved of the treatment of Rowling.

Cox said: “I don’t like the way she has been treated, actually.”

“Actually, I think she’s entitled to her opinion, she’s entitled to say what she feels, as a woman, she’s very much entitled to say what she feels about her own body.

“There’s nobody better to say as a woman.”

Cox added: “So I do feel that people have been a bit high and mighty about their attitude towards JK Rowling, quite frankly.”

But this isn’t the first time the actor has come to Rowling’s aid.

In March 2022, in an interview with Piers Morgan, the 76-year-old said in the wake of the mounting criticism against the author: “I thought there was something deeply unjust about it. And I just felt that.

“It is happening time and time again. It is not only the people who are cancelled. It is also people like their families, like their children, like their parents.

“It has such ramifications. It creates like an earthquake situation.”

Cox also likened ‘cancel culture’ to ‘McCarthyism’.

He said: “It is a kind of modern day McCarthyism really. It is a kind of raid on people’s sensibilities in order to reduce them and make them… I don’t know, there is so much hypocrisy in the whole thing.”