On August 25, 2025, two prominent voices from Britain’s legal and cultural spheres delivered starkly different but intertwined perspectives on the country’s ongoing debate over transgender rights. Chris Columbus, the original director of the first two Harry Potter films, publicly distanced himself from author J.K. Rowling’s views on gender issues, calling them “very sad” and expressing his unwillingness to participate in the forthcoming HBO adaptation of the beloved series. Meanwhile, Victoria McCloud, the UK’s first out transgender judge, warned that the climate for trans people in Britain has grown more hostile and dangerous since the 1990s, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling and mounting social tensions.
Columbus, who helped bring Rowling’s wizarding world to the big screen, told Variety, “I like to sometimes separate the artist from the art, I think that’s important to do. It’s unfortunate, what’s happened. I certainly don’t agree with what she’s talking about. But it’s just sad, it’s very sad.” His comments come as Rowling, now 60, continues to be outspoken on gender issues, most recently praising three women who brought a Supreme Court case resulting in the exclusion of transgender women from the legal definition of a woman under the Equality Act.
Asked whether he would consider returning to the franchise for the upcoming HBO television series, Columbus was unequivocal: “No, I’ve done it, you saw my version. There’s nothing left for me to do in the world of Potter. The great thing about it is that with the first and second and third book, we wanted to do it all. We wanted to bring all of that onto the screen, and we didn’t have the opportunity.” The new HBO series, set for release in 2027 on HBO and HBO Max, promises to be a faithful, season-by-season adaptation of Rowling’s original books, with a star-studded cast including Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, John Lithgow as Professor Albus Dumbledore, Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch, Katherine Parkinson as Molly Weasley, Rory Wilmot as Neville Longbottom, Amos Kitson as Dudley Dursley, Louise Brealey as Madam Rolanda Hooch, and Anton Lesser as Garrick Ollivander.
The cultural storm surrounding Rowling’s public statements and the legal developments in the UK have not gone unnoticed by those most affected. Victoria McCloud, who made history as the country’s first out transgender judge, retired in 2024, citing the increasingly hostile environment for trans people. Speaking to The Independent, McCloud reflected on the contrast between today’s climate and the one she experienced decades earlier: “When I came out, things were bizarrely rather better. That was the nineties – we didn’t really have any rights, but there was less of a climate of fear.”
McCloud pointed to a rising “climate of fear” for trans people in Britain, referencing a declaration of genocidal intent made by the Lemkin Institute in relation to the UK to warn people about what’s going on. She also mentioned concerns raised by the United Nations and the Council of Europe. “When I come over, I don’t see it as a safe place to go,” she admitted, explaining that she now lives in Ireland and only returns to the UK for necessities such as media interviews. “Lovely cis friends are great at helping me to stay out of risky situations where I might be confronted or even potentially assaulted, because, of course, my face is quite well known. I’m particularly at risk of becoming a target by some of the more extreme people from the gender critical ideology movement. And that’s a worry. But I think it’s important that I do carry on, and I do have to come back for things like media interviews and so on occasionally.”
Central to McCloud’s concerns is the April 2025 Supreme Court ruling in FWS v Scottish Ministers, which defined “woman” as “biological woman” under the Equality Act 2010. According to The Guardian, she argued that the ruling “reversed my and 8,500 other people’s sex for the whole of equality law,” without listening to those affected. “We are now two sexes at once,” McCloud said. “We are told we must use dangerous spaces such as male changing rooms and loos when we have female anatomy. If we are raped we must go to male rape crisis. We are searched by male police, to ‘protect’ female police from, I assume, our female anatomy.”
The ruling has since been used by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to justify proposed updates to its single-sex service provision guidance. If approved, these changes would exclude trans people from gendered facilities and services exclusive to their identity. “It’s really common, and indeed, not just lesbian women, just anyone who’s maybe a tall woman or whatever,” McCloud noted. “It’s leading, I think, to more abuse of non trans people than it is to trans people, because most trans people actually are quite invisible – we go to quite a great length to be invisible, whereas people who are non-trans don’t see the need to do that.”
Alongside the Trans Legal Clinic and W-Legal, McCloud has filed an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), seeking a rehearing of the Supreme Court case. The petition, lodged under Articles 8, 14, and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, argues that trans people were not properly represented in the decision. “Decisions about us, that fundamentally change our rights, shouldn’t be made without us,” McCloud insisted. “It was a situation where nowhere throughout the whole of the case, trans people were heard or represented at all.”
For many in the UK, the debate over gender identity and legal rights has become a lightning rod for broader concerns about inclusion, safety, and the boundaries of free expression. Rowling’s supporters argue that her views reflect legitimate concerns about women’s rights and the integrity of single-sex spaces, while critics—including Columbus and McCloud—see her statements and the legal shifts as contributing to a more hostile environment for trans people.
As the HBO adaptation of Harry Potter prepares for its 2027 debut, the cultural battle over gender identity and inclusion shows no signs of abating. For those like Chris Columbus, the art can be separated from the artist, but for Victoria McCloud and many others, the law—and society—are making that separation harder than ever to maintain.
The intersection of media, law, and lived experience continues to shape the landscape for transgender people in Britain, with each new ruling and public statement echoing far beyond the courtroom or the television screen.
