J.K. Rowling turned her simmering feud with Emma Watson into a new culture-war battleground after the Harry Potter actress spoke out about their strained relationship. In 2014, Watson was made a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, serving on the UN’s HeForShe campaign that promotes gender equality. However, it wasn’t until the summer of 2020 that the allegations against Rowling for being transphobic reached a boiling point. The franchise’s leading man, Daniel Radcliffe, wrote a blog post for The Trevor Project, stating, “Transgender women are women. For the past few years, I’ve repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling.