Trans Sandman Actor Mason Alexander Park Talks JK Rowling, Clickbait

The conversation around trans rights and JK Rowling still has a long way to go.

Sandman star Mason Alexander Park, who played Desire in the hit Netflix series, has tweeted out some of their opinions on Harry Potter author JK Rowling's transphobia, and the way it is covered in the press.

The trouble all started when Rowling made a series of tweets criticizing a trans YouTuber named Jessie Gender who said that they weren't going to play Hogwarts Legacy.

The original tweets weren't very inflammatory, saying "I will not begrudge anyone their love of past works or things they already own that they take comfort in. I own the first 9 movies and all 7 books myself. But support of something like Hogwarts Legacy is harmful."

Of course, Rowling had to turn the simple tweet into a trash fire, siccing her followers on the trans woman and saying "the truly righteous wouldn't just burn their books and movies, but the local library, anything with an owl on it, and their own pet dogs."

Park tweeted about that first interaction. "Remember when JK equated Graham Norton's quote that 'we should listen to trans people' to him 'throwing support behind rape and death threats' and ran him off Twitter?" they tweeted. "Seems she does it anytime someone approaches this subject with any nuance. As any bully does. Deplorable."

"Purposefully misconstruing a trans person's sensible take on how best to engage with material written by someone who vehemently uses their platform to push transphobia and misinformation into the mainstream is completely on brand for her," they continued.

When Park's comments were reported on by CBR, they commented once again.

"This reminds me of the exact phenomenon Graham Norton mentioned when pressed about JK Rowling, to which he replied that anything he said would be turned into 'Graham Norton Slams...' and clickbait, and suggested the press talk to trans people/experts instead. At least I'm trans!"

They later tweeted more about what they meant.

"To clarify, I'm not condemning CBR's coverage of this exchange, I actually find it refreshing that they're including a trans voice/perspective in a public conversation that the media has purposefully shut us out of time and time again," they said.

"However," Park continued, "coverage of these issues still is very problematic and has a long way to go in order to become useful, factual, and less reliant on public figure discourse/debates."

In a better world, nothing JK Rowling ever says or does would have any impact on trans people or their rights, and when she tried to speak on the subject (which she obviously knows nothing about), no one would listen. Unfortunately, we've still got a while to go before we get there.

RELATED | JK Rowling Is Unbothered by Losing LGBTQ+ Fans, Money Helps Her Sleep