Emma Watson highlighted her support for the LGBTQI community via a new social media post.
The 28-year-old Harry Potter actress showed her support for the rights of all transgender people by wearing a t-shirt that stated: “Trans rights are human rights.”
The move may be deemed small, but – at least in raising the issue – this ought to count, considering Watson has 48 million followers in Instagram alone. As of press time, it already had over a million likes.
Watson’s message appears to be in response to the UK government’s discussion of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA). Trans activists are calling for the GRA to be reformed for it to recognize non-binary identities and makes it easier to legally self-determine gender for trans people of all ages, including an end to requiring that trans statuses be dependent upon medical diagnosis or approval.
This is not the first time Watson showed her support for the LGBTQI community.
In the past, she also wrote about LGBT History Month on Instagram: “It’s 🏳️🌈 LGBT History Month in the USA. I have learned so much about feminism and anti-racism through the work of LGBTQIA+ activists. Thank you Sylvia Rivera, Audre Lorde and Marsha P. Johnson!! Sending love to all those I love and wider LGBTQIA+ communities around the world.”
Watson also spearheaded the HeForShe campaign for feminism. Speaking at the UN in 2014, she said: “If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we are — we can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. It’s about freedom.”
