London (CNN) Stars of the "Harry Potter" movie franchise have joined trans activists in standing with the transgender community after the publication of a lengthy essay by author J.K Rowling. This split in opinion reveals a wider debate that has raged over trans rights in the UK , where a number of columnists and radical feminists have argued that trans women are not women and should be barred from single-sex spaces like refuges or changing rooms. Rowling wrote on Twitter last weekend: "If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. "Transgender women are women," Radcliffe wrote in a blog post for The Trevor Project, a non-profit devoted to suicide prevention among LGBTQ+ youth. While Rowling recognized in her essay that trans people do face harm and are victims of abuse, trans activist Ralph said the author provides no alternatives for trans women in need of refuges.

Source: CNN June 11, 2020 18:22 UTC