Pedro Pascal has slammed JK Rowling, calling her a ‘heinous loser’ after she celebrated the UK’s Supreme Court ruling that trans women are not legally women.
Last week the UK’s highest court confirmed the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the 2010 Equality Act ‘refer to a biological woman and biological sex’.
This now means that transgender women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from single-sex spaces, including toilets and changing rooms, if ‘proportionate’.
The decision has sparked mass protests both around the country and abroad, with celebrities such as Nicola Coughlan speaking out on the ‘horrifying’ ruling.
Soon after Harry Potter author Rowling shared a photo on social media aboard a superyacht celebrating the decision while smoking a cigar.
‘I love it when a plan comes together #SupremeCourt #WomensRights,’ she wrote.
In response, activist and writer Tariq Ra’ouf went on to call for a boycott of any future Harry Potter projects.
Posting a video on Instagram, he told his followers: ‘Don’t watch the show. Don’t go to Universal. Don’t buy a single Harry Potter thing ever. It’s time to tell these corporations that transphobia loses money.’
After watching the clip, The Last of Us star Pedro, 50, like it and share a defiant comment, writing: ‘Awful disgusting S*** is exactly right. Heinous LOSER behavior.’
This week Pedro, who has been a vocal supporter of trans rights for years, has made a powerful statement while attending the London premiere of a new Marvel film.
On Tuesday night, stars hit the red carpet to promote Thunderbolts, including Pedro, who is starring in the studio’s upcoming release The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
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But when stepping out, the 50-year-old drew attention for wearing a white T-shirt that read ‘PROTECT THE DOLLS’.
The T-shirt is a part of a campaign by American designer Conner Ives, who designed the piece to call attention to the global anti-transgender sentiment that trans women are experiencing in several countries.
Dolls is an affectionate term coined by the LGBTQ+ community to refer to transgender women.
The move was praised by many.
‘Oh, Pedro with a shirt supporting trans women. Oh, how I love you,’ Rosa posted on X.
‘Pedro Pascal isn’t just showing up on screen—he’s showing up for people. Protect the Dolls isn’t fashion, it’s solidarity stitched into every thread,’ Safar shared.
‘Pedro Pascal wearing a “protect the dolls t-shirt” in the UK after last week’s ruling. What a man,’ Lori added.
It was @wethairjoel, however, who perhaps had the highest praise for the star, writing: ‘Pedro Pascal is attending an MCU premiere with a trans rights shirt on… he is a real-life superhero. He really is our Reed Richards.’
Pedro’s sister Lux Pascal, a model and actress who has recently appeared with her brother on several red carpets, came out as a transgender woman in February 2021.
At the time she said her family had been incredibly supportive of her transition, explaining that it was ‘something that’s very natural for everyone in my family’.
‘It’s almost something that they expected to happen,’ she added.
Speaking about her brother’s support, Lux said Pedro was ‘one of the first people to gift me the tools that started shaping my identity’.
When asked how Lux was finding the public reaction to her transition, Pedro told Esquire that while it wasn’t his place to ‘speak on her behalf’, she ‘is and has always been one of the most powerful people and personalities I’ve ever known’.
Earlier this year he shared a post on Instagram that read: ‘A world without trans people has never existed and never will.’
He went on to pin a comment that read: ‘I can’t think of anything more vile and small and pathetic than terrorizing the smallest, most vulnerable community of people who want nothing from you, except the right to exist.’
Proceeds from the Protect the Dolls T-Shirts are being donated to Trans Lifeline, a peer support and crisis hotline offering support to transgender people.
Metro has contacted representatives for JK Rowling for comment.
A version of this article was first published on April 23, 2025.
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