Major ‘Harry Potter’ Fan Sites Won’t Stand for J.K. Rowling’s Transphobic Comments
The Harry Potter fandom has been strong for 23 years, and it only continues to grow as new generations of kids discover the world of Hogwarts through the books, movies, spinoffs, and merch. But in light of author J.K. Rowling’s transphobic comments on Twitter and on her official website last month, Harry Potter fans everywhere are condemning Rowling’s remarks—including some of the biggest Harry Potter fan sites on the internet, MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron.
The two fan communities issued a joint statement hoping to “counteract the harm she has caused” by her anti-trans remarks.
“As this fandom enters its third decade, J.K. Rowling has chosen this time to loudly pronounce harmful and disproven beliefs about what it means to be a transgender person,” they wrote. “In addition to the distaste we feel for her choice to publish these statements during Pride Month—as well as during a global reckoning on racial injustice—we find the use of her influence and privilege to target marginalized people to be out of step with the message of acceptance and empowerment we find in her books and celebrated by the Harry Potter community.”
They then went on to stand by LGBTQIA Harry Potter fans—specifically transgender, non-binary, and intersex fans—sharing that we “must reject [Rowling’s] beliefs.”
“Although it is difficult to speak out against someone whose work we have so long admired, it would be wrong not to use our platforms to counteract the harm she has caused,” the statement continued. “Our stance is firm: Transgender women are women. Transgender men are men. Non-binary people are non-binary. Intersex people exist and should not be forced to live in the binary.”
A post shared by The Leaky Cauldron (@theleakycauldronnews) on Jul 1, 2020 at 10:09am PDT
The statement ended by noting that both sites will effectively extricate Rowling from their coverage and focus instead on Harry Potter, the texts, only. Neither site will include links to purchase Rowling’s non-Potter work, links to her website, or photos or coverage of her. They will also use the hashtag #JKR instead of using her full name going forward, so that fans can more easily mute from seeing posts about Rowling on their social media feeds.
This step comes after several actors from the Harry Potter universe, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Bonnie Wright, Katie Leung, and Eddie Redmayne, have also publicly responded to Rowling’s tweets, all vehemently disagreeing with her harmful and painful messaging.
To help show your support for the trans community, here's a list of Black LGBTQ organizations you can donate to right now.
