Harry Potter author JK Rowling is criticized by the LGTBQ community for a transphobic tweet. The Harry Potter author has been a household name the world over since she published the first novel in her boy-wizard series back in 1997. Today, Rowling’s fame has reached astounding levels, despite having completed the seventh and final book in the Potter series in 2007. Fans were not ready to relinquish their enjoyment of the wizarding world that Rowling has created, and it often seems as though Rowling herself has also not had enough.
During and after the book series, a wildly successful film franchise was adapted, which launched the careers of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Even today, over 20 years after the first Potter novel was published and almost a decade after the last film in the series arrived, fans of Rowling’s wizarding world are still experiencing the arrival of new films. Two of the intended five Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them films have already arrived, providing a different but still enjoyable spin-off from the original Potter stories and films. In addition to these, Rowling has also overseen what many describe as the closest fans will ever get to new Potter material, with the stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Regardless of her ongoing success, however, Rowling has been at the forefront of numerous controversies. These various issues have stretched back all the way to when she was still writing the books and religious fanatics saw fit to ban and sometimes even burn her work. The 54-year-old author has also had to defend the decision to cast a black actress in the role of Hermione Granger in Cursed Child, has repeatedly taken on supporters of U.S. president Donald Trump, and has been challenged by some due to her decision to make Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore gay. Throughout all this, Rowling has had the backing of fans and even those who’ve never experienced any of her books or films. Now, however, Rowling is coming under fire for defending a woman who was recently fired for saying trans women aren’t women. The issue was taken to court, and the specifics of that case can be viewed below in a tweet from @OriginalOestrus. Also available below is Rowling’s original tweet:
Rowling’s tweet has not been deleted, and such insistence has done nothing to quell the backlash from the LGBTQ community and its allies. Rowling has previously had controversial moments with regard to the trans community. Last summer, for example, word spread that the Harry Potter author followed a variety of anti-trans Twitter accounts, and was discovered to have liked a tweet by a now suspended Twitter user in which they called transgender women “men in dresses.” As a result of these past incidences as well as this most recent issue, many trans supporters and members of the LGBTQ community have labelled Rowling a “TERF” (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist). As of this writing, neither Rowling nor her representatives have come forth with a statement on this most recent controversy.
For many fans, hearing that Rowling has taken a transphobic stance feels like a definite betrayal. Rowling has always modelled herself as someone who will stand with those who have been marginalised or unfairly treated, and love as well as unity have been key themes in her work. However, there is still an opportunity for the acclaimed author to make things right, but that can only be done by her responding to accusations that she is transphobic.. Until that time comes, Rowling’s public persona is at risk of being forever altered – something that no form of magic can undo – that is, of course, if it hasn’t already for many fans.
