Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling has once more sparked controversy and anger with her anti-trans comments. Back in 1997, Rowling introduced readers to the Wizarding World in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first book in what would become a series of seven novels telling the story of “the boy who lived” and the darkest wizard of all, Lord Voldemort.
The Harry Potter book series made the jump to the big screen in 2001, culminating in 2011 after the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was split into two films. The Wizarding World hasn’t really stopped since the release of Deathly Hallows, as fans continually revisit the books and films, the whole film series is now available to stream on HBO Max, and Rowling continues to apologize for killing characters every year, though she apparently skipped it in 2019 and this year’s “apology” was aimed at those who have lost loved ones due the coronavirus pandemic. Rowling also made a donation to help the homeless, but those actions have been buried underneath a lot of controversy regarding her comments about the transgender community.
Rowling’s anti-trans controversy began in 2018, when she liked a tweet that referred to trans women as “men in dresses”, which his representative justified by saying it had been done in a “clumsy and middle-aged moment”. In December 2019, Rowling expressed her support for Maya Forstater on Twitter, for which she received immediate backlash. Maya Forstater is a British tax expert whose employer, the Centre for Global Development, decided not to renew her contract after she expressed her views on transgender people. Forstater argued that her views on the matter should be considered a protected belief under the Equality Act 2010, but the court ruled against her and upheld the company’s decision. Many Twitter users asked Rowling to educate herself on the transgender community, and LGBTQ organization GLAAD even asked to have an off-the-record conversation with her, but were reportedly denied by her publicist.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the last time Rowling would share her views on the transgender community, once again facing intense backlash. In June 2020, Rowling shared an article titled “Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate”, where she criticized the phrase “people who menstruate”. The tweet was followed by a thread where she wrote that “if sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased”. Although she insisted on “knowing and loving trans people” as well as respecting “every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them” she also reiterated that she doesn’t believe that it’s “hate to speak the truth”.
Given her past views and comments on feminism, Rowling has been pointed out as a Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF), which is a person who identifies as feminist yet doesn’t believe transgender women are real women. GLAAD once more responded to Rowling’s comment, saying she “continues to align herself with an ideology which willfully distorts facts about gender identity and people who are trans. In 2020, there is no excuse for targeting trans people”, and asked people to back organizations that support transgender individuals.
Rowling’s comments are not only problematic by themselves, as the LGBTQ+ community continues to fight for their rights, acceptance, inclusion, and representation, but because they contradict what she has said and done in the past, especially with the Harry Potter universe. Rowling has said how the Wizarding World is for everyone, yet she continues to exclude transgender women on her daily life. Rowling has also made various changes to Harry Potter canon to seem more inclusive, but her views on gender continue to be a problem that also affects her work, which isn’t as inclusive as she thinks. It’s yet to be seen if this will affect her upcoming projects, such as Fantastic Beasts 3, more so as she hasn’t walked back her anti-trans comments, instead retweeting some that support her views.