How Many More Times Can We Say It? Your Harry Potter Addiction Is Funding Transphobia

An anti-trans group called For Women Scotland is crowdfunding their legal challenge over the Scottish government’s definition of the word ‘woman’ in the 2018 Gender Representation on Public Boards Act. To quote Pink News, ‘The legislation aims to ensure public boards have a 50% women gender balance in non-executive member positions, and it includes a definition of the word “woman” that is inclusive of trans women who have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). FWS argued including trans women in this definition would impact women’s rights and expressed concerns about wider implications for single-sex spaces.’ The group lost their appeal at the Court of Session in November but were granted permission this month to appeal the decision to the UK Supreme Court. They just received £70,000 from one user under the name ‘JK.’ It’s J.K. Rowling. The accompanying post said, ‘You know how proud I am to know you. Thank you for all your hard work and perseverance. This is truly a historic case.’

I’m not sure I can shout it from the rooftops anymore. Harry Potter fans: this is where your money is going. This is where the cash you handed over is being put to use. Do you even care?

There is a part of me that wants to be kind to these Potter devotees, to the people who clearly got a lot from these novels and owe them much. Once upon a time, I was that kid who adored the series and found a gateway to something greater than myself through them. The truth, however, is that I have nothing but contempt for full-blown tax-paying adults who keep giving J.K. Rowling their money. I have true disdain for those my age and older who wave around their plastic wands and talk about how they’re such a Hufflepuff as they go to see the awful West End and Broadway show, visit the set tour, and buy new Hogwarts pajamas. It’s exhausting to log onto the hellscape that is the internet and see people dictate their entire lives based on a book series written by a woman who hates trans people enough to fund efforts to strip them of their legal and personal dignity. Are the Slytherin scarves worth it? Is having that Dumbledore Funko Pop enough of a salve to your conscience? When you know exactly where the money is going - and we are long past the point of even the most wilful ignorance on that topic - how many cuddly Hedwigs and visits to those terrible Fantastic Beasts movies does it take to block out the noise?

It’s tough to accept that, for a huge chunk of people, this is simply a matter they can afford to overlook. That or they outright don’t have to care. I get countless social media recommendations for accounts and users fawning over Potter paraphernalia and showing off their fourth or fifth purchase of the books (but these editions are prettier and more expensive!) The comments sections are always flooded with people bragging that they put down their hard-earned cash for more Rowling crap. This isn’t even taking into account the transphobes who view their financial support of Rowling as a symbol of their hate-fuelled activism. I’m just talking about the chumps for whom a few moments of personal pleasure regarding a series of children’s books is worth the sacrifice to a marginalized populace’s human rights. How do you even begin to combat the people who know what’s going on and still do it, especially when they make up such a powerful portion of the capitalistic market?

A lot of people see their spending power as being totally divorced from the world at large. Every day, we’re plagued by difficult decisions about where our money should go and how we square our ethics with the crushing reality of a cost-of-living crisis. Sometimes, we can’t afford to buy organic or get those shoes that are pricier but will last longer. But often, it feels like some smarmy losers use the very true ethos of ‘there is no ethical consumption under capitalism’ as a cheap excuse to satisfy their vainest urges. It’s evident in every influencer who does a Shein haul and then claims it’s a way to appeal to lower-income followers (it’s not. It never is.)

It’s just a book, right? You can buy it and not endorse J.K. Rowling’s transphobia, surely? It’s the age-old ‘art versus artist’ question. Well, as we’ve talked about before, separating the art from the artist in the modern day is a stickier quandary when money is involved, and with Rowling, a creator more thoroughly in control of her vast-reaching IP than any other figure in a similar situation, she has been vocal about where her profits go. Indeed, she’s also been happy to brag that her big sales and decades of success shield her from any real accountability, and are implicit endorsements of her politics.

Just think about that number for a while. £70,000. That’s $88,726.61, according to the exchange rate as of the writing of this piece. The median average salary for all workers in the UK is £27,756. According to Forbes, the average American salary is $59,428 a year. Rowling dropped more than both of those numbers on one thing, and that one thing is hate. What would be life-changing money to the vast majority of us is pocket change for her, and it’s going towards a vile group who want trans people to suffer in MY country. Last year, it was reported that transphobic hate crimes in Scotland were rising faster than any other hate crime. Imagine if Rowling had put that money towards helping LGBTQ+ people. Think of the difference it could have made. Instead, she’s handed it over to a group of bullies who think hate crimes aren’t enough. Was the Hogwarts hardback edition worth it?

I feel like I write a version of this article every month, and even then, I still feel like we’re a minority amid a rising tide of transphobia in the worldwide media. I’m sick to the back teeth of repeating myself, of hoping that maybe one of these Potter-heads will finally say enough is enough. Many of your fellow fans have been there and gone through that realization. Why does your made-up world matter more than the one we live in? It’s long past time to read another book and take responsibility for where your support lies.