- Harry Potter Fandoms will be a part of the Fediverse one way or the other. It’s better to shape this development rather than being overwhelmed by it.
- Harry Potter Fandoms are a huge opportunity for the Fediverse. Look at what the collaboration of Lego and Disney brought to Fortnite. People want to spend time in places, in which they feel familiar and welcomed. I’m not saying collaborating with big companies here, what I’m saying is: the Fediverse needs to be filled with life and we have to use that opportunity first, before others do.
- Don’t throw the opinions of J.K. Rowling and its fandom in one bucket. It’s one of the biggest in the world, there is a broad range of opinions and people.
- The Fediverse needs more projects that immediately make sense to people. Projects that you tell a person about, and they say: “Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” Mastodon in comparison to Twitter was such a thing: its billionaire proof. Everybody gets why that’s a good thing. A better, more open place to build Harry Potter fan sites could be another.
- The project (including other places like this that may follow) could also become another attractive place on the Fediverse for the open-source community. Who wouldn’t be excited to help build the world of Harry Potter?
All of this is of course up for discussion. I’m a very stubborn person but I’m also able to listen ;)
Edit: I removed “queer friendly” from the description. Its not a claim that I can fully uphold anyways. Instead, it has a no tolerancy policy against transphobia, which is more clear and probably easier to enforce.
Here is the link: https://diagonlemmy.social
Honestly, it’s not even about JK Rowling, the actual Harry Potter series has very poor values in general, and the world is quite poorly written. Not something I’d want to promote to other people or children regardless of Rowling’s nonsense. The books turned me off very much as a kid though the movies are much more palatable. It’s just a really mean series.
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When I was growing up, a lot of queer kids loved HP. There is a literal potion in the books that completely changes you to another person, including sex. I know a lot of millenial trans people who were able to come out referencing that potion and scene and how they could relate or wish they had that potion.
Imo, the books aren’t that good. For elementary and middle schoolers, sure, but I don’t think JK Rowling is a good author or world builder. I believe the IP/franchise relied heavily on the audience and Rowling backstabbed her queer fans. The same goes for the new game. It’s more open world drivel and I think the only way it got this big is because idiots kept talking about it.
With all of that said, having a community on lemmy that is about Harry Potter, and they are clearly pro-trans/queer, leftists/progressives, and ban any alt-right shitters then that is very good and powerful. It’s so powerful to get more HP fans in more leftist spaces so they can incept those ideas.
It’s so powerful to get more HP fans in more leftist spaces so they can incept those ideas.
That could prove to be harder than expected. I tried to reach out to r/harrypotter but they won’t let me put an advertisement post there :( Turns out that not so surprisingly, these fansites are kind of closed up themselves and until they open themselves up to AP, too, they will be very reluctant to any fediverse clones of them …
I’m now trying to reach out to other fansites. Let’s see.
That’s reddit. They don’t want their users to bleed and the mods that are left are scabs. It will be similar with other sites and it can feel like spam. The best thing you can do is populate the lemmy with HP info and hope it kicks off one day
You’re not hosting a Tucker Carlson server to praise alt-right values
They may as well, to the kids on lemmy, they’re the exact same thing. There’s absolutely no nuance here at all. The hive-mind dictates what governs the outrage.
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Ok thanks :)
This people are probably still on Twitter and Reddit and far from here
Fuck this.
Well, as always I’ll recommend our small existing community !harrypotter@literature.cafe
Literature.cafe is a lovely instance, Gabe the admin is a very nice person.
Good luck with your instance, I’ll probably visit
I second that, happy to hear Gabe is still around, gotta head over there!
Since he is being brought up, you should read exactly what Gabe said about the HP community. Clearly seems uncomfortable by the entire concept.
Gabe was also okay with us keeping the community there. I asked him on Matrix. If you want evidence, they appointed one of my alts as mod, which he shouldn’t have done if he wasn’t okay with the community.
We were ready to move the community elsewhere if Gabe would have preferred us to.
Thanks for the link, and yeah I devoured the books back in the day but wouldn’t recommend them or talk well about them today because the writer went apeshit pro TERF and more. I mean WTF.
direct comm subscribe link !harrypotter@literature.cafe
fyi, Mbin now can utilize the standard ! format
Thank you Mbin expert
Thanks :)
The more the merrier. I will check it out sometime if I find the time.
Best of luck!
Look at what the collaboration of Lego and Disney brought to Fortnite.
I’m not sure if this is the example you want to follow
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I’m sorry, but as a cis heterosexual man who has trans friends and has turned away from all things Harry Potter and JK Rowling in utter disgust, this strikes me as attempting to ignore the obvious transphobia of the TERF author in the hope of keeping your head in the sand and residing in a place of nostalgia solely because transgendered people aren’t the majority.
I get your desire to grow the Fediverse, but if you want to create a community around a fandom, perhaps you should choose a piece of media that embraces inclusion rather than one that is simply popular?
Stop looking into your past fandoms with nostalgic rose tinted glasses, acknowledge that you can’t have Hogwartz without the hatred, and find media that is straight up more inclusive.
I don’t think it’s particularly hard to find authors who aren’t actively spreading hate, actually. And I don’t think Rowling’s level of transphobia is a particularly specific purity test.
Plus, Rowling takes an active role in promoting hate. She’s loud about it. She has a big platform because HP is so popular, and I think that makes her especially dangerous.
She certainly seems to put her money where her mouth is too.
I’ve read Rowlings original HP books. They were decent. My current stance is as simple as no longer supporting her work nor supporting groups that continue to. I’m calling out you and anyone else that thinks they can some how support trans rights and still enjoy the HP universe. You’re trying to absolve yourself of somehow not being in the company of transphobic Harry Potter fans, when you clearly are. That doesn’t make you inherently transphobic, but it does indicate that you love HP more than you dislike JK’s transphobic rhetoric. Sure you can verbally condemn JK’s transphobic rhetoric, but if you continue to engage with her content after having knowledge of her bigotry, it indicates you’re willing to turn a blind eye to hate speech in the interest of nostalgia. Probably also out of loneliness and a desperation for community.
Where do the trans people that still like Harry Potter fit in in your world?
Holy fuck. I like Harry Potter and want to speak about it, so what? Because JK made a few announcements? Words do damage and I get that it’s already hard being trans and she isn’t helping. But acting like this is just building more walls, dividing an already fucked humankind for no good reason.
I respect anyone’s choice to be trans, but then you’ll have to let me discuss HP without judgement as well. And if you won’t, then you’re the problem. Because I will still respect anyone trans, but I won’t respect you.
Sure, the human race is particularly divided right now, but trying to create a fan group around a brand founded by an outspoken outright TERF who has done real harm to a marginalized group deserves to be called out for what it is: a group willing to turn a blind eye to hate speech.
Saying we can somehow separate the good the work has done for some people, from the harm the author has done to the specific minority of trans people, is naive at best, and sympathizing with bigotry at worst.
Think about the community you’re trying to create. It is inherently anti-trans, by the very nature of it’s association with the author.
But hey, if that’s the kind of company you’d like to keep, then at least we all know who you like to associate with.
It’s not inherently anti-trans. How can you say that, can’t you see what OP wrote? And then you’re trying to put a stample on me for not being a good enough supporter of the cause, so bring out the guillotines! Sometimes I feel like the trans communities greatest enemy is it’s strongest proponents.
You can’t speak for every trans person, neither can I. But if you think no one trans likes HP, or think that if someone trans likes HP they aren’t really trans, then you can fuck right off. And if that’s not what you’re saying, then let it be?
People are weird, let them. If they aren’t actively trashing other people they aren’t doing harm. Stop being upset about things no one’s yet to do to you. You just come of as an leftist incel.
in my friend groups, quite a few people are binging hogwarts legacy at the moment.
most of them are trans. nobody is outraged. they just have jk blocked on twitter. they’re still potter fans.
there’s an obsessive hate in a lot of trans communities that nobody talks about. the “you like this book series so you’re a terf!” type mentality is really tiresome.
Its not lost on trans activists that trans people themselves can engage in the same type of careless behavior that results in the support of bigotry.
If they enjoy HP, that’s fine, but to deny that positive discourse around the franchise supports JKR and subtly and overtly, as well as reinforces her bigotry, is naive.
There are plenty of people who are willing to do the easy thing even if it ends up being harmful to themselves and others. Trans people are no exception to this kind of behavior.
It’s not like I haven’t encountered abrasive trans people, but oftentimes their anger and resentment comes from a place that is completely understandable. They often have to put so much of their grievances aside to assuage the masses because otherwise they are immediately villified, even amongst those that are supposed to be their supporters.
I personally don’t have much respect for those that are willing to turn a blind eye to the harm others obviously do just to go support them directly or indirectly for the sake of enjoying a piece of somewhat entertaining content.
The discomfort of seeing trans people getting angry about this shouldn’t inherently mean whoever brought up the grievance in a vehement manner ia immediately in the wrong. Sure, maybe they were a jerk about expressing it, but it doesn’t mean they were wrong. And dancing around it trying to be nice about the ”seeing both sides of the story" disxourse has proven ineffective at changing the discourse, so yeah, people are emptional and human and get frustrated when they dont feel heard, so they shout.
They know it won’t help, but what other option have you left them then? You’ve proven with your words, silence, actions, and inactions, that ultimately you don’t stand with them. You stand with HP, and as uncomfortable a truth as it is that you all refuse to acknowledge, you stand with JKR.
Not a quote. You’re intentionally misinterpreting what I posted. I’ll just keave this here for you to read again because you obviously would rather engage in throwing hot garbage around than produce a valid counterpoint.
My original post again was:
Its not lost on trans activists that trans people themselves can engage in the same type of careless behavior that results in the support of bigotry.
If they enjoy HP, that’s fine, but to deny that positive discourse around the franchise supports JKR and subtly and overtly, as well as reinforces her bigotry, is naive.
There are plenty of people who are willing to do the easy thing even if it ends up being harmful to themselves and others. Trans people are no exception to this kind of behavior.
It’s not like I haven’t encountered abrasive trans people, but oftentimes their anger and resentment comes from a place that is completely understandable. They often have to put so much of their grievances aside to assuage the masses because otherwise they are immediately villified, even amongst those that are supposed to be their supporters.
I personally don’t have much respect for those that are willing to turn a blind eye to the harm others obviously do just to go support them directly or indirectly for the sake of enjoying a piece of somewhat entertaining content.
The discomfort of seeing trans people getting angry about this shouldn’t inherently mean whoever brought up the grievance in a vehement manner ia immediately in the wrong. Sure, maybe they were a jerk about expressing it, but it doesn’t mean they were wrong. And dancing around it trying to be nice about the ”seeing both sides of the story" disxourse has proven ineffective at changing the discourse, so yeah, people are emptional and human and get frustrated when they dont feel heard, so they shout.
They know it won’t help, but what other option have you left them then? You’ve proven with your words, silence, actions, and inactions, that ultimately you don’t stand with them. You stand with HP, and as uncomfortable a truth as it is that you all refuse to acknowledge, you stand with JKR.
I’m somehow failing to find your misquote within my original post. Could you please point out which line has this hot garbage?:
“those trans people don’t act the same way as me, so they’re obviously wrong.”
Cuz nowhere did I even indicate this. I don’t want them to think the same as me. I’m expressing my opinion that you obviously disagree with. But to misquote me is petty and pointless. Either present a valid counterpoint or take your ball and go home.
Sorry, but no. You can sit by the sidelines and cause harm. It’s been done many times over throughout history, and sadly I’m sure we’ll see it again. I’m literally witnessing a bunch of people ignore the plight of a marginalized group right here, right now.
I’m calling it out because it’s exactly that. It’s literally the least amount of effort I can put in while still doing what I think is right, not fucking nothing, and certainly not engaging in a community that is transphobe adjacent.
Again, company you keep reflects on you, ignoring a problem can be just as harmful as actively causing harm under certain circumstances.
Are these those specific circumstances? Maybe not. But I’ll be damned if I don’t call out indifference to suffering when I see it, which is exactly what this is.
I’m not speaking for all trans people. I’m speaking for me. It’s the internet, try and stop me. If any person, trans or otherwise, wants to engage with me and argue why I’m wrong and presents a solid argument, I’d be more than happy to hear it.
But so far, all I’m hearing is a bunch of pearl clutching rhetoric dancing around the fact that to support HP in any way shape or form can only help JKR, and by proxy, her transphobic agenda. If that’s what you all want to do, then go ahead. But don’t pretend that’s not what’s happening.
I get it, you think you’re doing good, I’d ask you to reconsider that. You’re claiming someone is doing something no one has even considered yet. Judge the result, not your idea of what they’re trying to do. You’re painting a monster no one else sees.
I won’t answer your second post to me since it wasn’t targeted at you, and I’m lazy.
Judge the result, not your idea of what they’re trying to do.
Yeah. That wait and see approach hasn’t usually worked out for minorities…
You’re painting a monster no one else sees.
No. I’m pointing out that due to nostalgia and a desire for community, HP fans willing to turn a blind eye to the hateful rhetoric of JKR are engaging with transphobic communities, even if the community rules attempts to discourage outright hate speech. If you can’t see how that’s harmful, you’re blind.
I won’t answer your second post to me since it wasn’t targeted at you, and I’m lazy.
Fair enough, though I’m happy to engage in discourse on that point as well.
for no good reason.
Seems like a pretty good to reason.
And choice to be trans? I dunno if it’s a choice anymore than I “choose” to love the same sex.
I don’t mean you can’t choose to stay clear of HP yourself. What I’m hinting at is that you can disassociate with a group without the drama. HP fans aren’t all bigots, that’s obvious right? I like Wagner’s music, I’m not a fucking Nazi. It’s such a weird hill to die on with everything going on.
And choice to be trans? I dunno if it’s a choice anymore than I “choose” to love the same sex.
It’s not the point, and I hope you got that but just couldn’t leave without slapping my wrist.
Yeah words matter. But thanks for clarifying it wasn’t your point.
Nobody’s gonna call you a Nazi for liking Wagner. But I will say you like Hitler’s favorite musician and if you start hanging out with other Wagner enthusiasts, you might very well find yourself in the company of Nazis. Sure they aren’t all Nazis, and I’m sure that if you were to find out some or most of them were , you’d rightly distance yourself from the group. Right?
My original argument isn’t about the quality of the works in question, it’s about whether it’s okay to ignore the hateful rhetoric of JKR and the harm she causes trans people with said rhetoric, solely in the interest of creating and engaging in community around her work.
It’s insensitive to a group already marginalized in societies at large because to form a community around HP inherently excludes them, not because trans people can’t see the value in HP or it’s literary quality, but because they can’t disassociate the work from the author. JKR is a TERF, has helped spearhead a TERF movement amongst her accolades, targeting trans people specifically with hate speech, all within recent memory.
Additionally, Wagner, while a controversial figure as Hitler’s favorite musician, was never explicitly anti-semitic. The same cannot be said of JK Rowling and her transphobic rhetoric. So the comparison isn’t quite as astute as you might believe it to be.
“choice to be trans”
Well there you go, transphobia pretending to disguise itself. Go ahead and try to justify your wording, you’ve already lost plenty of people’s respect. Of course if that “doesn’t matter” to you, you probably shouldn’t have brought it up.
So where’s do trans people that still like Harry Potter fit into your equation?
Should we just ignore what they think?
Nah. Didn’t call you or anyone else a transphobe. Did i? Make your case that you’re not simply wanting to enjoy HP while ignoring how hurtful JK’s rhetoric has been to the trans community. You’re turning a blind eye to the pain a minority community is enduring. That doesn’t make you a transphobe, that makes you indifferent to the harm that trans people have and will continue to endure because of JK’s transphobic bigotry.
The company you keep isn’t inherently transphobic, but it does show you don’t care about this particular issue, which puts you in the company of transphobes. Again, the company you keep reflects on your character. And I personally find that crowd distasteful, and I’m on the internet expressing it as such until the conversation ends.
I await another one of your witty retorts.
So the trans people that still like Harry Potter don’t mean anything?
Could you provide the instance url?
diagonlemmy.social
When you say “queer friendly”, are you, the admin of the instance, gender diverse and thus directly impacted by Rowling’s transphobia? Because that’s the only voice that I’m open to hearing “queer friendly” from when it comes to Potter and Rowling.
If you’re not impacted by her bigotry, you have no place claiming that it’s queer friendly, whilst actively refusing to engage with the reality of her transphobia.
When you say “queer friendly”, are you, the admin of the instance, gender diverse and thus directly impacted by Rowling’s transphobia?
No, I’m not. With “queer friendly” I wanted to signal my good intentions here. I don’t want to call it a safe space, because I’m not able and also not willing to provide this. Possibly in the future there will be other H.P. instances that are also safe® spaces.
So yeah, “queer friendly” is more like a ideal/commitment that I want to try to hold rather than a promise/claim. Or that what was I tried to do here.
If you have a different phrase that could reflect this more accuratly, I will be happy to consider it.
Their rules post also doesn’t say
anything about transphobic content whatsoeverthey see the fandom as not inherently sharing the creators viewsWhy lie about something that we all can easily verify for ourselves?
Rule 1: Before using the website, remember you will be interacting with actual, real people and communities. DiagonLemmy.Social is not a place for you to attack other groups of people. Every one of our users has a right to browse and interact with the website and all of its contents free of treatment such as harassment, bullying, racism, antisemitism, discrimination, transphobia, hate speech, violation of privacy or threats of violence.
Ah yeah the one line, you’re right.
What I should’ve said is that I’d expect something more substantial, distancing the community from Rowlings stance.
edit: I’ve changed it to clarify.
“The rule isn’t there!”
“Yes it is.”
“Okay, but now the rule should be something more that I just now decided on.”
Like, my guy… It’s a community for people who want to discuss a story about wizards and magic. What do they need to do to score with these shifting goalposts, take a blood pact denouncing Rowling? They already said no transphobic content is allowed. That already covers it.
Yeah no you’re right, I was wrong. It seemed like they would’ve made a bigger deal about it considering the title of this post.
No one cares what you think
So if I’m not both a woman and a man I can’t see sexism? That’s an easy way out of responsibility.
it has a no tolerancy policy against transphobia
Does this include discussion of Rowlings current work like Bad Blood?
I ask because it gets to the core of why “separate art from artist” can’t apply when you are promoting the works of active bigots. Reading Poe or Seuss harms no one, but starting a community to promote upcoming projects from a bigots, such as the TV show or the games.
It feels HP fans want to have their cake and eat it to, you can’t be a trans ally AND be promoting the works of someone who uses that capital to actively harm trans folk. Which is why so many trans people are asking you to stop.
You and other trans who are asking people to stop are missing one important point: Harry Potter is the reason many trans people are still alive.
A story can walk farther even if the storyteller faltered sooner.
You have to understand that people often lose their way. It’s in the nature of many humans to do so.
Harry Potter is the reason many trans people are still alive.
And transphobia in main stream society is why many trans people are NOT alive today. Something that Rowling directly perpuates via Harry Potter. Every bathroom bill she champions and every trans inclusive space she attacks is part of this. Without question she is the biggest most influential name when it comes to transphobia. You can wax poetic that she “lost her way” and think of the good ole days but that doesn’t change the fact that her current actions are directly causing harm and the trans community is asking you to please stop celebrating her work. Rowling herself sees her continued public support of her work as direct endorsement of her bigoted views.
So if you truly do want to prioritize miniziming self harm then please understand how your actions and this community is supporting harm.
whoa, was Voldemort after them?
Its H.P. themed not Rowling themed. If they want to talk about Bad Blood in the literature section, sure. Like on all other literature instances, too. If its explicitly transphobic, its not.
Okay, but can you understand how that logic isn’t very consistent? Bad Blood itself is itself explicitly transphobic (a male killer dressing as a woman specfically to stalk women in the bathroom), it’s inherently biased bigoted propaganda. So discussion of the text would be allowed in literature section. Just not if it were transphobic?
You are trying to have it both ways. It’s easy enough to say you won’t allow transphobic content, but not to understand what that is nor listen trans folk pointing it out.
I mean frankly, you are gonna have the community regardless what I or any other trans person say, which is your right. Just please acknowledge that this isnt how an ally would act. It’s actively cognitive dissonance to have a nontransphobic discussion of Bad Blood or any of Rowlings work.
So discussion of the text would be allowed in literature section. Just not if it were transphobic?
No, I meant that it wouldn’t be put to discussion if it were transphobic. It would need to be decided just like for any other book. I just don’t want to pre-empitively outrule the book because I don’t know it AND because the situation hasn’t arised yet.
But yeah, we can assume that it would happen. Its a fair question. Probably I or the mods would have to do some reading and then decide. But that holds for any controverse book.
Now, the question is, if in doubt, would I rather ban the book discussion or not, I would be on the side of allowing it, because banning books from discussion is a very radical step and then see if any transphobic comments pop up around it.
I mean frankly, you are gonna have the community regardless what I or any other trans person say, which is your right.
That’s true, it was never up for discussion; I mean, it was some work to put it up. But I’m interested in your opinions around it. Just because it will not be a safe place for queer folks (I have neither the resources nor the skills), it can still be a generally welcoming place to them (hopefully).
I wanna share with you something a therapist said to me a few years ago, a trans black man. (his race shouldn’t matter, but when I have talked about this story before I am told its important context). Are you familiar with mammy dolls? Wiki has pictures at the bottom and google will bring up a ton of stuff. You can go to basically any thrift store and probably find some.
Anyways, he told me that when he would go to an acuiqtances house some of them would have these dolls, usually little salt’n’pepper shakers. And how seeing those items would radically change how he viewed that person. He said it was common for his host to realize his reaction to them, and talk about how it was a family heirloom and that they aren’t racist. But, if an individual person is fine with a little racial sterotype out on their dinner table, Dmitri told me it didn’t really matter what they said next. Because he knew they were willing to look the other way when it comes to racism, and that if it ever came to it, that person probabbly couldn’t be counted on to help if he were the subject of some sort of racial abuse. Very much the same way people defend the confederate flag, it’s easy enough to say you aren’t racist but if you can’t even look at your own actions, how could you possibly speak to others?
I am glad you are interested in not having a transphobic space, but I need you to understand that having a harry potter is inherently looking the other way on transphobia. It tells the world that it’s not a deal breaker and you can work around it because you have good memories of the piece in past. It’s easy to say you don’t agree with Rowlings views but if you can’t even stop from celebrating her work, then how much can any one really expect of you to be an ally? The simplest ask of “please stop promoting bigots” is apparently too much to ask.
You aren’t morally required to be a trans ally I suppose, but it’s important to me that you understand it’s an oxymoron to have a harry potter community that is welcome for trans people. You can absolutely find black people with confederate flags and you can find the same for trans people liking HP, but they are absolutely the minority and the vast majority of those group find those sorts of things threatening. Seeing how easy it is for groups of people to ignore that in favor of a nostalgia, reminds us how close to the edge of society we are.
It’s not your fault that harry potter communities make me feel unsafe. But it is a common trigger for TONS of trans people about anxiety, dread and fear for the future. I’m sure you have never been in a trans support group, but please understand that HP is brought up often because its something that cause stress in the overwhelming majority of trans folk. I personally have been harassed by people wearing HP shirts, even if you and others are willing to look the other way on it, you must understand that other TERFs go to HP because of the transphobia.
But I’m interested in your opinions around it.
So there you go. Thank you for listening to my opinion, you are of course always well within your rights to do or read whatever you like. I just ask that you please stop promoting, financially support and publicly celebrating bigots. I would say the same thing to fans of The Turner Diaries and of Finders-Keepers.
Look, first of all I’m not trans, I don’t know how its like, and you have my sympathy. The inzident with the H.P. fans harassing you sounds horrible and I’m sorry it happened to you.
Independent from this, I don’t think the world of H.P. itself is transphobic, if it was written by a different author there would still be things to critize but not more than many other childrens books. Also, I think that the fandom can free itself from Rowling in the sense that it becomes an independent thing from the author. For example the Lord of the Rings Series by Amazon Prime did some central things different than Tolkien. I think that’s how cultural development happens in contrast to just boycotting it. On the other hand, while Rowling still earns money from it and spends it for bad causes, there will always be a moral dilemma. But I’m willing to take the consequences of that moral dilemma in this case, because I think the H.P. fandom could be really good for the Fediverse and grow it, and a big Fediverse will be good for the world.
Additionally I have to add that, imo, throwing fashists and neo-nazis like David Duke into one bucket with Rowling is problematic, if not borderline totalitarian (and also just tasteless), because she simply isn’t. She is very conservative, but not a fascist. Fascists see certain groups of people as less human or not even humans at all, Rowling always said her arguments have nothing to do with the humans themselves, which is a crucial thing.
Thank you for the reply and for continuing to talk with me about this.
imo, throwing fashists and neo-nazis like David Duke into one bucket with Rowling is problematic, if not borderline totalitarian (and also just tasteless), because she simply isn’t.
I understand why you think I am flying off the handle and comparing two things that aren’t the same. But there are a couple points I want you to keep in mind,
A)
Rowling herself has actively promoted self described fascists on multiple occasions. Matt Walsh in the US who repeatedly calls for, and his followers commit acts of violence at hospitals.
And Posie Parker in the UK. Who has a large nazis following her show up at her protests. And rowling herself was critical of the counter protesters at faccistic events, while not speaking to the Nazis there.
Posie has actively called for her supports to carry guns in to womens bathrooms to look for trans folk, clearly calling for violence.
“I’m talking about you dads, who maybe carry – I think that’s what you say, I’m so down with the American lingo. Maybe you carry, maybe you don’t. Maybe you consider yourself a protector of women, maybe you’re that sort of man. Maybe you have a daughter or a mother, or a wife, maybe you have a sister. Maybe you have friends, maybe you just think women are human and you don’t need any absolute connection with them to feel compelled to protect us. I think you should start using women’s toilets, men.”
B)
TERF transphobia is deeply rooted in the history fascism, the first books the nazis book burned were at a queer college studying trans topics. According to Nazi’s, trans people are a jewish plot.
The era of extreme Jewish intellectualism is now at an end. The breakthrough of the German revolution has again cleared the way on the German path
-Jospeh Grobels who gave a speech at the burning.
C)
“One thing that it’s crucial to understand about the far right, the extreme right, the Nazi guys, is the way that they obsessively see absolutely fucking everything as a Jewish plot,” says author and hate researcher Talia Lavin, author of Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy. “And the existence of trans people is a huge one.”
Rowling is an active part of a violent fascist movement both from a historical sense, from her current actions and in the books she writes. Harry Potter has many antisemitic tropes in the goblins, overtly racist names like the black wizard Shacklebolt and transphobia by repeatedly describing female villains to have “man hands”. There is ample evidence to put JK Rowling, Matt Walsh, Posie Parker and David Duke in the same fascist basket.
Which is why, symbols from those people make marginalized people feel uncomfortable. When you say you want a trans friendly harry potter space, it sounds like you are hanging a confederate flag because of your heritage and ignoring the ways that symbol is being used to harm people. I am not the only trans person I know that has been targeted by people wearing harry potter merch, they look for us. We know the community builders, while maybe not transphobic look the other way as it’s not a dealbreaker for the book. It’s hard not to wonder where else they look the other way. Which is why the community inherently makes me feel unsafe, and I think creating one is not how someone who supports our rights to exist would act.
Ok, so she allies with some weird people. Didn’t know that and its not great, but it doesn’t make her a fascist. Being a fascist corresponds to a fascist mindset. I think her books, opinions and also the fantastic beast films show that she has liberal mindset, and she is strongly against fascism.
But I hear you, I guess the whole cultural fight has a bigger urgency for you. I’m also panicking that we really drift towards fascism again. But for me, I analyze the problem different and therefore draw different conclusions.
For me, this is about a bigger conflict within the democratic forces in general and especially within the Left. For years now, the common mindset was that of deconstruction, that of dismanteling structures and hierarchies. However, turns out that if you see in every structure and hierarchy the possibility for “colonialism” and “micro-aggressions” and you dismantel that on and on, you end up with no structures, which, surprise: leads to evil, anti-democratic structures to develop. For me, the Post-Colonialist-Left has lost all credibility after the terrorist attack by the Hamas on Israel, because many of them openly appreciated or at least downplayed it. Antisemitism is a problem on the left.
So yeah, Rowling has a point that anti-liberal-tendencies have grown over the years, as holds for a limiting of free speech (Salman Rushdie also signed the letter that she signed a few years ago calling for more free speech). But for me, this comes from the post-colonalist-left, which is currently kind of shattered anyways (and also right-wing-populism, of course). However, Rowling argues that the queer/trans movement is anti-liberal and that’s also were she loses me, because thats a talking-point of the right, on which, like you said, they only too eagerly jump on. In russia, they have declared LGBTQ as a terrorist group, which is really bad for the people there.
But the forces that are pro-democracy quickly need to unite again. In this sense, from my point of view, by building something that is not perfect from the beginning, I do something to strengthen liberal democracy, which is also good for trans people.
Best of Luck to you. I find that a creator is indelibly linked to their creation, while they are still living (and their beliefs definitely color it long after they are dead). So, while Rowling draws breath, I endeavor to give her neither profit nor advertising. I do absolutely understand the draw that the fandom has, despite the very problematic aspects of the setting - I’m not going to shit on what people enjoy, though I think that acknowledging the problematic is important.
More than anything, I see that there are a lot of extremely creative people in the fandom. This is easy to prove. You just need to look at all of the cosplayers over the years that have made their own costumes from scratch. I hope that some channel that creative energy into making something better and more inclusive (that doesn’t fund hate against trans people).
The crass may say “don’t hate the player, hate the game”, but a more accurate way to get the point across is that one can indeed separate the content from the creator and should not be judged for it.
Jewish people can watch Disney movies and not have to consider that Walt Disney was a huge anti-semite and a terrible human being.
People use Linux and don’t even care that Torvolds is no stranger to controversy himself.
It’s OK to like a story and not like the person who wrote it.
