Harry Potter fan sites distance themselves from JK Rowling over transgender comments
Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron published a joint statement condemning the author’s position
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Your support makes all the difference.Two of the biggest Harry Potter fan sites have distanced themselves from JK Rowling because of her beliefs on transgender issues.
Websites The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet released a joint statement saying that the best-selling author’s views on “marginalised people” are ”out of step with the message of acceptance and empowerment we find in her books and celebrated by the Harry Potter community”.
Both websites announced they would no longer be providing links to Rowling’s personal website, using photographs of her, or writing about her achievements that are unrelated to the world of Harry Potter.
The statement also said that Rowling had voiced “harmful and disproven beliefs about what it means to be a transgender person”.
Last month, Rowling was criticised after posting a series of tweets that were widely described as “anti-trans”, which she then followed with a lengthy blog post. The essay was criticised by LGBT+ advocacy groups and others for containing inaccuracies and perpetuating harmful beliefs about transgender people.
The fan sites have more than one million combined Facebook followers. In their statement, they said that members have found it difficult to speak out against the author having respected her work for so long, but specified that “it would be wrong not to use our platforms to counteract the harm she has caused”.
“Our stance is firm: transgender women are women,” they continued. “Transgender men are men. Non-binary people are non-binary. Intersex people exist and should not be forced to live in the binary. We stand with Harry Potter fans in these communties.”
Rowling recently tweeted fulsome praise of seminal horror novelist Stephen King, but deleted her comment when the Misery author tweeted back: “Trans women are women.”
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