The Dark Legacy Of JK Rowling

I have never read a Harry Potter book or seen the films upon which they were based, but as a young fledgling writer, I was inspired the story of J.K. Rowling, herself. I remember having that fire burning within me to create using the written word and Rowling’s story was a powerful motivator for me. In what might have been ripped from one of her own fairytales, a down-on-her-luck woman trapped in the cycle of poverty scribbled her story on a napkin at the diner she frequented. She had no delusions of grandeur or expectation of the success she would see manifest, simply an idea of a little boy wizard who would wage war against the forces of oppression and win… just as Rowling had, against all odds.

JK Rowling had represented something very different to me than she did most Potterheads. Her audience loved her because of Harry Potter. I loved JK Rowling because she inspired me to keep writing.

If you had asked me then if one day I would be writing about the blatant transphobia of a beloved social icon, I would have laughed and dismissed it as ludicrous. Alas, here I am, writing about JK Rowling’s transphobic politics for the fourth- and the last time.

Indeed, in early 2018, I investigated and collected the instances of Rowling’s awkward yet subtle transphobic gestures. Sure, they were just a bizarre “Like” on a tweet that shouted some typical…