Hi Harry Potter Fans (of which I am one-ish).

A number of Trans people have done the labor for you and offered suggestions for still enjoying the HP universe without supporting JK Rowling.

Please stop acting like they've asked you to rip out your heart and display it on a pike.

I'm an HP universe fan. That story build so much of my (closeted) childhood and early adult years. It means a lot to me for what it did for me then. I still feel an intense fondness for it. I still closely relate to "mudblood".

Now that you're nodding in agreement with me -

We have to make a conscious effort to stand in solidarity with those who are harmed by the creator of the world we loved so much (Trans people are not ruining it for anyone, JKR is very happily doing that on her own).

And that means, yes, giving up some VERY SIMPLE THINGS.

Buy second hand books. Buy unofficial merch (bonus points if it's made by LGBTQ artists), attend unofficial rip-off events (my family goes to a Wizards Ball during Christmas and delight in the creative renaming of everything. It is HP without supporting JK.)

If you're in a place to do it, start your own. LARP that shit.

Read fan fiction. WRITE fan-fiction. TAKE HP BACK in the best possible ways.

This is less about hitting JK in the pocketbook (because she has a ton of money, this will not hurt her) and more about standing in

solidarity with the people she harms with her TERFy rhetoric. She has a huge voice, she has a lot of monetary power. She has the power to ACTIIVELY HARM trans communities. And she's making it very clear that she won't even try to be better.

Don't be mad, don't feel bullied, don't get up in arms if a Trans person or anyone else unfollows you because of or speaks out against your HP love. They are protecting themselves from something that brings them pain.

Again - I understand that intense love for the magical aspects of that world, where it felt anything was possible, where many of us identified with the "mudbloods" and won those battles against people who hated us alongside the HP crew.

Our love for the castles, the classes, the field trips, the danger, the magic.

You don't have to give that up.

But, you do need to be aware that JKR did not mean for that to belong to trans people.

And, hopefully, that bothers you. A lot.

Enough to make even the smallest decision to alter your relationship with the fandom, even just a little.

I don't have all the answers. I still love some aspects of HP, I always will. And I am ANGRY at JKR for basically taking that away.

Because, and this is something you need to understand, it was absolutely all her.

Start small if you have to, but start somewhere. It is impossible to totally separate HP from JKR (no matter how much we want to, no matter how desperate we are to pry it from her fingers) and it

is our responsibility to be aware of that.

In the real story, ya'll, JKR is not the hero. She's a deatheater. And this mudblood is and has been done with her.