Harry Potter Fans Reimagine Their World Without Its Creator

When J.K. Rowling was accused of transphobia about two years ago for “liking” a tweet that referred to transgender women as “men in dresses,” much of the Harry Potter fandom tried to give their beloved author the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it really was just an accident, a “clumsy and middle-aged moment,” as Ms. Rowling’s spokesperson said at the time.

Then people noticed that Ms. Rowling followed commentators on Twitter who described transgender women as men. In December, she made her personal views more clear when she expressed enthusiastic support for a British researcher who filed a lawsuit against her former employer, claiming that she had been discriminated against for her “gender critical” views (i.e. her stance on the fixity of one’s sex at birth).

“It felt like we were waiting for the other shoe to drop,” said Melissa Anelli, a veteran leader in the Potter fandom who co-owns the Leaky Cauldron.

This week, it did.

First, Ms. Rowling took aim at an article that referred to “people who menstruate,” suggesting that it was wrong to not use “women” in a misguided attempt to include trans people. When she received negative response to this, she then published a 3,700-word essay on gender, sex, abuse and fear: “I refuse to bow down to a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators.”

Across the Potter fandom — the first book was published 23 years ago, making it one of the online world’s most enduring fandoms — a conversation began. Some discussions were tense, when fans who sympathized with Ms. Rowling’s views clashed against fans who found them to be odious. Others felt that they could simply turn away from the politics of the real world and focus on what’s happening in the wizarding world.

Among the fans who vehemently reject Ms. Rowling’s views, the discussion is on how to distance or separate themselves from the author who created a fantasy world that animates their lives on a daily basis.