An Open Letter to J. K. Rowling

Please note this post involves discussion of transphobia and some swearing.

Dear Ms. Rowling,

I speak for thousands of people when I say that your Harry Potter series changed my life. The characters were like friends to me, and the books sustained me during the hardest years of my life. Harry’s mental struggle in the fifth book reflected my own, and seeing him get through it gave me strength to go on. Although I am grateful for the books you’ve written, I am saddened by the thoughts you’ve been sharing on Twitter lately, and I would be remiss as a vocal Harry Potter fan if I did not speak out.

In your Tweets, you devalued the experiences of trans women. You equated physical sex to being a woman. And you mocked people for using gender-inclusive language. Although these may seem like small things because it’s “just a Tweet,” they hurt many of the people who love your books, and I am not okay with that.

I will be including images of your Tweets for reference. This is the one I take the most issue with because of the condescending tone you take.

The phrase you’re taking issue with here is “people who menstruate,” which you assert should just be labeled “women.” The problem here, as many people have pointed out, is that not all women menstruate. What about post-menopausal women, who are often around your own age? What about women who take birth control pills to stop menstruation? What about women post-hysterectomy? There are countless medical conditions that cause lack of periods in women, and you aren’t any less of a woman if you don’t have a period.

On the other side, a lot of transgender men have a period. That doesn’t make them any less of a man. Can you imagine how they feel, having their body do something that doesn’t line up with how they perceive themselves, and how they want other people to perceive them? Hermione is so self-conscious about her front teeth that she magically changes her appearance, which you portray as being fine…but somehow it’s different when trans people want to change something about their bodies? You have characters who can literally change their physical appearance to animals. Nymphadora Tonks can change gender whenever she wants to. Why is it okay when you write it, but not in real life?

Language changes. Maybe the word we would have used in the past is “women.” But we’ve learned, as a culture, that there are better ways to say things.

You say that you support transgender people. But what do you mean by “support”?

Ms. Rowling, I agree with you that my life, too, has been shaped by my being female. But trans women aren’t any less of women just because they may have experienced a childhood before they transitioned. Everyone’s life is different.

You say that it’s important for people to be able to “meaningfully discuss their lives.” How do you think trans people will be able to do that if you deny their existence? You are privileging your own feelings as a cisgender woman over the lived identity and experience of transgender women.

You say that would march with trans people if they were being discriminated against, but you don’t see that you are the person doing the discriminating. You don’t see that you are being the Professor Umbridge. And then you play the victim when people call you a TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist).

You talk about “woman-hate,” but it seems to me that calling trans women “men” is the real woman-hate here. By saying that women are only women if they have a uterus, that diminishes the actual definition of being a woman. I am so much more than my reproductive organs. If I didn’t have a uterus, I would still be female. Do you really think that people are just the sum of what’s between their legs?

I understand that it may be uncomfortable at first to change the way you think. But a little discomfort is necessary in order to grow. Harry couldn’t conjure a Patronus at first. If he gave up because he was uncomfortable, he never would have succeeded. If he prioritized his feelings over the good of the world, Voldemort would have won. Harry and his friends taught me that friendship and love are enough for good to win over evil.

Your characters showed me how to stand up for what I believe in. They showed millions of people that good can win over evil, if people are just brave enough to speak out. Harry was accepting and loving – just look at how he treated Luna, an outcast. Those are the morals I try to follow. I guess I just thought that you practiced what you preached.

This letter will be one of thousands that you receive. I don’t really expect you to read this. But maybe it will reach one of your readers and help them see things in a different way. And it will allow me to say that although Harry Potter will always mean something to me, it will now have to come with the asterisk that I don’t agree at all with its author.

To close, I would like to share the response that Daniel Radcliffe had to your Tweets, because I am encouraged by it. In a piece written for the Trevor Project, he writes:

“If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred,” Radcliffe wrote.

Yes, a thousand times. My relationship with the books will always be special to me. And I will always remember the lessons I learned from Harry and his friends.

In solidarity with Harry Potter,

Claire