JK Rowling mocked trans rights activists who said they wouldn’t watch the new Harry Potter TV show because she has “a large stock of champagne” to celebrate.
The author, who is said to be worth £850 million, went on Twitter and said she had “terrible news” for her fans. She then made jokes about people who support equal rights for transgender people.
JK Rowling has been called transphobic because of the many things she has said about the LGBT+ community. For example, she has said that transgenders shouldn’t be able to go to single-s*x spaces that match their gender.
Some people who support trans rights are now calling for a boycott of the new TV show, which will run for ten years and will have Rowling in charge as a producer.
JK Rowling wrote on Friday:
Dreadful news, which I feel duty bound to share. Activists in my mentions are trying to organise yet another boycott of my work, this time of the Harry Potter TV show.
As forewarned is forearmed, I’ve taken the precaution of laying in a large stock of champagne.
Some people on Twitter are asking people who support transgender rights not to watch the show as a show of support for the LGBT+ community.
JK Rowling said later that she was planning a “party” to celebrate the boycott and that she would send details to certain accounts.
When the new TV show was announced, one person said:
Friendly reminder it is SO EASY to boycott Harry Potter. Like so easy.
Another wrote:
Fully expect all of [you] to boycott the Harry Potter show.
A third added:
If y’all really loved Harry Potter as much as you say you do, you’d do what Hermione Granger would do and boycott the corporation that’s supporting a person who’s advocating for oppression.
Y’all just want to stand with JKR because you don’t think. Or you just hate trans people.
HBO Max is making the show, which will have one season for each book and come out over a decade.
The new series will have a whole new group of characters. None of the actors from the original movies will return.
After JK Rowling’s comments, the three main stars, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, all spoke out in support of transgender people.
Along with Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts, JK Rowling has been named an executive producer on the show. David Heyman, who was the executive producer of all of the Harry Potter movies, is in talks to be the executive producer of the new movie.
JK Rowling has also gotten a lot of flak for saying that women shouldn’t lose their jobs for holding views that deny the existence or validity of transgender people because of rigid beliefs about biological s*x.
In another Twitter fight, she attacked musician Billy Bragg after he shared a video of Graham Norton talking about the bad things about cancel culture and encouraging people to talk to transgender children, parents, and doctors before making up their minds about trans issues.
Bragg, who is 64 years old, posted the video and said that Norton was “really good” on the topics of cancel culture and “JK Rowling.”
Rowling saw the tweet and attacked the singer, saying that she was “enjoying the recent trend of bearded men stepping confidently onto their soapboxes to define what a woman is and throw their support behind r*pe and death threats.”
But Bragg never said what a woman was in his first tweet. Instead, he just agreed with Norton’s suggestion that people talk about trans issues with the parents of transgender children or with doctors and psychologists instead of citing celebrity opinions.
After JK Rowling seemed to say that both Norton and Bragg were “misogynists,” she got a lot of pushback on social media for this claim, which she didn’t back up with any proof.
She also got into a fight with Nicola Sturgeon over plans for 16- and 17-year-olds in Scotland to get Gender Recognition Certificates (GRCs). She angered people when she seemed to say that the former SNP leader would be directly responsible for s*xual violence.
In an article for The Sunday Times, JK Rowling said that if the Bill led to “v*yeurism, s*xual harassment, assault, or r*pe,” then Ms. Sturgeon would be held personally responsible.
This is because the author wore a T-shirt that called Ms. Sturgeon a “destroyer of women’s rights” for passing the law that lets trans people identify themselves.
She has also recently backed Posie Parker, who goes by the name Kellie-Jay Keen and says she is an activist for women’s rights.
Parker has never called herself a feminist, but recently she went on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, where many neo-Naz*s went to see her.
At Parker’s rallies, groups of men were seen giving N*zi salutes, and just last week, she caused more trouble when she said that the whole “so-called LGBT community” is just “a bunch of f***ing men in dresses.”
Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, said this about the new Harry Potter show:
We are delighted to give audiences the opportunity to discover Hogwarts in a whole new way.
Harry Potter is a cultural phenomenon and it is clear there is such an enduring love and thirst for the Wizarding World.
In partnership with Warner Bros. Television and J.K. Rowling, this new Max Original series will dive deep into each of the iconic books that fans have continued to enjoy for all of these years.
Max will work with Bront Film and TV and Warner Bros. Television to make the show.
