{"id":568986,"date":"2026-03-29T16:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/568986\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T16:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:51:09","slug":"there-is-no-ethical-consumption-of-hbos-harry-potter-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/568986\/","title":{"rendered":"There is no ethical consumption of HBO\u2019s Harry Potter series"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the coming years, HBO wants its new Harry Potter series<\/a> to become \u201cthe streaming event of the decade<\/a>\u201d as it adapts each of the franchise\u2019s seven original books<\/a>. The show could very well become a hit that captures the imaginations of a new generation of fans who weren\u2019t there for the first wave of Pottermania that intensified with the releases of each book and Warner Bros.\u2019 subsequent film adaptations. And if this Harry Potter is a success, it could give author J.K. Rowling a reason to consider writing more stories set in the magical world that turned her into a billionaire.<\/p>\n

But all of that hinges on whether people will actually watch HBO\u2019s Harry Potter, which is being executive produced by Rowling. In some cases, a franchise\u2019s creator being so closely involved with new versions of their work can be a good thing, but Rowling\u2019s involvement in this show casts a shadow over it that HBO can do very little to counteract. Rowling has made it abundantly clear that she thinks attacking transgender people via the legal system<\/a> is a worthwhile cause and a good use of her vast personal fortune. And as much as Harry Potter fans might be excited to see what HBO has cooked up, there\u2019s no way to watch this show without supporting Rowling\u2019s bigotry and the structural violence she\u2019s inflicting on a vulnerable minority.<\/p>\n

For years, Rowling has trafficked in garden variety transphobia<\/a> under the guise of being a champion for cisgender women\u2019s rights. Last Thursday in a post praising the International Olympic Committee for banning transgender women from competing<\/a>, Rowling implicitly misgendered 2024 boxing gold medalist Imane Khelif<\/a>. The post was the latest instance of Rowling using transphobic dog whistles to attack Khelif, which is what led the athlete to file a criminal complaint against Rowling last summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many people had previously gleaned from Rowling\u2019s online interactions<\/a> with trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs<\/a>) that she might hold transphobic views<\/a>. But it wasn\u2019t until 2019 that she came out as a TERF herself while weighing in on a precedent-setting UK legal battle. On Twitter, Rowling voiced her support for Maya Forstater, a British tax consultant whose contract with the Centre for Global Development was not renewed in response to concerns about her tweeting and retweeting multiple posts misgendering and denying the existence of trans people<\/a>. Forstater \u2014 a self-identified \u201cgender-critical activist<\/a>\u201d \u2014 filed a lawsuit against the CGD and its president Masood Ahmed alleging that her non-renewal was a violation of Britain\u2019s 2010 Equality Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the Equality Act barred discrimination based on \u201cgender reassignment<\/a>,\u201d Forstater claimed that she was being unfairly persecuted for her personal beliefs. One judge tossed the case out, ruling that Forstater\u2019s views were \u201cincompatible with human dignity and fundamental rights of others.\u201d But Forstater was able to appeal, and in 2021, the Employment Appeal Tribunal decided in her favor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rowling\u2019s tweet was not what led to Forstater ultimately receiving \u00a3106,400 ($141,683) in lost earnings and aggravated damages in 2023. But Rowling\u2019s willingness to openly align herself with TERF agitators was significant because she was lending credence to the larger culture of transphobia<\/a> that has plagued the UK for decades. By supporting Forstater, Rowling was encouraging the public to embrace their hateful beliefs and to think of transgender people as threats to society. That kind of rhetoric has been linked to spikes in hate crimes<\/a> directed at queer people. Rowling knows full well that her celebrity helps her amplify transphobic ideology in ways that people like Forstater could not on their own. Rowling also understands that her wealth puts her in a prime position to advance the TERF agenda (read: enforcing gender essentialism and erasing trans people from existence) on a societal level.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what Rowling was doing in 2024 when she donated \u00a370,000 ($93,212)<\/a> to For Women Scotland (FWS), an advocacy group that challenged Scotland\u2019s 2018 Gender Representation on Public Boards Act 2018. The Act\u2019s definition of women included people who had \u201cthe protected characteristic of gender reassignment.\u201d FWS won its initial judicial review in 2022<\/a>, which deemed that defining women was outside of the Scottish Parliament\u2019s purview. That decision was reversed in 2023<\/a>, and in 2024, an amended version of the Scottish Gender Representation Act that used the British 2010 Equality Act\u2019s definition of women \u2014 which included trans women \u2014 was signed into law. That same year, FWS filed and lost another judicial review against the amended Scottish Gender Representation Act challenging its use of the British 2010 Equality Act\u2019s definition. And while FWS could not appeal that decision, the case went all the way to the UK Supreme Court, which ruled<\/a> that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex assigned at birth. To pay for this extensive legal battle, FWS turned to crowdsourcing<\/a>, and Rowling was all too happy to dump tens of thousands of dollars into their cause.<\/p>\n

This UK Supreme Court\u2019s definition is itself problematic because human sex biology is not a binary<\/a>. And in addition to preventing transgender people from having their gender identity legally recognized, the ruling makes it much harder for them to pursue legal action for gender-based discrimination. Rowling celebrated the Court\u2019s decision by posting a photo of herself<\/a> with a very clear message: \u201cI love it when a plan comes together.\u201d The plan in this case was to help bankroll an anti-trans group\u2019s campaign against trans people, and it culminated with the passage of a law that reduces all women living in the UK down to the way their bodies are perceived when they are born.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

A demonstrator holds a placard against author J.K. Rowling during the seventh Trans Pride protest march for transgender freedom and equality in London. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n

Rowling has been transparent about her desire to keep assisting people in their efforts to rob transgender people of their dignity and human rights. That seems very much to be the entire point of The J.K. Rowling Women\u2019s Fund<\/a> \u2014 an organization Rowling launched in 2025 that claims to be \u201cfighting to retain women\u2019s and girls\u2019 sex-based rights in all aspects of life.\u201d The Fund offers financial support provided by Rowling to cisgender women who are looking to file lawsuits. The Fund\u2019s website makes no mention of gender as a concept, but it explicitly points to the For Women Scotland case as the kind of \u201cvictory\u201d that it wants to see more of in the world.<\/p>\n

Rowling has been rich enough to pour cash into organizations like this for some time now because she continues to hold primary intellectual property rights to the entire Harry Potter franchise. Every Harry Potter book, movie<\/a>, video game<\/a>, stage show ticket<\/a>, theme park pass<\/a>, and piece of merchandise that\u2019s sold puts money into Rowling\u2019s pocket, which she can use to keep her crusade against trans people going. Given the property\u2019s lasting popularity, Rowling, who is currently worth about $1.2 billion<\/a>, could probably do all of this even if HBO wasn\u2019t producing a new Harry Potter series. But because the network is and it wants to keep the show going for at least a decade, Rowling will have even more capital at her disposal to impose her retrograde views onto others.<\/p>\n

Clearly, this doesn\u2019t concern HBO\u2019s executive leadership whose primary goals are to boost the company\u2019s stock value while taking home outsized paychecks<\/a> and hefty exit packages<\/a> of their own. But it is absolutely something that HBO\u2019s subscribers should be thinking about as Warner Bros. cranks the Harry Potter hype machine up ahead of the show\u2019s premiere later this year. HBO does not want you to think about how it is platforming a known bigot and making it easier for her to spread patently hateful, harmful messaging that can endanger people. And Rowling would probably rather people not consider the fact that there are plenty of other magical academia series<\/a> to become obsessed with.<\/p>\n

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