To everyone who thinks jkr is a good person:

This is probably gonna be my only post here, I just wanted to see what ppl thought of someone who is so transphobic that they use the money the earn from theyre books and use it to pay for lawyers to help other transphobic ppl. And also to everyone who’s saying to “separate the books from the author” you can if you want but to me- her only asian character is called “Cho Chang” her only Irish character is called “Seamus Finneagan” and is obsessed with blowing stuff up and in hogwarts legacy the only trans character that was put in for publicity is called “SIRona RYAN”. So if I could separate the books from the author, I would, but her beliefs and views are ingrained so deeply within the books that it’s impossible.

@Majickk Mischiefs I agree with this- as a bi woman with a trans cousin I think that the money people are paying her is directly being used to hurt LGBTQ+ and especially mtf ppl. She posts regularly about how trans ppl “aren’t real” or “are trying to attack women” or some other nonsense.

I would also like to point out that I believe seamus’ obsession with blowing stuff up is because of the troubles in Ireland where many people were killed when we were trying to regain control of our own country. It’s not funny to joke about and it’s not even in the past- people I know still suffer from injuries after bomb attacks and my own granny was supposed to have gone into town the same day a bomb went off there.

^^^ Cho Chang isn’t described as Asian in the books — that comes from the films. There are definitely wizards of Asian descent though, like Padma and Parvati.

P. S. It’s actually not surprising that there aren’t many Asian characters in the series, since it’s set in Britain.

Also, Seamus blowing things up isn’t in the books; that was added in the films to give him an iconic quirk.

P.S. I’m really sorry your gran almost had to go through that. Glad she’s okay.

Sirona Ryan is the only trans character in the whole franchise, though the name isn’t meant to be interpreted that way. Rowling didn’t have control over the game development; the developers did, and they actually came out as accepting of trans people.

Cho Chang is obviously meant to be Asian in the books, and the name is somewhat problematic. I think that came out of ignorance more than malice though.

Seamus blowing stuff up comes from the movie, not the book. That gag presumably came from Chris Comumbus or Steve Kloves, not from Rowling. It also isn’t clear if that gag was an intentionally reference to the IRA, or of they just didn’t think through the ramifications of that gag.

Serona came from the video game. JK didn’t have direct input on the game, and she probably never would have included a trans character who is portrayed positively like Serona is if she did have input. I think she was kind of their attempt at doing damage control. Like “see, we’re not transphobic like JK, we have a trans character. You can buy our game without feeling guilty.” I don’t think the name was meant to have any deeper meaning.

I agree that the name Cho Chang is stereotypical, but since Chang is an incredibly common last name, it's not in any way unrealistic. I live in the US and I know several people of Asian descent with the last name Chang.

Yes, JKR is transphobic, but there's nothing transphobic engrained in Harry Potter.

I personally can't stand JKR, but I think it's rather ridiculous to claim that the HP books are racist and homophobic and whatever.

I don’t know a lot about Asian names, but my understanding is that Cho Chang would not actually work as a real name. I think Cho and Chang are both last names from different languages, or something like that. In general, the books are a product or their time. Every major character in the books is white. There are a few minor characters like Cho and Kingsley that aren’t white, but nobody really significant. In the 90s, there wasn’t the same emphasis on diversity that there is now. It was considered pretty normal to have stories where everyone was white. It is unfortunate, but I think in this case JK is willing to admit that she was wrong, since she does seem to encourage making Hermione black in Cursed Child and Snape black in the TV show.

I think it is very unlikely that JK had strong opinions on trans people in the 90s when she was writing the books. Back then, most cis people didn’t really think about trans people that much. It wasn’t until recently, when trans people started to gain some more acceptance that there has been a serious backlash to them.

^ Thank you for explaining that. I looked it up and Cho really isn't a common name at all (though I do think it's pretty). JK should have done a bit of research and given her a plausible name.

I would actively push her down the stairs given the chance

^ I'd go for pushing her off an Astronomy Tower.

Why are you here on a Harry Potter fandom if you don’t like Harry Potter?

Because I enjoy the offshoots of her work, and there are no active Marauders' Fandom wikis./nttbr