If You Stream HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Adaptation, You Are Dead To Me

By the time the first episode of HBO’s Harry Potter adaptation lands, we’re sure to have more to add to the list of JK Rowling’s surprisingly brief, but highly influential and well documented advocacy in favour of the anti-trans movement. She has said every vile thing you could possibly imagine against trans people, twisted feminist principles and her experience as a gendered violence survivor to suit her agenda, and platformed the anti-science comments of far-right figures to the point where she’s become one herself.

“There are no trans kids,” she tweeted last year. “No child is ‘born in the wrong body’. There are only adults like you, prepared to sacrifice the health of minors to bolster your belief in an ideology that will end up wreaking more harm than lobotomies and false memory syndrome combined.

“Many parents are struggling to protect kids from a Zeitgeist telling them that anxieties about puberty, sexuality and growing up can be fixed by lifelong reliance on Big Pharma and by doctors who make Frankenstein look ethical.”

The HBO show has begun to represent a litmus test for those supporting the human rights of the transgender community. Expected to be in production for at least a decade, the series is injecting new life into the Potterverse, funnelling billions into an almost 30-year IP.

Rowling regularly contributes her own money towards transphobic advocacy, and previously donated tens of thousands of pounds to For Women Scotland. The donation helped fund a legal case on the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of a woman and sex, resulting in 2025’s Supreme Court ruling defining women based on their biological sex assigned at birth.

Last year, she announced a fund to support individuals and organisations facing legal action for “protecting their sex-based rights,” which Rowling is financing directly from her own fortune, a net worth reportedly sitting at around £820 million, equivalent to than $1 billion AUD.

Trans people shouldn’t have to beg for the bare minimum. It’s not detrimental to your wellbeing to avoid streaming a cash grab attempt from studio executives looking to get richer. If it truly is that important to you, there are other ways to watch that won’t financially benefit the creators. But if you do choose to stream the series, you’re doing so under the full weight of the knowledge of the suffering it will bring.

As a pre-teen, I was obsessed with Harry Potter. A diagnosed obsessive-compulsive and aspiring fantasy writer, my 12-year-old self used to lull themselves to sleep with thoughts of becoming an author on par with Rowling and earning her praise of my work. The Potter books played a pivotal role not only in my relationship with writing, but across my mental health, social life, and relationship with my family, especially my little brother.

For years, it was one of the most important things in the world to me. I know exactly what that magic felt like.

But it is nothing- nothing– compared to the magic of queer community and solidarity. It’s nothing compared to the richness trans people bring into my life. It isn’t worth the safety, health, and wellbeing of my trans friends, or indeed, my trans enemies.

I cannot stress this enough: it does not matter how much you loved Harry Potter, or how curious or nostalgic you are about the adaptation. If you watch this series, if you engage positively with in it any way, you are funding anti-trans advocacy, and the global oppression of the trans community.

If you’re unable to sacrifice childhood nostalgia for human rights and dignity, especially if you’re a member of the queer community, I don’t want anything to do with you.

In the immortal words of the great David Lynch, “fix your hearts or die.”