Genuinely I don't know how people can still shamelessly post about harry potter. Do you not care that you're choosing fictional wizards over real life people's safety? You have to rethink what's important in life.
I'm choosing to believe this was asked in good faith because I want to answer in good faith.
I think people SHOULD question how I simultaneously speak out on transrights and also reconcile that with continuing to write in the Harry Potter fandom, given the views and actions of J. K. Rowling. You should question me on this because I question me on it. I have asked myself repeatedly over the last eight years what it means to be in this fandom, to be queer and to detest everything J.K Rowling stands for, and yet continue to be active in it. I'll be honest: there have been times when I came very close to leaving the fandom altogether because of the politics surrounding it.
For years now I have boycotted mainstream Harry Potter media. I don't buy her books, or even read them. I don't watch the films, I don't purchase merchandise, and I don't engage with anything that directly contributes financially to Rowling. I don't want my money supporting someone who has used her wealth and influence to campaign against what I see as basic human rights.
That part, for me, isn't negotiable. The more difficult question is fanfiction. Because I do consume that. And I create it too. I had to ask myself whether continuing to write fanfiction was simply me making an exception because this happened to be something I loved. It's easy to boycott something that carries no emotional weight. It's much harder when it formed part of your childhood, shaped your imagination, and introduced you to communities that changed your life. I think that emotional attachment is something a lot of us struggle with when it comes to Harry Potter. And it’s something we need to take accountability for.
There is an argument that even if fanfiction generates no profit, it nevertheless keeps Harry Potter culturally relevant, and that continued relevance ultimately benefits Rowling. I think that's a serious argument, and not one that should be dismissed. Because it’s true in many ways. So how do I justify what I do in light of that argument? I’ve thought about it a lot. I’ve questioned it and myself. Ultimately, I came to a different conclusion—one that exists because of the very nature of what fanfiction is and what it means to me.
I understand this may not be the same for everyone—I understand there are people out there who may consume and produce fanfiction without thinking about what the act of doing so means—but I am not one of those people. To me fanfiction is intentional. It is a statement. It’s a continuation of a long history of people refusing to let mainstream media marginalise them. A history of creating queer narratives long before mainstream media was willing to, of exploring identities, relationships and experiences that commercial media either erased or refused to imagine. Fanfiction is one of the few creative forms that exists outside of capitalism. It cannot legally be sold. It cannot be legally profited from. It is written because people love stories, because they love one another, and because they believe stories deserve to belong to everyone.
It allows readers to write back to mainstream media. to challenge it, to interrogate it, to fill in the absences it leaves behind. It reclaims literature and stories—it refuses the idea that authors have sole ownership over meaning. It makes new meanings—it allows us our own ownership over the stories that have been important to us and it does without generating profit—which in the world we live in where everything is a product that you can buy or sell—is truly revolutionary.
My two longest-standing fandoms—Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer—were both created by people whose politics and behaviour I find abhorrent. Both J.K Rowling and Joss Whedon’s behaviour and beliefs felt like a personal betrayal—how could people like that create something that meant so much to me as a child? I didn’t want to let them take that meaning away from me and so writing fanfiction became my way of refusing to surrender an aspect of myself in a world that already takes so much else from me.
My stories are unapologetically queer. They are filled with chosen families, political resistance, love that exists outside normative expectations, and communities built in opposition to systems of power. I take characters I loved and allow them to become the people I wish they had been allowed to be in canon. I imagine worlds where queer people are centred rather than marginalised, where trans people exist without question, where patriarchal assumptions are dismantled rather than reinforced. I don't see myself preserving Rowling's vision. I see myself appropriating it—taking something created by someone whose politics I reject and transforming it into something that reflects my own. Sherrie Levine, Barbara Kruger and the Guerrilla Girls taught me that appropriation can function as critique rather than celebration. That taking an existing cultural object and remaking it can itself become a political intervention.
That is what fanfiction is for me.
I cannot control who reads my work. I cannot stop someone who financially supports Rowling from reading one of my stories any more than Rowling can stop me from writing one of my stories. Once a work enters the public sphere, meaning is negotiated between text and reader rather than dictated by its creator. I can’t control that. What I can do is make absolutely clear where I stand. I can refuse to give Rowling my money. I can continue speaking publicly in support of trans rights. I can write stories that reject the politics I find harmful rather than reproducing them, I can hope that those stories mean something to everyone else who felt betrayed by J.K Rowling, especially for the queer and trans people and who also once loved Harry Potter—because those are the people I write for.
If there are trans people who read this and still feel hurt by my continued participation in this fandom, then I won't tell them they're wrong. I'm not trans, and it isn't my place to dismiss experiences that aren't mine. All I can do is listen with humility, remain open to criticism, and continue reflecting on my own choices. I don't claim moral certainty. I claim only that this is the conclusion I have reached after years of questioning myself.
I will always fight for trans people. I will always fight for queer people. I will always believe that literature belongs as much to its readers as it does to its authors.
So to answer that question: how do I continue to post about Harry Potter fanfiction? I do it because it’s part of that belief. It is not an endorsement of the person who created these worlds. It is an insistence that she does not get to decide who is allowed to imagine themselves within them.
