I’ve been wondering when I was finally going to talk about this, but here it is - The JK Rowling Disaster and where I stand on it post. I also want to be clear that I am in no way telling others how to feel or act, I'm only sharing where I am.

My girlfriend and I talked about it for a few weeks, because Harry Potter means a lot to both of us. HP saved my life and shaped a lot of who I am today, and my Mexican-American girlfriend learned English reading the books and found a friend in Harry when she had few. While neither of us are trans, the crusade that JK Rowling is going on affects our community, and we are all one. After talking to our trans friends, reaching out to the Have A Gay Day facebook fourum, and reading up on what the Harry Potter cast has been saying, here is my stance:

I love Harry Potter. Not JK Rowling. And the truth is, Harry Potter is so much bigger than her now. It''s actors and directors and theme parks and music. She had an idea, a wonderful idea, but many people have their hands in that idea now.

[If, for some reason, you don’t know what I’m talking about, here are some sources: A complete breakdown of what’s being going on, an article by The Atlantic showing millennial stances, an article by a trans woman, and JKRs rambling 3k word essay where she defends herself. You can also see her transphobic tweets on twitter, and while I will not condone anyone who is fighting hate with hate (ie, threatening her with physical or s*xual assault), I support the people calling her out. (whats up Stephen King)]

I'm going to talk about what the Harry Potter Cast members have said later, but first I'm going to talk about some of the uplifting quotes that I've seen since talking to other LGBTQIA people first :

"Honestly I think that you take joy in the fact that her stories created power outside and in the world of her very own prejudices and brought light and acceptance she didn’t will into it. And then you keep hoping that one day she gets a taste of the magic that is her very own work.

Is it an entity in and of itself what the lgbtq community has taken and made of it? That’s power." - Amanda

"I think as long as you’re just as vocal about how horrible JK Rowling is as much as you still love Harry Potter it’s fine." - Sam

"I now firmly believe that Harry Potter manifested itself from the collective minds of the fans and there is no one author." - Megan

" honestly think you can. Harry potter, Hogwarts, the whole wizarding world is a separate entity to JK now. I will always love it, and I will not love her. And that's okay. I believe ownership really went to the fans a long" - Gabrielle

"From what I've seen, most of the fandom is rebelling against Rowling and creating their own trans-friendly artwork, headcanons, and stories. We choose to ignore Rowling and instead take the series for ourselves, bc these books helped make us who we are today. My loyalty to HP is to the books, not to the author." - Sky

"I make trans friendly headcanons and fanfics and I just preten Rowling doesn't exist and that Harry Potter was a universe created, and still being added to, by thousands of people." - Zak

"So all in all, read what you enjoy. But we also should keep in mind that Harry Potter was written by an ableist, anti-Semitic, racist, and transphobic person and those views show in her works." - Caleb

"I can not stop loving the universe. Because despite everything, the story is still what it has always been to ME. I didn't love the story because of who the author was, I loved it because of the magic, and the message that love will always win, and good can live inside evil." - Tone

Here's what the cast has been saying:

Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) was the first to speak out, and I urge everyone that even if you stop reading my post right now, go read his. I am so proud that he decided to speak on The Trevor Projects platform, that he knew that now was a time when his voice mattered, and he stepped up.

"If you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred."

Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) also said via twitter: Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.

I think his stance is what made me really feel as if Harry Potter is something I can keep in my life. It reminded me that Harry has grown passed JRK, and into the hands of other people, like Dan Radcliffe, who can heal the hurt she has caused.

Other cast members have also spoken out, like Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), Noma Dumezweni (Cursed Child Hermione Granger), Chris Rankin (Percy Weasley), and Katie Leung (Cho Chang). You can see their tweets in this article.