I Am a Transgender Harry Potter Fan

There is a rather large backlash raging against J.K. Rowling right now. Or maybe you aren’t surprised to hear this because you are in the group that she has targeted — indirectly as well as directly — in her Twitter posts. I happen to be transgender. To be clear, I didn’t choose to be transgender, nor did I ever offend J.K. Rowling personally (not that I know, anyway). And yet she is coming after me, invalidating my life experiences.

Should any of us give a damn? More importantly, is now the time to throw out our Harry Potter books?

Children’s Author or Geneticist?

To answer the first question: yes, we should give a damn. It is a sad day when an offhand comment about clumsy verbiage turns into an author’s commercial suicide. The comments Rowling published may have started innocuously, but spiraled into a transphobic manifesto that displays a startling ignorance of the difference between sex and gender.

That said, we should remember that J.K. Rowling is a children’s author. She is not now, nor has she ever been, a geneticist, a psychologist, or associated with science in any way, shape or form. Rowling has made some outrageous comments, and they are based on her lack of expertise. While I believe wholeheartedly that her ignorance is not exculpatory, why would I even consider claims about science from a person so clearly not a scientist? Does it not make more sense simply to discard Rowling’s assertions out of hand?

To answer the second question: no, I personally will not dispose of my Harry Potter books. I find Rowling’s comments despicable. I also believe that Harry Potter stands as one of the great amalgams of Western Magical Tradition, literary puns, British and Angle mythology, and long-range storytelling. Finally, I believe that the art a person makes is not the same as the person who makes it and should not be judged by the same standards.

Blues Guitarist, God, or Physician?

Perhaps another example is in order. Eric Clapton has been very critical of the protocols around COVID-19. He has released songs decrying lockdown orders and vaccination recommendations, likening them to slavery. During this time, Clapton was vaccinated and complied with the lockdown orders in his extremely comfortable $250 million home in Britain. He has profited from controversial music and statements when it is unclear if he agrees with his own sentiments.

For perspective, Eric Clapton is a guitarist. While rumors that he might be “God” appeared in the late 1960s, Clapton has no medical education, no experience in medical practice, and no obvious understanding of the effects of drugs and alcohol on the human body. Should I listen at all to his opinions on medicine? Or should I pass them off as the ravings of a lonely old man struggling to retain his relevance?

Eric Clapton is — by far — my most cherished musician and the biggest influence on my own musical style. His phrasing and tone in the song “Bell Bottom Blues” gave me shivers 30 years ago and still do. I will continue to love the music even if Clapton himself is not a person with whom I would choose to spend Saturday tea.

What Happened Here?

In both cases — Rowling and Clapton — inaccurate and inconsequential remarks became highly publicized because of the celebrity status of the person who made them. In both cases, the person expressing the opinion was wholly unqualified to speak as an expert on the subjects of the remarks. And in both cases, the person involved has created art that I love — art that I will not give up because its creators are goofs.

There is a quote that sums up how I feel about art and its creator. Unfortunately, the quote seems to be attributed to several people, so I will give my flavor of it:

A work of art can never be completed; it can only be abandoned.

Neither Rowling nor Clapton owns the art that they released into the world. They abandoned it, and it now stands alone for posterity to ponder. I believe that great art has universal context. It speaks to something deeper than the surface layer of the events of the day. It becomes eternal, a condensation of inspiration into words or music or images. The creators of that art were fallible humans — perhaps celebrated in their day, perhaps not. Their workaday activities and thoughts are dwarfed into mundanity by the heights they reached once. It is in that way that I view J.K. Rowling’s books and Eric Clapton’s music.

There is almost a grand sense of irony that two people who appear so myopic and divisive could have created works so visionary and harmonizing. But I will choose to focus on the art and its intrinsic value. To its creators’ remarks, I will give the credence properly deserved: which is to say, none. It is important to divorce art from its creator. No person on this Earth is innocent of saying or doing something deplorable. To discard the ineffable beauty of the human experience because each individual human is only mediocre borders on Holden Caulfield levels of hypocrisy. (Did you see what I did? I got one more example in there!)

Everybody Is an Expert

The phenomenon in which people with no qualifications can be taken seriously for their opinion stems from one place alone. It is the necessary middle ground between discarding the “religion of science” while grudgingly accepting the “disenchantment of the world.” Science brings us too many conflicting “facts” to be comfortable, but the idea that Nature is “magical” is just as uncomfortable. In the end, we trust nobody. In the end, we believe everybody.

Our world is pervaded with news reporting by the likes of Jon Stewart and Glenn Beck — both of whom said explicitly that their “news” is intended as entertainment. Our leaders cannot summon up a common message; science and statistics have become weapons to use against the other party. Everybody you meet for coffee simply knows. Knows what? Does it matter? Those people know and you do not. It has become impossible to sift the valuable nuggets of truth from the dung heap of news and social media. Many of us give up trying and accept ignorance as our natural state, claiming it to be enlightenment.

The one thing that we can use to combat a battle of wits among the witless is our community. Are there uninformed people out there? Yes, absolutely. J.K. Rowling and Eric Clapton appear to be two of them. But I implore you — my transgender brothers and sisters — we need nobody’s validation. We know who we are. We know what we feel. Some of us feel close to the characters and events in Harry Potter stories. To give up our community for self-righteous twaddle is worse than condoning it. It is invalidating our community ourselves.