Debbie Hayton Debbie Hayton

Harry Potter and the strange absence of J.K. Rowling

Why was she overlooked by the reunion programme?

J. K. Rowling at the press preview of the play Harry Potter & The Cursed Child. Image: Rob Stothard/Getty Images

Harry Potter returned to Hogwarts this weekend for a 20th anniversary special. He was joined in the Gryffindor common room by Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, but not – controversially – the woman who created it all.

JK Rowling’s conception of Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry, has become an institution. The books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, while the film series grossed almost $10 billion at the box office. Not a bad return for Warner Brothers, who bought the rights to the first four books for a reported £1 million.

But Rowling’s foray into the trans debate has created a headache for Warner Brothers. Let’s be clear: she has said nothing that diminishes transgender people like me. Her concern is for women and girls. But while her books are full of magic, she knows that in real life the word woman means something more than a feeling in a man’s head.

This ironic post led to a hurricane on social media. Four days later she published her reasons for speaking out. Rowling’s 3,700 word essay should be required reading for anyone who comments on her contribution to the debate. Her concern is an ideology that she described as ‘a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode “woman” as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it’.

Rowling has said nothing that diminishes transgender people like me

She is right. But the response has been ferocious. In her essay she explained that:

‘I spoke up about the importance of sex and have been paying the price ever since.

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