It was early last year, when I was perusing the gaming news, that I first learned of Hogwarts Legacy, a new game developed by Avalanche Software, a subsidiary of WB Games. In this open-world game, I read that you could create your own Hogwarts student and follow their adventures in attending the famous school for witches and wizards. Naturally, I was very excited and looked forward to the release, going so far as to pre-order the uber deluxe version to support this endeavor that so many of us had up to this point only dreamed of. Then came the drama. Only a few short months before the release of the greatly anticipated game, part of the trans community boldly announced that everyone who supported trans people needed to boycott this game. This was a result of some comments made in years past by Harry Potter/Hogwarts creator JK Rowling. Well, that’s a bummer! I was really looking forward to this game! But is it really the right thing to do to attempt to shut it down based on the franchise creators’ opinions?

I will not get too much into the details of what JK Rowling said. Truth be told, I had to Google it as I was unaware of the horrors that escaped the beloved author’s lips. The first incident appeared to be regarding a response to a tweet where she seemed to question the wisdom of replacing the word “woman” in favor of a more inclusive phrase, “People who menstruate.” Really? Let’s not do that, okay? And that’s not a slam on my fellow trans women, but rather an idea that the effort to replace such a powerful word to accommodate us is, in a word, silly. The word “woman” has so many deeply engrained meanings in our society that to minimize its meaning or even change it is, at best silly, as I had mentioned, or at worst, insulting to others with whom we share the pronoun. Next, Rowling made a post about her support of a person in the United Kingdom who had been fired from their job for making transphobic comments. I believe I also heard that the old argument of who uses what bathroom also comes to play in this issue. I could get in-depth into all the arguments about who said what, but there is no point.

The bottom line is this. All people have the right to their opinion.

Yes, people who we call celebrities in today’s world do have a lot of powerful influence on others when they make comments like the ones made by Rowling. Yes, we can collectively sigh and shake our heads when someone says something with which we disagree. We can engage them and the people over whom they hold influence in conversation about the topic in question. We can learn from one another and gain insight into other people’s views on a topic. Then, admittedly in a perfect world, we can come together to solve the problems associated with said topic. I realize this is idealistic, but this is the answer to this entire topic.

In my experience, trans people have always been the first to admonish hate. We, as a people, have felt the violence, the pain, and the venom with which hate grips us in its infectious fist. Has this been forgotten? Are we now responding to things with which we disagree with a different flavor of hate? Are we going to come together to diminish people whom we once might have considered role models because they do not think exactly the way we believe they should? No. This is not alright.

So in my view, if you are a Harry Potter fan and are interested in the game, go out and buy it and enjoy it. Remember that the game was not made exclusively by one person but by many people with a myriad of views on the world. If you are going to boycott the game, then you are boycotting them as well. As for JK Rowling, I have never met her personally. I have enjoyed her books and would be glad if she wrote more. As for her views, I respect them. I hope that everyone involved in this controversy can all come together, talk, and learn from one another until we can make our world one that we can be proud of. Now if you will excuse me, it’s time to fly my broom around the towers of Hogwarts. See you there!