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Harry Potter Actress Responds To J.K. Rowling’s Transphobic Tweets

Harry Potter fans have been offended by J.K. Rowling's transphobic Twitter activity before, but this weekend the acclaimed author decided to deliver a massive hit to her own reputation by sharing a series of tweets that made her views clear. Many are furious at Rowling for airing such hurtful comments at any time, let alone in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement and Pride Month. 

JK Rowling

Harry Potter fans have been offended by J.K. Rowling’s transphobic Twitter activity before, but this weekend the acclaimed author decided to deliver a massive hit to her own reputation by sharing a series of tweets that made her views crystal clear. Many are furious at Rowling for airing such inflammatory comments at any time, let alone in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement and Pride Month.

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Of course, it wasn’t long before the social media conversation also evolved into discussing the poor representation in the HP novels. Case in point: the controversial character of Cho Chang, who many feel was given an insensitive name and sidelined in the story arc. The chatter got so loud it even caught the attention of Cho herself, Katie Leung, who played the Hogwarts student in the Potter movies. And Leung had the perfect response to the situation.

“So, you want my thoughts on Cho Chang? Okay, here goes… (thread),” Leung wrote. Instead of commenting further, however, the actress shared a series of links to donate or otherwise help support the black trans community.

https://twitter.com/Kt_Leung/status/1269574874739113984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/Kt_Leung/status/1269574879344541699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/Kt_Leung/status/1269574883337474049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

This is one of those cases when actions speak louder than words. Clearly, Leung has no time for Rowling’s anti-trans beliefs in general and especially for her voicing them during this particular period. The actress smartly used people’s interest in the Rowling controversy to redirect their attention to much more helpful and important matters. It’s a very classy move from the actress and seems to have had the desired effect, earning over 25k retweets at the time of writing.

In case you missed the Twitter storm, here are a few of the tweets from those criticizing Rowling’s depiction of Cho:

There’s no argument about it, Cho Chang is a deeply problematic character in the Harry Potter canon. Thankfully, Katie Leung seems to be fully aware of this and is definitely not here for Rowling’s nonsense. 50 points to Ravenclaw!