I was unfortunately outnumbered yesterday on a Facebook group where someone had posted an anti-JK Rowling meme. I don't remember the meme, I only remember that I found it kinda funny. I went into the comments and said, "All jokes aside, I still love Harry Potter but do not agree with JK's views. I am probably a Ravenclaw for life but I am also an Ally.". I should have held my typing fingers. Before I could blink, there were at least three people on my comment, telling me how I can't be an Ally AND be a Harry Potter fan. They were pointing fingers as if I was hurting people by just enjoying something. I felt so awful. The last thing I want to do is actually hurt anyone. JK can claim all she wants that being an HP fan means we agree with her because that's just a lie- to herself mainly. Being a Harry Potter fan does not mean someone hates or is against anyone in any way or form. I mean... the main characters of the series are generally AGAINST mistreatment of others and the villains are all for it. I'd say that makes it pretty clear where people who grew up at Hogwarts probably stay. Also, HP was what made me open my eyes and mind to people who are LGBTQ+ in the first place when I was a little girl. When I found out Dumbledore was gay, I still loved him like a dad figure (because I found that out before I found out the things he'd done) and it made me realize that there could be people who were LGBTQ+ that could be good. I came from a family that's kind of prejudiced but that experience with HP made me start to drop the way I'd been raised and start learning about other people more. Admittedly though about Dumbledore, he wound up not being wholly "good", which is kind of problematic even to me but that didn't change the effect it had already had on me.

The fact is, I do not want anyone to be hurt, least of all LGBTQ+... But I feel that trying to stop myself from loving something I truly enjoy is a form of self-harm, which is also wrong. And I fail to see how loving HP without supporting JK is somehow "wrong", too. So it's "wrong" for me to enjoy drawing Harry chasing after the Golden Snitch on his Nimbus 2000/Fireball?? It's "wrong" for me to pay my HP loving BFF to make me a Ravenclaw beanie??? How are either of those things wrong? I'm not giving any money to JK through them and I'm still just privately enjoying HP, between myself and a friend. That's not hurting anyone.

I don't know. But I do know that the emotional stress it has given me has cowed me into a brief period of Harry Potter films... Because when I feel scared, anxious or stressed, Hogwarts is one of the places I've just always gone to to feel better. I'm here at home, wearing my "Hogwarts Is My Home" dress and watching "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", playing Pokemon (another world I retreat to when I feel upset) and trying not to cry.