J.K. Rowling has never been good at naming her minority characters. While some of her more on-the-nose character names, like “Remus Lupin” and “Draco Malfoy,” have gotten some slight criticism over the years, “Cho Chang” and “Kingsley Shacklebolt” have become laughingstocks of the internet, as they should! “Cho Chang” is just two Korean surnames squashed together, and the implications of a black man being named “Shacklebolt” are disturbing.
Before she was known for her transphobic tweets, J.K. Rowling had a reputation for shoehorning diversity into the Harry Potter series when it was never there. The most famous example of this is, of course, Dumbledore’s sexuality. Some of the more niche examples are even funnier than that. One fan tweeted Rowling in 2014 asking if there were any Jewish wizards at Hogwarts, and she responded, “Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw, Jewish Wizard.” Rowling’s obsession with naming minorities the most stereotypical and borderline offensive names knows no bounds!
Over the past few years, Rowling had doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on her transphobic beliefs. The average person might not know about this facet of her brand. However, if you spend significant time online, you probably know how much being a TERF has consumed her identity. With the release of the new Hogwarts Legacy video game, many members of the LGBT community have promoted boycotting the game. Others have insisted that buying the game is okay because Rowling had little involvement in its creation. This discourse came to a head this week when Hogwarts Legacy was finally released, and it included a character who is a transgender woman. Her name? Sirona Ryan.
