My brother, as a joke, bought my infant son a book about how to sell/flip used cars. He’s a big car guy. He was trying to be funny. I wouldn’t mind if they shared a hobby, but considering my son was not even 2 months old at the time, it was definitely a waste of money and space.

To be completely honest, when she officially came out as a transphobe in 2020, I blocked all her social media, deleted Twitter, unfollowed fan pages, and then tried to pretend she no longer existed (mostly so that I could protect my beloved childhood memories - I was a major fan). To this day I still only engage with very small, safe HP communities online. So I don’t know everything that’s been going on. I have heard through the grapevine, though, some of things she’s done since then (like the mean tweets and donating only to trans-exclusionary charities) as well as some of the backlash. You’re right, it does sound very brutal what she’s gone through, and I do feel some sympathy for her. She once said that her greatest fear is her loved ones dying, so I have to imagine there is a lot of terror around those death threats if they are targeting her family members as well. I would be afraid to leave the house or let my kids go anywhere. It’s unacceptable for people to act like that. I don’t care how noble the cause.

Still, I wish one of her loved ones would take her damn phone away and tell her to get off Twitter.

Sometimes I wonder if her health is okay because I do NOT recognize the person she has become. It’s almost as if the transphobia is her entire personality now. Sure, she definitely had internal prejudices (some of which were evident in the HP books), but she wasn’t hateful by any stretch of the imagination. She used to be so sharp and witty, but now she just reminds me of a lot of other Boomers who are chronically online reading conspiracy theories. Like, you’re telling me that the woman who famously lost her billionaire status by donating enormous amounts to charities would also be the same cynical person replying to broken-hearted and angry fans (via scathing tweets) that she’ll use her money to dry her tears when they stop buying her merchandise? This has got to be the bad timeline.

I’m surprised I had to scroll down so far to find this comment. It hurts like hell now because of her betrayal, but that dedication literally brought tears to my eyes when I cracked open my copy for the very first time at a midnight release party in a bookstore chain that no longer exists. Good memories. That summer was incredible.