Hello everyone, and welcome to the Why We Fight series. I’ve asked some of our favorite wrockers from around the world to talk about what they’re feeling now that JK Rowling is openly transphobic. Please feel free to join the conversation in the comments, but do remember these are sensitive subjects and real people you’re talking to.

Grace Kendall (they/them) is a wizard rock musician and historian who has been in the community for nearly two decades and helped organize many community projects including the Wizard Rock Sampler and the Wizrocklopedia Compilation Club.

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During my recent set at O.W.L. Fest 2021, I announced that I was stepping away from wizard rock. 

I don’t want to sing about these stories anymore. I don’t want to support JK Rowling in any way. I don’t care about what happens on Pottermore or if they’re making a diverse TV show about the marauders. It doesn’t matter to me if she’s actively making money off it or not. I’m out. I’m done.

For a long time I was very proud to be a Harry Potter fan. Now I’m embarrassed and ashamed – not that I loved these stories or celebrated these works, but that I might still be associated with someone so hurtful, and that I turned an uncritical eye towards the problems in our communities for so long. Some things are worth fighting for – to make them better, to build better structures. I did try and put in some of this work in recent years, addressing small injustices that I saw and helping to build community and make people feel welcome. I’m proud of the times that work was successful and sorry for the times I fell short and let people down. I know there are amazing people who will carry on that work far better than I could, and so it feels like the right time to step away. 

It’s such a personal decision, how to continue to relate to these works and this fandom (or whether to at all). I love wizard rock and the community we’ve built around it, but for me this doesn’t quite feel like home anymore. I admire and have learned from people like Tianna, who called out so many problems in this fandom and this community years ago and has since stepped away – she’s always been, to my eyes, ahead of the curve.  

I know a lot of people are ready to hang in there and make these fandom spaces more queer and more radical and reimagine this fictional universe to be something better than it is. But if you’re going to stay and do that, I encourage you to be really critical and deliberate about it. Look at the makeup of this fandom – wizard rock is overwhelmingly white and has historically not handled challenges to the status quo well. As a community we have a history of dismissing small concerns or issues and waiting until things really blow up to hold anyone accountable. We have to put in the work if we want this community to actually be something better. And some people are plenty fine with things the way they are, and I get that. I felt that way for a long time, but now I’m uncomfortable to a degree I won’t ignore. 

It’s gotten harder and harder to see what I’m fighting for here. Sometimes the choice to leave something behind is easy: I’ve stopped playing certain board games because their creators are racist, I’ve unfriended people and left other communities for less. But it’s harder to walk away from something the further you’re entrenched in it, and the kind of people who read articles on the Wizrocklopedia tend to be fairly entrenched in this community. I am certainly  entrenched; this community has been my home, really and truly, for fifteen years.

But here’s the thing I keep reminding myself: you don’t have to lose the friendships you’ve made, the connections you’ve built, or the music you love just because you want to stop supporting JK Rowling. 

I don’t want to talk about Harry Potter anymore. I do still want to support independent artists making cool things, but I can do that without centering these books and this franchise. I will find new metaphors to put at the heart of my songs. I’m still deciding where the lines are for myself, just as we all are. I’ve passed off most of my wizard rock projects to wonderful people so that work can be carried on for those who want to engage with it. I’m still one of the organizers for the Wizrocklopedia Compilation Club because I helped set this thing into motion and want to see it through, but I intend to step back after this year. I believe in so much of the work that we’re doing and even though I feel uncomfortable asking people to write songs about Harry Potter, I want to give these artists a chance to get paid for their work and reach new audiences and express themselves in whatever way they want. 

Wizard rock involves a lot more than just the stories of Harry Potter. It’s about the music we share, the community we’ve built, and the relationships we’ve made. But I think it’s also essential to remember that wizard rock is centered on the stories JK Rowling wrote and all the flaws that come with that, and pretending the books were written by someone else won’t make those problems go away.

So indulge me in one final Potter metaphor: Harry knew he couldn’t fight Voldemort from Hogwarts his seventh year; he had to go out into the world and fight. And that’s what it feels like it might be time for some of us to do, too. Many of his classmates knew Hogwarts wasn’t safe for them; they went home or into hiding, to places where they knew they would be safer or more welcome. It is important to remember that the Harry Potter fandom has never been safe or welcoming to everyone, no matter how much we want to believe otherwise (and wizard rock is not an exception to this rule).

If you’re choosing to stay at Hogwarts, I really encourage you to consider why. When Luna and Neville and Ginny went back, they created their own version of Dumbledore’s Army and raised hell. They built a safe space where they took care of each other. 

I can’t go back to Hogwarts and act as though nothing has changed. We all know Voldemort’s back, and she runs this school. Wizard rock shouldn’t be the same as it was fifteen years ago. The days of “For Jo” are gone. You have to make the choices that feel right to you, but I encourage you to make sure they’re conscious choices. It’s easy to keep going as though nothing has changed. I did it for ages – I’m speaking from my experience here. I have nothing but love for people who are choosing to stay in this community. But if it comes down to a choice between what’s right and what’s easy, then for me personally it seems easy to stay and right to go.

To everyone staying here at Hogwarts, I wish you luck with your rebellion. And in the words of the Weasleys: give her hell from us.