Many of our designs are riffs on the magical world created by JK Rowling. In 2020 she’s continued to make harmful, bigoted, and scientifically incorrect statements about transgender and non-binary folks. St. Louis Fantasy Maps stands for inclusion, justice, and resistance against this kind of oppression.
In thinking about how to respond, we’ve been helped by the response from Harry Potter and the Sacred Text:
“That ‘sacred’ is an act, not a thing. It is what we do together, as a community, around the Harry Potter books that makes it sacred. It is not these texts that are magic. It is you. That is why we feel comfortable condemning JK Rowling in her transphobia, but still gathering around the books. They aren’t her books, they are ours. And they have inspired us to love more and better. To take care of our friends at the margins. To fight for what’s right. (Maybe JK Rowling should read them.) We understand if you need to take a break from Harry Potter. And we invite you to still love it without supporting Rowling’s capitalistic endeavors surrounding it. Fan art, fan culture, the library, your already owned books – Rowling cannot profit from these things. They belong to us.”
What’s Next
We will continue to play in this magical world, and also to speak out against this type of oppression. As of August 2020, we will begin donating a portion of our profits from *all* our wizarding-inspired designs and Treasure Hunts to the St. Louis Metro Trans Umbrella Group.
About the Statements
Addressing The Claims In JK Rowling’s Justification For Transphobia
A Letter to J.K. Rowling From A Young Transgender Person Who’s Sick of Her Shit
Freedom Means Can Rather Than Should: What the Harper’s Open Letter Gets Wrong
J.K. Rowling Triples Down on Transphobia
JK Rowling’s ‘TERF Wars’ YouTube video
Taking Action
A Guide to Cancelling JK Rowling while Keeping Harry Potter – from the Gayly Prophet (“the intersectional, queer, Harry Potter podcast of your dreams.”)