How to do it:

Let’s start with this: few people are awful in only one way. Years before J.K. revealed her vitriolic transphobia, she coded greedy bankers as Jews, and stole Native American mythology for profit. J.K. Rowling simply isn’t a good person, but it’s the fact she’s proudly funding attacks on transgender women with her profits that makes it impossible to “separate the art from the artist.” So let’s talk about how you boycott her, if the Potterverse has been important to you.

First, buy absolutely nothing new.

If it carries a Harry Potter brand, she’s getting a piece of the profits, whether it’s “butter-beer” Easter candy or tickets to a show. That’s the easy part: if you stand for everyone’s humanity—and to fight fascism you really do need to stand with the least popular minorities at least as strongly as those you get social praise for defending—then you can’t buy new Harry Potter merchandise. Now let’s tackle tougher cases:

What if I already have Harry Potter stuff?

Keeping the books your deceased Nana stood in line for hours to buy won’t directly hurt anyone. Even re-reading them doesn’t, though you may find new issues you didn’t notice as a child. (Ask a female Robert Heinlein fan about this…) If you have books with sentimental value, you don’t have to feel badly about keeping them, but consider tucking them away to avoid sending the wrong message.

What about those cute Halloween pictures from 7th grade?

Dressing up as Hermione isn’t like Blackface, which should never have been acceptable. While the body of evidence that Rowling is a terrible person grew over time, it wasn’t until 2018 that her transphobia became an active hobby, fueled by her wealth. It’s okay if you were once a fan — ironically MANY transgender people were, believing her world was all about transformation and authenticity in the face of opposition. Just include a statement about what you’ve learned since. Our goal is to de-normalize active, current, Potter fandom.

Nah. I’m ready to dump all my stuff. But how?

This is pretty controversial. Some people believe it’s best to destroy old Potter material, including books, but others argue that keeping used copies in circulation reduces demand for new material. A librarian I know takes good-quality used copies as backstop to avoid purchasing new ones. I lean toward repurposing books and movies in this way, but destroying merchandise, to avoid it circulating as collectibles.

Special cases:

What if you bought season tickets to the theater, but one date is a Potter adaptation? Or perhaps you inherited a box of merchandise you don’t want. In unexpected circumstances, consider contacting the nearest transgender or queer activist group and asking if they can use it for direct action or protest. For example, perhaps they’d like to fill the theatre with drag queens that night, without buying tickets. Or they might want to auction off burning rights at a bonfire fundraiser.

Note: you can confirm the tweet pictured here.