knight of heart

Happy Pride Month! Today i offer you: aspec knights. Choose your fighter.

For "International Asexuality Day" I wanted to share the comic I created for "The invisible A" zine, that "Ace Space London" ( Instagram) put together. 🙌 Go check out the zine, the amazing art and awesome people who participated! 🌞

Our boy “the fake trans ally” is back!  Everyone wave!

There was a subreddit that popped up on r/all for me recently called r/HarryPotteronHBO, a post about some characters that had just received their casting announcements for the new HBO Harry Potter show. 

I was intrigued to see what the discourse on that sub would be regarding J.K. Rowling’s politics, and was confused when there wasn’t a single word about it…

…until I saw the subreddit rules.

One of their rules states that discussing her politics is not allowed, with the following explanation:

“To maintain a welcoming and inclusive environment, this subreddit does not allow discussions about J.K. Rowling’s political beliefs, public statements, or involvement in real-world political or social issues.

This community is for fans who want to discuss the upcoming Harry Potter series on HBO and the wider universe including the books and films. Conversations about the author’s personal views often lead to division, heated arguments, and discomfort for members who simply want to enjoy the world of Harry Potter.

We recognize that J.K. Rowling’s political commentary has affected how many people engage with the franchise, and understand that her activism has negatively impacted transgender individuals. However, this subreddit exists to focus on the fictional world and to give fans of all backgrounds a space to enjoy that world without being drawn into broader political debates.” 

- Rule 10: Discussions Regarding JK Rowling's Political Views Are Not Allowed, r/HarryPotteronHBO

Obviously, this is a load of horseshit. 

If you’re literally saying, “we recognize that we’re promoting the work of someone who is actively harming a marginalized community buuuuut…”, feel free to stop right there and begin reflecting on why you value your entertainment more than the lives of other people.

You know she’s harming trans people.  You know she’s using her wealth to do it.  You know promoting her new show will add to her wealth.

You know your promotion of the show is harming trans people.

The rule begins with, “To maintain a welcoming and inclusive environment…”

There is nothing inclusive about promoting content that harms marginalized communities, especially when you recognize that the content is doing harm.  You don’t have the ability to say “I had no idea!”, you’re literally acknowledging that she’s doing harm. 

Just say what you really mean.  Just say that you don’t care about trans people.

I’m more mad that you’re pretending to be inclusive.

Listen, I loved Harry Potter growing up, I did!  I was the same age as Harry as the books came out and it was touching and fun to read.

…but sometimes we need to decouple ourselves from things we used to enjoy when they cause harm. 

In the case of Harry Potter, it’s not like there aren’t other fantasy book series out there, there’s plenty to choose from!  If you’re still consuming Harry Potter content in 2025, just admit that you value your nostalgia more than other peoples’ lives. 

I saw a post about someone chiding Millennials for not knowing about JKRowlings transphobia, and asking how it is at all possible that people can exist in the world and the internet and, you know, not know.

Which I mean, I get. It is so present in so many of my online spaces that it seems astounding that someone could simply be ignorant! It feels impossible!

But let me tell you a story:

I went on a girls trip with a bunch of friends. All of us are rather incredibly liberal and all of us are incredibly online.

One girl would not stop talking about Harry Potter.

At one point, another girl asked her why she was ok with supporting it, and she had no real clue that JK Rowling was at all transphobic. She had heard that she likes to support Lesbian causes and thought “oh ok cool!” And that was it. She was AGOG with the news and rather horrified.

I must once again emphasize that she was an incredibly online person. She’s a foodie and a restaurant blogger.

Later in the trip we were picking restaurants and I suggested one I found on Google, and she gasped at me. Actually gasped, asking how I could ever be okay picking that one.

The shock must’ve been on my face, because she then told me all of the shitty things that restaurateur does. He abuses staff. Underpays them. Fires them on a whim. Is known for being one of the worst people to his employees in the entire restaurant business on this coast.

And she was so shocked I had never heard of this. Because in her mind, I was just as online as her. And in her online world, EVERYONE knew about this guy.

So I think the moral of this story is: always approach the other person with some empathy. Even online people, even people you think MUST know about how bad people are, may not have heard. It may truly be just them being on a different sphere of the internet than you.

So be gentle, be kind when letting people know they might not have heard about the cancellation of XYZ person. Don’t assume that everyone knows all the same info as you.

trans kids deserve to be called the right pronouns and the right name by schools and doctor's offices, regardless of "parental consent." trans kids deserve to undergo the right puberty at the same time as their cis peers, regardless of "parental consent."

I was never treated for my asthma until I was almost an adult. The inciting event is that I was seventeen I got sick. Like. I caught a cold and then the flu and then another cold and so on. I was sick for something like four consecutive months. Just coughing, sneezing, achy, fatigued, and my throat was so sore I could barely talk. For four months. And then one day I had an asthma attack. It was bad. I couldn’t stand without almost blacking out. Even sitting down I couldn’t breathe and talk at the same time. Between breaks where I was gasping for breath, I explained to my mom what was happening to me. That I needed to go to the hospital. I needed to see someone NOW. It wasn’t something she could put off anymore, it was urgent. I was seventeen and suffocating in my own body, legitimately afraid I would die and too oxygen deprived to help myself. She said no. I threatened to call the ambulance myself. She grabbed my cellphone out of my hand. She told me I was making it up and that the doctor wouldn’t help. I would still have to drive myself to school and I needed to stop complaining.

It took me telling her that I had already informed multiple friends and they were threatening to both call an ambulance and report her to CPS for her to cave, and the entire time she was disparaging and criticizing me. I saw the doctor, I was diagnosed with asthma, I was prescribed an inhaler. Then, still gasping for breath, I had to fight to be allowed to go pick up that inhaler. It cost less than $20 with the insurance I was on, and I paid for it myself. It wasn’t about money. It had never been about money. I used that inhaler and took my first clear breath in months. I got better. I wasn’t sick anymore. She never apologized.