J.K. Rowling Critics And Trans Activists Try To Cancel 'Hogwarts Legacy' Players, And There's Even A Website To Track Down Streamers Who Have Played The Game

Hogwarts Legacy has caused discourse across social media platforms, creating a divide between gamers and J.K. Rowling's detractors. The role-playing video game – which is based on the Harry Potter series – has received a ton of backlash online from some trans activists. Members are even condemning streamers who have bought and played the game for early access.

In a now-private clip on TikTok, one woman says, "If you play, [are] buying, or pirating the new Hogwarts Legacy game – you are a bad person." 

Another TikToker, @trentallen90, received a ton of praise from commentators after responding to these remarks. "No disrespect here, but what makes someone a bad person is going on an app and labeling a group of people – children included – 'transphobes' because they purchased a video game," he says. "That's what makes someone a bad person."

In a different clip, a transwoman proclaims, "If you buy the Hogwarts Legacy game, you are contributing to transphobia. Even if you consider yourself an ally, even if you yourself are trans. You are contributing to transphobia, and that is not an opinion – it's a fact." 

Apparently, one activist has even made a website to track down the streamers who played Hogwarts Legacy. The website – havetheystreamedthatwizardgame.com – was created by a web developer known as @iamsamgibbs on Twitter.

Girlfriend Reviews, a Twitch channel where a couple named Shelby and Matt play games together, became victims of online harassment when they decided to stream Hogwarts Legacy. Shelby had to step away to take a break when commentators bullied her and made her cry. 

This backlash comes after author J.K. Rowling publicly voiced her controversial opinions on women's rights, but her comments have been deemed "transphobic" and "problematic" by activists and critics. In 2020, Rowling retweeted an article that referred to women as "people who menstruate." "‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?" she wrote. 

On October 2022, the author slammed the LGBT Organization known as "Mermaids" for hiring a pedophilia supporter. Rowling wrote a long response on Twitter after facing an onslaught of angry comments from apologists. "You know, I thought things were pretty bad when you were arguing to put convicted rapists in women's jails, when you shrugged off masked men roughing up lesbian protestors and tried to shout down detransitioners talking about what was done to them by ideologically-captured doctors," she shared in a series of tweets on the platform.

She continued, "Women, gay people and vulnerable kids have suffered real harm and you? You cheered it all on. You still prefer wilful blindness and four word mantras to considering you might have got this badly wrong. You became part of an authoritarian, misogynist, homophobic movement and you didn't even notice. Enjoy the sense of your own righteousness while you can. It won't last.”

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