WILL YOU BE watching the new Harry Potter TV series when it debuts on Christmas Day? J. K. Rowling certainly hopes you will. The Scottish author is heavily involved in the HBO production based on her book series. The Harry Potter universe has made Rowling a billionaire, with the intellectual property and associated merchandise, media and theme parks raking it in.

This week J. K. Rowling published an essay on her website. Not about the new TV show, but concerning her other zone of interest: trans people.

For the past seven or so years, Rowling has been a leading voice in opposition to trans rights. She’s ricocheted between contentious and controversial statements, often in the form of tweets, and softer messaging in the form of concern trolling on issues like trans teens and the safety of women. This new essay is laden with the latter and missing the decrepit and facetious “jokes’ about gender that Rowling and her followers favour. She is on a PR jag, after all.

There are plenty who will boycott the new Harry Potter TV show. Its production has been accompanied by a steady stream of headlines about actors who agreed to take part, talent who turned down the offers, and those, like Nicola Coughlan, who said she “wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole”. Support of Rowling’s work, especially by those with a high profile, is seen as implicit support for her views. When........

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