BY ELLINOR COUCHMAN<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just over two months into 2023, Avalanche Software\u2019s Hogwarts Legacy<\/em> is on-track to becoming one of this year\u2019s biggest releases. In terms of concurrent players, it debuted on Steam<\/a> as the second biggest single-player game in history and the eighth biggest game overall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to CNN, experts predict the game will sell over 10 million copies. Despite this, many are boycotting the game based on Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling\u2019s controversial views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rowling\u2019s open stance to politics is nothing new. According to Forbes<\/a>, she lost her billionaire status in 2012 through philanthropy alone. Recently, however, she\u2019s gained detractors for her opinions on transgender people. According to Medium<\/a>, she\u2019s endorsed Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) perspectives since 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After writing a series of essays <\/a>elaborating her views in 2020, she\u2019s escalated her opposition to transgender concerns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut accusations of TERFery have been sufficient to intimidate many people, institutions and organisations (sic) I once admired, who\u2019re cowering before the tactics of the playground. \u2018They\u2019ll call us transphobic!\u2019 \u2018They\u2019ll say I hate trans people!\u2019 What next, they\u2019ll say you\u2019ve got fleas?\u201d Rowling said in the essay. \u201cSpeaking as a biological woman, a lot of people in positions of power really need to grow a pair (which is doubtless literally possible, according to the kind of people who argue that clownfish prove humans aren\u2019t a dimorphic species).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To that end, Rowling\u2019s first activity on Twitter after the release of Hogwarts Legacy was liking a tweet by For Women Scotland\u2013an openly trans-exclusionary organization<\/a> that recently fought Scotland\u2019s Gender Recognition Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fort Hays State Univesity Sophomore Kat Doty, president of Fort Hays State University\u2019s Gender-Sexuality Alliance, grew up with Harry Potter like most people his age. However, even before realizing he was a transgender man, Doty says he disavowed Rowling\u2019s views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe words that she used in her essay and some of her tweets\u2013they\u2019re just so aggressive,\u201d Doty said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n