How Harry Potter Reveals the Limits of Allyship

Is there a Harry Potter spell for conflict avoidance? Conflicto avoido. Is that how you do Harry Potter spells? You just add O at the end of words? Sorry everyone for that incredibly dumb intro, but I hope you're all doing well. And for today's video, I want to address some recent comments made by John Lithgow surrounding his upcoming role in the HBO Max Harry Potter streaming series adaptation, reboot, remake, whatever you want to call it, pointless adaptation would be the way I would describe the show, but his upcoming role as Dumbledore in said series as well as his feelings around J.K. Rowling's anti-trans views because he recently did another interview where he directly talked about J.K. Rowling's anti-trans views and I find them to be particularly interesting and something that I think we should dissect because I think it's very reflective of a lot of people who overtly say they support trans issues and trans rights but aren't willing to put their money or their body where their mouth is when it actually comes to showing up to support trans people when there is something on the line. And I think this is worth discussing despite the fact that as many of you know, I have already spoken about John Lithgow as well as many of the actors who have decided to take a role in recent Harry Potter projects such as the HBO Max series or even the recent Audible full cast audiobook adaptations and how they, by taking those roles, are helping to enable J.K. Rowling's anti-trans views as well as her overt anti-trans actions that have led to direct demonstrable harm to transgender people not only in the UK where she lives where she's had a direct political impact but also around the world and even in the United States where I live where her voice and rhetoric are often respected and cited by anti-trans bigots who use it to help to justify some of their more overt political and individual actions against the transgender community. I think John Lithgow's recent comments make him slightly different than most people and most actors who have showed up to appear in the Harry Potter shows and I think it's worth analyzing why because I actually think it is much more dangerous and much more insidious than even those who just seem to not give a ---- about transgender issues like many of the actors that have chosen to take a role in the Harry Potter shows and adaptations and what have you. I'm not going to go into all the nitty-gritty on this but to at least lay a little bit of groundwork here for those of you who may not know J.K. Rowling has not only been very overt about her anti-trans views but has been pushing for actions within the UK to hurt transgender people. Not only has she helped to champion anti-trans legislations and lawsuits and figures and organizations in the UK that have been pushing anti-trans legislation and elsewhere but she has also helped to directly fund lawsuits that led to the removal of trans women's legal recognition as women under specific legal contexts harming trans women's rights overall in the UK as well as help to fund women's shelters that choose to turn away transgender women and help to create a general atmosphere in the UK of greater anti-trans views because she is such a well-regarded author. The same thing has happened also in the United States where she may have a less direct political impact but her words have helped to spread anti-trans views and helped to popularize anti-trans views and many Republicans have even cited J.K. Rowling when they have put forth anti-trans legislation here in the United States and this is also occurring around the world. So considering that J.K. Rowling continues to stay relevant through Harry Potter and continually uses her relevancy through Harry Potter to not only continue to prop up her rhetoric and spread it but also to help fund her anti-trans actions anyone who accepts a role in a Harry Potter project right now is ultimately contributing to that and whether or not they wish to accept some level of culpability and helping to normalize J.K. Rowling they are doing that and many of the actors on these projects have had varying reactions when they have been confronted with having to talk about J.K. Rowling's anti-trans views. You'll get people like Nick Frost who is playing Hagrid in the HBO series who says stuff like well I don't necessarily agree with her but I want to focus on the work and I think Harry Potter is a really beautiful thing but I don't necessarily agree with her words and not directly acknowledging that he is ultimately still contributing to helping J.K. Rowling even if he doesn't want to address it in any way shape or form and just wants to pretend to be apolitical in his choice to take this role. Other actors have said oh well I don't really follow all of that I don't really pay attention to it it's not something I'm really aware of Tom Felton who played Draco Malfoy in the original Harry Potter movies and also reprised the role in the recent Broadway run of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child said something like this Does the sort of Twitterverse controversy around J.K. Rowling's views impact you at all or impact your work in the world at all? No I can't say it does I'm not really that attuned to it the only thing I always remind myself is that I've been lucky enough to travel the world here I am in New York and I have not seen anything bring the world together more than Potter and she's responsible for that so I'm incredibly grateful Obviously I think proclaiming ignorance is a ---- response to talking about your culpability and helping enabling harm and also frankly I just don't believe it for a lot of these actors it's impossible in this day and age especially if you are accepting a role in a project with J.K. Rowling to not know her views You even get more overtly angering reactions such as Kara Knightley who was in the Audible adaptation who said something along the lines of what Tom Felton had said which was that she was not aware and that she doesn't agree with J.K. Rowling's views but really just wants to focus on Harry Potter and how beautiful it is and is more focused on the work rather than getting involved in quote-unquote politics but if you actually watch the video where she said said comments you can see how she's kind of laughing when she says it and it just comes across incredibly dismissive and condescending of the entire issue which is extremely angry I saw your voice in Professor Umbridge in the new Harry Potter audiobooks I was wondering are you aware that some fans are calling for a boycott giving J.K. Rowling's ongoing campaign against trans people I was not aware of that, no I'm very sorry um you know I think we're all living in a period of time right now we're all gonna have to figure out how to live together aren't we and we've all got very different opinions so I hope that we can all find respect These have been the predominant reactions from most actors when they've been asked about J.K. Rowling's anti-trans views there's been a few actors who have done something slightly different like for example Papa Isidou who is playing Severus Snape in the upcoming HBO Max show signed a letter in support of transgender people even though he has not spoken overtly much about transgender issues as they relate to J.K. Rowling as well as you've had people like Michelle Gomez who also claimed that she was ignorant of the issues when she took the role in the Audible Harry Potter adaptations but unlike people like Tom Felton or Kara Knightley earnestly did seem to be incredibly regretful of having done so and has released a statement where she proclaimed that she was incredibly apologetic wanted to make up for her mistakes in having taken this role and really seemed to champion support for transgender people and of everyone she is really the only one who I don't necessarily forgive yet but at least see her earnestness and is willing to at least give her a chance to go forward and try to do better by the transgender community I'm certainly gonna be looking at her with a critical eye going forward but at least see some level of earnest desire to try to acknowledge the harm that she helped contribute to by being involved in the adaptation but for everyone else even someone like Papa Isidou who has tried to support transgender people elsewhere I still say all of these folks are still contributing to J.K. Rowling's harm and they reveal that they care more about taking a role that will get them more fame more attention and get them a nice fat paycheck much more than they care about ever showing up to support transgender people they just frankly do not give a ---- and it shows very clearly to varying degrees and even if you have someone like Papa Isidou who is trying to help transgender people elsewhere does not offset the harm that you are causing by continuing to be involved in a project that is so directly helping to contribute to anti-trans harm and helping to normalize it as part of our culture I say all of that to say and talk about each of these individual reactions because I think John Lithgow actually is something slightly different than any of these folks and I think it's really interesting to talk about why and why in many ways I think he's worse than all of them even though I think he is probably perhaps the least anti-trans in how he reacts to transgender people around him and how he treats transgender people on an individual level he is a fascinating case study about something that I think we really need to be talking about more not just in regards to J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter but around people who say they are allies of the LGBTQ community but aren't willing to actually show up for us when the chips are down I mean Lithgow has a long and complicated history within the trans community because in 1982 he was nominated for best supporting actor by the Academy Awards for his role in the movie The World According to Garp where he played a transgender woman in a modern context we can look at that movie and see many issues with it the character that he played was a very stereotypical transgender character it also was contributing to an issue that we are still seeing going on today with even shows like The Last of Us casting a cisgender woman to play a trans man character of continuing the idea that by casting cisgender actors that are not the same gender as the transgender character that they are playing that transgender people are just pretending to be our actual gender that trans women are just men in dresses and that trans men are just women wearing men's clothing which is not actually true as well as the fact that he got so many accolades for the roles showcases how Hollywood even still to this day as we saw just last year with Amelia Perez or I guess two years ago now at this point of Hollywood just being willing to give awards to movies that touch on transgender issues without actually caring because it is performatively dealing with a important social issue without actually caring about how those issues are portrayed within the films themselves but it is also worth saying that at the time and this is not to necessarily say that it's a great or good movie but at the time the movie was one of the few limited overt and positive portrayals of trans people in mainstream media and certainly while there are many issues with the role that we could talk about in the movie itself was ultimately a sympathetic film that's again not to say it didn't contribute to harm or at least normalize a lot of narratives that are problematic to this day around transgender people but I wouldn't necessarily lay that all at the feet of John Lithgow but just to say that at the time that was some of the best mainstream representation of transgender people that we were getting in Hollywood and for many trans people it was important to them to see that representation I would be open to John Lithgow being able to grow in the 40 plus years that has happened since that role and he has shown that he had grown up until he had taken the Dumbledore role in the Harry Potter series because right before he accepted the role as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series he actually starred in a movie titled Jimpa where he plays a grandfather of a non-binary character and I have not seen the film but many reviews and people who have seen the film say that it is actually a very beautiful portrayal of a non-binary person's journey and centered non-binary and trans people both in front of and behind the camera and seemed like a wonderful film and a wonderful contribution to the transgender canon of filmic works and John Lithgow was a part of that and his co-workers on that film including non-binary actor Odd Mason Hyde who had the featured role as his grandchild within the movie even said that John Lithgow was like a mentor to them they said quote he is such an incredibly talented actor but also such a beautiful human to make work with and that was my experience with John I never felt invalidated or questioned or doubted in my identity or in my transness by him I consistently felt that he was a very loving and very guiding co-star so it is very very clear that on an individual level John Lithgow does actually treat transgender people well that he has seemed to have grown and continually been when it comes to just people in front of him been an empathetic person who is willing to learn and to care about other people around him and I think that that is a beautiful thing and goes to show that people of his generation are not automatically going to be bigoted against transgender people in their everyday life there's always this idea that you know our grandparents are just they're always going to be bigots on some level because that's just the time that they grew up in but that is not true and people like John Lithgow exemplify that and on top of that throughout his career from the 80s to today he has continually worked on films that have been actively sympathetic and supportive of the trans community and done so in ways that have grown with the times instead of simply continually staying in the same problematic issues that defined his previous roles when it came to depicting trans people and on top of all of that when he accepted the role of Dumbledore he was probably the first cast member to say he does not agree with J.K. Rowling's anti-trans views and that he intends to be very clear that he supports transgender people throughout the entire time that he is filming the show and I have seen many cisgender people who have looked at that and said well there you go you know what he's even doing one better for you transgender people he's being a thorn in J.K. Rowling's side that's the choice that he has made to be something that J.K. Rowling is annoyed by that he is using his platform to undermine her and actually support trans people that this is going to ultimately get more people to hear his side of the issues than if he hadn't been involved in the Harry Potter show but that's the thing isn't it right? J.K. Rowling may be annoyed by it but he's still in her show that she has a large amount of creative influence and say in and the reason for that is she knows ultimately that what he's saying still helps her it makes her look like the reasonable one who can accept differences of opinion with people who are around her while she still is the one that holds the most power in the situation and gets the most out of this show continuing to exist that he, John Lithgow, is still benefiting she gets more out of him than he gets out of her when supporting the transgender community this is essentially the narrative that many bigots go with not just anti-trans bigots but bigots generally go with when they try to make themselves seem reasonable they will say stuff like well why can't you just accept a difference of opinion it's the trans activists or the woke liberals who go too far that can't accept a difference of opinion why can't we just accept a difference of opinion on transgender issues when your difference of opinion is in J.K. Rowling's case that trans women are a danger to society and that transgender people generally speaking do not actually exist and should be forced to conform to others' gendered expectations of them assigned at birth and even more specifically that transgender women are actively dangerous as a whole to cisgender women which is absolutely not true but a narrative that is used to get cisgender women especially more establishment and even more conservative leaning women to sign up for Republicans' agenda not just around anti-trans views but more rigid gendered roles for women generally speaking this is not a difference of opinion that we can accept because it is predicated upon the fact that transgender people are not full people and deserve to be treated badly and that we are a danger and so to accept that this is just a difference of opinion is capitulating to that bigoted narrative but you will continually see this with so many issues especially around marginalized people and transgender people when it comes to people accepting conservative right-wing and anti-trans viewpoints that it's just a difference of opinion why can't we meet in the middle somewhere and continually capitulating to the narrative that transgender people might be a danger whether it be transgender women in sports or maybe transgender people are a little bit ridiculous when we get all upset at how we're treated and we see this also with other things like how black people are treated like oh why can't we just have a different opinion on DEI or the role of women or on abortion you're being ridiculous so this acceptance of just a reasonable debate in the marketplace of ideas around people's literal humanity is one that just ultimately conforms to right-wing narratives around minorities and specifically in this case trans people and J.K. Rowling understands this she understands that by having someone like John Lithgow in the show while it may annoy her that he is being so overt in his support of transgender people individually she knows that he is ultimately a benefit to her overall narrative around herself as just a reasonable person going up against ridiculous transgender activists so on just that front he is benefiting her in a way that is much more insidious than even other actors who just wish to ignore the issue entirely but and this is the reason that I wanted to make this video John Lithgow given some recent comments that he's made seems to understand on some level that he is contributing to harm and yet still chose to take part in the Harry Potter series anyway because recently John Lithgow did a profile in the New York Times and the profiler brought up recent comments by Odd Mason Hyde from an interview that they did in Out Magazine where they said that quote there's an element of this that feels vaguely hurtful commenting upon John Lithgow's acceptance of the role of Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series and in response to that Lithgow said that he considered quitting the Harry Potter series when he was first offered the role but ultimately decided not to and said that he accepts quote every interview I will do the rest of my life this will come up and it's that comment in specific that I think is very telling about Lithgow because it means unlike many of his Harry Potter co-stars at least based on what they have said he understands on some level that what he is doing is harming the transgender community he is directly in community with and knows people who are harmed by his choice who have expressed that they are hurt and harmed by his choice he understands that he wrestled with it and he chose to accept the role regardless and I think the reasoning is even more interesting in his case because unlike a lot of his co-stars who I think are taking the role for the fat paycheck as well as the bump it will get in their careers Lithgow is accepting this role as Dumbledore for I think slightly different reasons at least based on what he's expressed certainly I don't doubt that the paycheck is nice for him that he is going to enjoy a fat payday for this role but he has also expressed that he is well aware that this is going to be his last major role of his career that by the time he finishes playing Dumbledore over how many seasons this show gets they hope you know seven years or so I highly doubt that it will get that many but we'll see ultimately how things go but he understands that by the end of the time that he plays he's playing Dumbledore he's going to be retiring that this is likely going to be his last major role that he's ever going to play and he accepted this role specifically because it was a role that was going to be in a show focused on children that a younger generation would be able to see this role and see him playing this role and then in his mind he hopes that they will remember him fondly that he will be able to secure his legacy as an actor who is respected not just based on his entire career up to this point and all of the many amazing roles that he has played and important roles that he has played that has left an impact on TV and film but also for a younger generation who will then remember him even longer after he passes away eventually and retires from acting as well ultimately what this role is about for him is about legacy is about being remembered fondly that's what he wants most out of this especially for children today to remember him fondly well throughout the rest of their lives and this is sad and hurtful and depressing on many levels because first and foremost what this says is that he cares more about the dreams and hopes of cisgender kids and specifically cisgender kids who will grow up to not necessarily care about transgender people more than he cares about transgender kids' lives he cares more about the adoration and love and memory of cisgender kids that he will hopefully that he hopes to get with his role in the show than he does about transgender kids living today who are being actively harmed by people like J.K. Rowling he may not think that that's what he's doing but it is he is valuing cisgender kids these cisgender kids over transgender kids and on top of that I think it's even more sad because he hopes that this will secure his legacy for children into the future but ultimately I think that this is going to be the thing that ruins his legacy within the next 10-20 years once you know our current growing fascistic moment is passed or maybe even longer maybe it takes longer than 20 years but you know at some point in the future people will look back at this moment and see that anyone who helped contribute to the ongoing harm to the transgenic community the active cultural and societal genocide that is being targeted against transgender people will be viewed as awful people who stood by and did nothing or actively contributed to harm the same type of people who in Nazi Germany stood by as queer people as Jewish people as other minorities disabled folks Romani people many others were taken away and killed who not only may have stood by and did nothing but may be actively contributed to it may have actively supported the Nazi regime even if they didn't believe that they were directly contributing to attacking Jewish people or other minorities like queer people and trans people at the time those people are rightly regarded as having been in some way complicit in Nazi violence and I believe that some point in the future however long it takes the same people who are doing that today to trans people will also be considered that way will also be remembered as having been complicit in something incredibly horrible and horrifying and so it's honestly very sad frankly that Lithgau thinks that this show is going to be the thing that will help solidify his legacy into the future when I think it is going to be the thing that tarnishes his legacy that destroys it more than anything he has ever done but while I don't forgive him and while I don't have any level of what's the word empathy may be the right word for him sympathy maybe is perhaps the better word I feel how sad this is how so badly he has calculated this situation and anger at his choice to do it anyways to say that he to even think that he would look good by saying this and saying oh I considered quitting but uh you know I chose to do it anyways and I accept that I'm just gonna have to deal with for the rest of my life but you know what I did this for my legacy and it honestly makes me think less of him than any of the other actors on the show if he had been like someone like Tom Felton or Kara Knightley who proclaimed ignorance on the issue I still wouldn't have had respect for him but him saying that he fully knew what he was getting into and still chose to do it anyways and just thought he could just be a thorn in J.K. Rowling's side despite the fact that that ultimately still helps J.K. Rowling in the long run makes me even more angry at him and think less of him even if he thinks that it would make me think more of him than the other actors because at the very least those other actors showed me honestly where they will stand but with someone like Lithgow they're not being honest with themselves they aren't being honest with the fact that when it means putting their money on the line their potential legacy their careers on the line they will choose that over trans people over a minority being actively attacked and harmed right now I want to just say that this isn't just about Lithgow but this is about a dynamic that I'm seeing continually more and more as we fall into further and further fascism you know it's been a constant conversation around how many people are just willing to capitulate on transgender issues because it would mean that we would be able to get rid of Donald Trump you know and you look at someone like Gavin Newsom who is currently the front runner to be the candidate for the Democrats for president running up against potentially Donald Trump or whoever the Republicans are going to platform in the next presidential election and you know he continually capitulates on transgender rights has sat down with Charlie Kirk before he was killed has continually sat down with Ben Shapiro and agreed with these folks on transgender issues saying yeah you have a point and continue to cede ground to the right on transgender issues and yet trans people when we speak up about this when we talk about this when we say Gavin Newsom is not our guy and we do not support him and we won't ever support him we are told that we're the problem that we should shut up and get behind him because it's more important to defeat Donald Trump that because we are all tired of fighting fascism that we just will accept anything that comes our way that is slightly better and it means tossing aside minorities and so when I continually see that I see that when the chips are down when things really get hard people just want safety they just want comfort they just want to secure their legacy and they aren't willing to actually show up and fight for us and alongside us to actually put not only their money but also their bodies and careers on the line and Lithgow shows me that you know he may be a man who is kind to trans people you know if I before all of this Harry Potter stuff if I had sat next to him at an event or something like that I'm sure he and I would have had a lovely conversation and I would have come away from that conversation be like man what a sweet wonderful guy John Lithgow is and personally I've loved him as an actor whenever I've seen him show up and things I think he's a great actor who I've genuinely enjoyed but he has shown me he while he may be kind as an individual person when it comes to larger structural issues he just doesn't care he cares more about his own legacy his own comfort than he does about standing by his actual values and it shows me what he lives by not his morals not his values but his desire for himself and it is ultimately extremely selfish and he wants to think good of himself he wants to see himself as a good guy but he isn't dealing with that cognitive dissonance and it's just sad and disappointing to see and to wrap us out at this point I don't know if there's really anything Lithgow can do to fully earn forgiveness from the trans community at least my personal forgiveness but I earnestly and honestly would like to see him try to live by his values like on some level I do say **** him screw him and it angers me but ultimately in the day like **** him I can't I just know where he stands now and I can't and I will just continue with my life knowing that someone like John Lithgow will not be there for me it's a similar dynamic that I have in my life there are just people that I'm like well they're not going to show up for me **** them I just I I have stopped caring about you I'm not going to hold on to a feeling about you I have to move on and focus on the things that and the people that will actually show up for me but that being said like I would like to see him try and the path forward for him is he would have to A. quit the show immediately like leave right now do not film another scene take all of the money that he has earned and then more on top of that the Harry Potter show and donate it to an actively supportive transgender organization and then spend the rest of his life the rest of his life actively supporting transgender artists and creatives as well as activists actively fighting back against anti-trans bigotry and systemic injustice by funding them by getting them more attention by propping them up with his platform only when he does all three of those things and I mean all three of those things not just one of those things but all three of those things while I even consider forgiving him I want to see them try even someone like J.K. Rowling I don't know if J.K. Rowling could ever be forgiven for all the harm that she has caused nor do I think she would ever want to I don't think there is a timeline where she ever sees the light and suddenly changes her views but I would like that I'm not going to hold up hope for it I'm not going to sit here giving energy to try to make that happen I did once when she was starting to go down that path years and years ago I even wrote an op-ed in The Advocate that was an open letter to her to ask her to please don't go down this path because I care about you now I don't now I don't give a **** and I don't think there's ever a path where she will change but I always have some level of like if they try I would like to see that I don't know if J.K. Rowling could ever make up for it I don't know if she could ever be forgiven but I would like to see an attempt but I'm not going to hold out hope for it nor spend any emotional energy on it but with someone like Lithgow I think there is at least a chance he might and that's the path forward for him but he has to do all of those things to be able to get there that is my thoughts on John Lithgow I know I've talked about the actors in the upcoming Harry Potter adaptation numerous times on this channel it's always so fascinating to talk about it because it is such an interesting microcosm of so many dynamics going around around transgender issues that I think it is worth talking about when it comes up not just for its own sake but just as an exemplar of larger dynamics going on right now anyways that's my thoughts I'd love to hear all your thoughts down below on John Lithgow what do you think about all of this and I hope you my friends as always live long and prosper