Trans activist Chaz Bono loved Harry Potter so much he got a tattoo, before JK Rowling’s ‘dangerous’ outbursts
Chaz Bono. (Noel Vasquez/Getty Images)
Chaz Bono has spoken about being a transgender Harry Potter fanatic and dealing with JK Rowling’s “dangerous” beliefs.
The prominent trans activist, son of Cher and Sonny Bono, revealed in a podcast interview that he was a huge Harry Potter fan before Rowling’s repeated trans outbursts – and got large tattoos of an eagle, lion and snake on his leg in tribute to three of the Hogwarts houses.
Chaz Bono reveals upset over Harry Potter author.
He said: “For me personally, it’s been really difficult, because I happen to be a Harry Potter fanatic. I’ve got a tattoo on my leg of three of the houses.
“When the person who writes your favourite series of books about oppressed people decides to start oppressing you, it’s very strange it doesn’t make any sense. It’s hard to wrap your head around.
“On a personal note, it’s just sucked. But, politically, it’s dangerous, because I don’t think people realise that she’s just regurgitating the same debunked things that people have been saying about us for 30 years.
“It’s just wrapped up in a new package with, you know, a zillion Twitter followers.”
UK transphobia is distinct from problems faced in the US.
In the interview with the UK-based A Gay and A Nongay podcast, Bono also spoke about heightened levels of transphobia from supposed progressives in Britain.
“We have different issues in the US. Our opponents come in a package that we understand much more, which is the religious right – and that’s what it’s always been for LGBT+ people.
So we know and understand our opponent, but I’m still trying to wrap my brain around this idea of white privileged feminists in the UK, thinking that somehow transgender women are a threat to their rights, their existence, or whatever insanity they think.”
Chaz Bono (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
He added: “You’ve got to keep trying to find it and have people tell their stories, so hopefully people will understand what the reality is.
“They’re trying to address a problem that doesn’t exist. This idea of female spaces, they’re looking at transgender women like they’re men, they’re looking at transgender men like their women, we’re not. I’m a man. Transgender women are women.
“Look at them that way and listen to our stories, get to know us.
“Anybody who’s around me for two seconds will know that I’m a man, there’s nothing female about me.”
