Hello everyone, and welcome to the Why We Fight series. I’ve asked some of our favorite wrockers from around the world to talk about what they’re feeling now that JK Rowling is openly transphobic. Please feel free to join the conversation in the comments, but do remember these are sensitive subjects and real people you’re talking to.

Ash is your favorite neighborhood non-binary wizard rapper known as Aguamenti. They are also the wizard rock community’s resident hype person, they love to lift wrockers up and to create magic in every nook and cranny of the community.

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Crestfallen. Hurt. Extremely angry. How else could I feel when the author who taught me to be myself through her stories publicly announced her proud transphobia? In gaining this knowledge it made millions of images pass through my mind of my time spent reading these books, the places I sought refuge in now being tainted. Tainted words from an author that spewed toxic sludge from her gob. In this, I experienced deep sadness, it felt like I had to process a loss of a loved one. Harry Potter had been a safe space for me since I was 10 years old and now 20 years later that space had crumbled away. And while that pain I felt had me at a loss, it also lit a blazing fire underneath me. I felt like I had to do something, say something about the death of the author that at one point meant so much to me. The immense feelings I was having about this news kept compounding in on itself.

 It wasn’t until I released my freestyle that I got some sort of relief, not by much though if I’m honest. So, I turned to the wizard rock community, where I found some of my solace. I wanted to spread love and boost others up. Never had I have been in a community that instead of pushing everyone away we all came together in the time of need standing for what is right instead of what is easy. I feel comfortable within this community and I’m very thankful for that. The immense amount of love and respect the wizard rock community has for each other was the push I needed to keep creating. Keep writing queer wizard rock. To keep being myself.

 I’m proud of who I am and no one, absolutely no one can tell me different. No one can shame me for being me. I’m going to keep creating queer wizard rock. And while picking up one of the books and reading them will be difficult for many years to come, my once safe place, I will make mine again. The author only does so much and it is the fans that make the fandom not the author. And I want to be a part of that creation, where we take back what is ours. I’ll be creating more beats, more songs, and continue helping hype the wizard rock community up. Because that is where the magic is. The magic we want to keep experiencing is what we create for ourselves, however it may form.