Trying to Maintain the Magic
I don’t want to rehash the whole JK Rowling situation, but the thing about working in any form of journalism is that you occasionally need to talk about things that bother you, especially if those things involve someone you once looked up to.
Later in the Q&A, Haddad answered a question about diversity/inclusion by adding that WB Games is working with LGBTQ rights orgs and that he spent an hour and a half talking to the director of trans media representation at GLAAD. No mention of Rowling or Harry Potter there
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 30, 2020
Basically, Rowling has made numerous statements and tweets over the previous months not only throwing her support behind people who have gotten in trouble for transphobic views, but sharing her own views on the subject, all of which have been met with outright condemnation from a variety of LGBTQ groups.
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Her views have bothered a lot of people. Hell, I’m a part of the LGBTQ Community, and they bother me. Clearly, it bothers a lot of WB Games (The parent company of publisher Portkey Games and developer Avalanche Software) staff, too, as its president, David Haddad, has allegedly spoken about it to address the controversy.
The alleged statement reads as follows:
“While JK Rowling is the creator of Harry Potter, and we are bringing that world to life with the power of Portkey, in many places, she’s a private citizen also, and that means she’s entitled to express her personal opinion on social media. I may not agree with her, and I might not agree with her stance on a range of topics, but I can agree she has the right to hold her opinions.”
Happily, it looks like WB Games are doing the responsible thing and working directly with LGBTQ Rights Organisations, including GLAAD’s Director of Trans Media & Representation, Nick Adams.
Working with LGBTQ Groups is a big deal, and if it’s true then it means that WB are doing their best to address the controversy. Given that JK Rowling has no direct involvement in the game and he’s allegedly speaking directly with Adams, it could hint that we may (hopefully) see some trans characters in the game, or at least be given the option to create a trans character for ourselves.
A guy can dream, right?
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