WNBA star Breanna Stewart addressed the backlash over her Harry Potter sneaker collaboration, which has drawn fan ire because of author J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans activism.
“I appreciate you having this conversation with me, because I want to be able to, like, voice to everyone what it really means to me,” the New York Liberty forward, 30, told The Next in a recent interview. “Harry Potter is something that reminds me of my youth and the magic and the storytelling behind it … from the memories of first going to the movies with my cousin and my aunt and reading the books when I was little to getting the wand tattooed after my first Achilles surgery, it’s something that brought me joy and happiness.”
Stewart, who is herself a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, noted that she too feels conflict over releasing Harry Potter–themed merchandise given Rowling’s stance on transgender rights.
“And at the same time, I feel like I have to say, with loving Harry Potter and the magic behind that, I don’t align with anything that J.K. Rowling believes or her views, because it’s completely harmful to many different communities,” the Olympic gold medalist explained.
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Stewart’s first Harry Potter collaboration dropped last year when she released a pair of signature Puma Stewie 3 sneakers that featured symbols from the books and films. The shoes inspired criticism among fans, but neither Stewart nor Puma responded to the backlash at the time.
The new Harry Potter collection includes several athleisure clothing items as well as Stewie 4 sneakers that reference Hedwig the owl and Nagini the snake. In her interview, Stewart said she wants to find a way to balance her love of Harry Potter with actions that can counter the harm Rowling’s comments have caused in the trans community.
“How can I have a world where I can do both, where I can talk about my shoes of Hedwig and [Nagini], but also continuing to actively show support in the transgender community and making it so these shoes are a direct reflection of that, to counterbalance everything that J.K. Rowling has done and said,” she told The Next. “Because there should be a platform where people from all communities, LGBTQ+, transgender communities, can also love Harry Potter and stick up against J.K. Rowling and her peers.”
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Stewart went on to note that she is planning to donate the royalties from sales of her latest Harry Potter collection to local organizations that support trans communities. “Supporting that community here in Brooklyn, that’s something that I would want to do, because I want everyone to have access to the things that I have access to, and be able to find their magic in different ways,” she said.
Fans and some stars of Harry Potter have distanced themselves from Rowling, 59, over the last several years as her anti-trans views keep making headlines. In April, she publicly celebrated the U.K. Supreme Court’s ruling that “womanhood” is defined by biological sex, posting a photo via X that showed her holding a drink and a cigar. “I love it when a plan comes together,” she captioned the photo.
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That same month, John Lithgow, who is set to play Albus Dumbledore in the upcoming HBO reboot, said he was surprised by the backlash he faced after taking the role. In an interview with The Times of London, the actor, 79, said he was especially surprised when “a very good friend who is the mother of a trans child” sent him an open letter to walk away from the project, calling it “the canary in the coal mine.”
He ultimately decided to continue the project, however, because of his age. “It’s probably the last major role I’ll play,” he explained. “It’s an eight-year commitment so I was just thinking about mortality and that this is a very good winding-down role.”
