Producer/movie editor for NPR Queer Chinese-Filipino-American exploring intersection of race and (nerd) culture.

This past weekend, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling brought a lot of criticism on herself with a series of tweets that many read as transphobic. She seemed to have been set off by an article on access to menstrual hygiene supplies during a global pandemic that referenced "people who menstruate."

"People who menstruate," she tweeted alongside a link to the article, "I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?"

She followed up a few minutes later: "If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction. If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn't hate to speak the truth."

Let me get this out of the way: It feels odd for me to be writing this essay right now. Not only are we in the middle of a global pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 people in the United States alone, disproportionately affecting black and brown communities, but black people in the United States — and all over the world — are protesting for basic equality in the face of police brutality after the killing of George Floyd. But here we are.

And here I am, a person who once revered Rowling, a person who is also in the community that she invalidated with a few careless tweets. I'm nonbinary, meaning that my gender identity doesn't categorize neatly as man or woman. Trans men also don't fit into the woman category. We are, quite literally, people who menstruate, and it's more than a little disappointing that the woman who created a wizarding world that meant everything to me doesn't care to include me or my community.