#it doesn't offend me from non Christians obviously

[msburgundy]

if you claim to be Christian and trigger tag things about God and religion, i am blocking. your identity is not in Christ if you think your faith is something that you can separate out to make yourself more palatable to the world. i pray you do not hear those words, "depart from me, i never knew you"

[jewishvitya]

Rowling had nothing to do with Legacy and I think most people forget that. She wasn't even consulted. WB bought the license and the devs did whatever they wanted. "Sirona" is a beautiful, feminine Celtic name associated with healing, and "Ryan" is an extremely common Irish surname. I feel like people are looking for reasons to be offended, especially when it comes to trans characters and antisemitism. The goblins are not and have never been Jewish stereotypes. They're a fictional race. They're based on Tolkien's goblins and old English folklore dating back to the 1400's, where they have always been depicted and small, ugly, and greedy. Rowling herself was shocked by the antisemitism rumors and staunchly stated they weren't true. Just like the rumors saying lycanthopy is a metaphor for AIDS. Just... who thinks of this stuff?

What's really sad is people have argued that Sirona was never meant to be trans, but a male character that the devs rendered to look "more feminine" at the last minute. People have made fun of her voice and said it's "too masculine", so obviously WB just hired a man to voice her and changed her gender later. But that's not true! Her VA is actually a trans woman and the backlash against the character must be devastating to the VA.

Okay, so, I don't think you're here in good faith. You're here to be dismissive. But I'll reply anyway, just in case I'm wrong.

One thing at a time.

I'll start with the one point you made that I agree with: the VA. She doesn't deserve to have her voice scrutinized and criticized. That's horrible, no one deserves that. I did see - and share - the misinformation that Sirona Ryan was voiced by a man, and I regret that. I edited it out of my post as soon as I knew, but this is tumblr and unedited versions do go around. I hope more people will see that corrected, and leave the VA's voice alone.

Now for the mess you threw at me.

Hogwarts Legacy is related to Rowling by virtue of existing within the world she created. It's still her goblins, since she gave her permission to create this, and she let it be added to the canon.

Rowling's world is the context.

I don't care that she wasn't consulted about the details, that just means the other creators are bigots too. When you build within a world that has such large issues, where so much time and effort was devoted to highlighting and criticizing those issues, and you create a story that continues all the problems from the original canon and adds to them - that's a choice that I have a right to criticize. They had the benefit of being a google search away from knowing how to be respectful about all of this, and they did the opposite.

Sirona Ryan IS a beautiful real name, that's not the issue. I already wrote this post where I tried to explain the reaction, but I accept that maybe my feelings about this name come from cultural ignorance. If that's the case, I apologize, and I'd love to be corrected.

My real issue with the game is the antisemitism.

You say "folklore dating back to the 1400's" as if that's far too old to be influenced by antisemitism. Fun fact: antisemitism is older than goblins. Antisemitism is literally millennia old. At least as old as Christianity, which is the root of many antisemitic ideas. It's older than many European mythological creatures, and it infuses a lot of European folklore and mythology, down to the depictions of witches with their pointy hats. Stories about goblins being used as a way to dehumanize Jewish people is not new. And using a fictional race of non-humans as stand-ins for real groups of marginalized people - either intentionally or not - is a very common practice in storytelling. Most fantasy races have those roots to them. But even then, where, in the original lore of the goblins, did they control the banks?

It doesn't matter if Rowling was shocked by the claims of antisemitism and it doesn't matter if she denied them. The reality of her story is that she created an antisemitic depiction. I can believe that it wasn't her intention, but that doesn't mean it's not what she did.

You don't get to look at an antagonistic group that embodies EVERY SINGLE TRAIT THAT WAS ASSIGNED TO MY PEOPLE TO DEMONIZE US and tell me that's not antisemitic.

I already made this list, but let's do it again. All antisemitic traits that can be found in Rowling's goblins. I'll break it down to the original book canon, the movies, and the game.

Books - Rowling's actual canon:

Short, with clever swarthy faces, sallow skin and pointed beards

A guttural language

Ruthless and known for their greed

Pursue someone who owes them money with violent threats

Have cultural differences that make them impossible to trust

Harmed by dark wizard but still suspected to support them

Only worth associating with for their metalworking and control of the economy

She placed a goblin's rebellion in 1612 - the same year as the events that led to the Fettmilch uprising, which resulted in pogroms and Jewish deaths. Rowling stated that wars and political unrest parallel between the muggle world and the wizarding world as the two societies influence each other

The most prominent named goblin character, Griphook, betrays Harry. Harry is a Christ allegory - literally sacrifices himself to save everyone, and then comes back to life

Movies:

Hooked noses - the best known antisemitic feature

A six pointed star in the building they chose for the bank - I don't believe this was intentional, but it's an unfortunate choice and they could have covered it

Here end the parts I blame on Rowling directly. And the game was built on these foundations.

Game:

A historical time frame of pogroms, where our people were murdered in large massacres that often had support from authorities

Explicit ties between the goblins and the dark wizards

Aiming to undermine wizard society - the goal assigned to us in every antisemitic conspiracy theory

Kidnapping of children for their magic - literally just look up blood libel

A character says the goblins can't appreciate art. It’s absurd to say considering the quality and coveted status of goblin-made artifacts. In the real world, this is a claim that was made against Jews by the Nazis (and it targets other groups hated by white supremacists as well)

A ram’s horn artifact that strongly resembles a silver plated Shofar - a Jewish ritual item. Said horn is from 1612, from the same rebellion mentioned above. According to the item’s description, it was blown to rally the goblins and to annoy witches and wizards. It was stuffed with gorgonzola to mute it, a specifically non-kosher cheese (most kinds of cheese are kosher). It's so disrespectful I still don't have the words to fully convey it

Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, those traits became associated with Jewish people as a group through hateful propaganda. Putting all of them on a non-human race isn't better. It just adds to the dehumanization of it. It's not just Rowling's fault. That's shared by every single person who had a hand in the creation of this story. For the issues in the game, I blame the people named here more. I see no reason to extend grace to far-right bigots.

But to focus on Rowling. You brought up lycanthropy. You seem to think we made up the idea that it's a metaphor for HIV. We didn't. She said that. In the ebook Short Stories From Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship, and Dangerous Hobbies - she said that. She said it before that, on Pottermore.

Lupin's condition of lycanthropy (being a werewolf) was a metaphor for those illnesses that carry a stigma, like HIV and AIDS. [...] The wizarding community is as prone to hysteria and prejudice as the Muggle one, and the character of Lupin gave me a chance to examine those attitudes.

This is a quote of her thoughts. It still exists on Lupin's page on her Wizarding World website.

And it's actually a pretty good example of how it's absolutely possible to be awful about depicting a stigmatized minority through a fantasy stand-in.

HIV+ people are stigmatized through no fault of their own. But in her books, it seems reasonable for the wizards to fear werewolves. And she did that, she made prejudice reasonable. We have: Remus Lupin, a named werewolf who is good and kind, and tries to avoid hurting people. Even then, he nearly does cause harm more than once. He turns in front of our heroes and spends a night loose in the forest. He tells the heroes that as a student, he almost bit people while out with his friends. So even while well-intentioned, he's a danger. That means we don't have a single safe HIV+ allegory in her work. The other named werewolf is Fenrir Greyback, who intentionally targets children to turn them young and raise them to hate the society they came from - which is fucking homophobic, whatever she intended, because of the way HIV gets associated with homosexuality. And the rest? A whole community of werewolves who side with the Death Eaters.

Did she mean to make a whole community of marginalized people into wizard Nazis? I DON'T CARE. SHE DID THAT.

I don't care to argue about her intentions while writing the text. I can't read minds. I can read the text she wrote. I can see what was put into the game that was added into her world. I can read about the history of my people and their persecution. I can see how disturbingly similar this game's story is to the propaganda that led to my grandparents suffering through the holocaust and losing their families to it.

If she cared about the antisemitism in her works, she wouldn't just act horrified and say "No, of course I wasn't being hateful to Jews!" - she'd look at whatever she lets people put into her IP, to prevent further harm. I do blame the other writers of the game more than I blame her for that plot, but it's not better that she gave her approval without being consulted. It's her IP, it carries her name, she gets royalties, it's her responsibility.

And at the very least, she doesn't care about antisemitism enough to worry about minimizing harm. I know that, because I know her friends. I know TERFs and Gender Criticals. Rowling saw an anti-trans event with white supremacist speakers, and she chose to criticize the counter-protesters. She went out to eat with Maya Forstater and Helen Joyce, who participated and spoke in events organized by Posie Parker - who explicitly includes far right groups in her events, and shares platforms with white supremacists. Rowling bought merch from Posie Parker. She wrote about Magdalen Berns as a "brave young feminist" - as if she didn't push the antisemitic George Soros conspiracy theory and share Breitbart articles. She praised MATT WALSH. The people she associates with now, read from Mein Kampf in their rallies.

She didn't put the antisemitism in the game, but she's very comfortable with antisemitism. Don't tell me she was horrified by the idea that her goblins could be called antisemitic. She just didn't want the label applied to her. If you willingly associate with Nazis, you're a Nazi. And enough of her friends don't seem to mind that.

I stand by what I said: playing this game, even pirated, is like printing out an antisemitic caricature and hanging it on your wall, saying “well, I didn’t pay the artist, I just like this art.”

[sakebytheriver]

Your tags on that zodiac post reminded me that while yeah, my experience is that astrology girlies are usually white women, I have absolutely run into white women and WOC alike who argued that criticizing astrology being used for serious things like job interviews and as physiognomy is racism bc the ancestors of non-white nations practiced astrology 😭

Oh god no 😭😭😭😭

The queers are not surviving the cult boom this generation's going through 😪

Girlies, is it progressive to defend a pseudoscience that's used to discriminate against people for being born in the wrong month just because it's been in the cultures of brown people?

Like the only time I've ever taken a step back and looked at zodiacs in a progressive political lense was when I was in the talking stages with an Indian guy and he asked the cliche what's your sign kind of opener and when I gave my response of like "this is my sign but I don't believe in this stuff" he responded like "yeah i dont really buy into it either but it's a big thing in my country and the Hindu religion" and I kinda took a step back for a second and had a moment of 'is he gonna get offended if i argue against this' before I said something like "even still that doesn't make it real" and he was like "yeah i completely agree" and we moved on to a different topic

And like I do think sometimes there is a white liberal "afraid to tell the poc they're wrong for fear of looking racist" kind of energy towards astrology and especially the American liberal attitude towards it, but ultimately there will be things fully entrenched within a culture of color that is harmful, because even if they've been colonized and subjugated they're still human beings who will make mistakes and missteps along the way and in the case of India in particular they actually teach astrology in universities and treats it as if it's a real science on a national level, which I hope you can all obviously see as extremely harmful to the people living there

Just because astrology has been adopted by people of color and has become entrenched within those cultures does not make it any more valid than the Christianity American queers love to denounce so much

It's just so funny to me when people who claim to want to go against the idea that you have to live your life a certain way and have a certain set of beliefs and have to be born a certain way to be "right" would fully let themselves be suckered into something that is exactly what they say they're against, placing people into boxes and assigning them attributes based solely on the position of the stars on the day they were born, like how is that any different than looking at a person of color and assigning them a personality based solely on the color of their skin?

Astrology is a pseudoscience that has been debunked over and over and over and over and over again, we have more proof that astrology is fake than we have ever had proof that astrology does anything at all except offer another way to discriminate against people, it is no different from phrenology and if you rightfully denounce phrenology as the racist pseudosciene it is then you should also have no issue denouncing astrology, neither are based in scientific fact and are instead weapons used to hurt people, if you think that being into astrology is somehow for queers and poc you're a dumbass that needs to read some actual scientific articles

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Catholic here. How do I get over the fear that God is going to send me to hell for being trans and gay? I sincerely believe in Catholicism, but the traditional view re: gay love and relationships I'm finding harder and harder to hold, but I'm also afraid that I'm wrong, and I don't want to offend God and I have no desire to leave Catholicism, which in every other theological respect I love. Sorry for the long message. I just don't know what to do with the anxiety I get sometimes about it all. God bless and thanks.

Hey there, anon. I feel for you — while I personally have moved away from institutional Catholicism / the Roman Catholic Church, I still identify strongly as Catholic in how I experience Divinity and community. There is so much beauty in the Catholic faith! It is not right that we are so often made to choose between the tradition we call home and embracing the way God created us.

You're also not alone in these anxieties around hell. Too many Christians attempt to "bring people to God" through fear, rather than love — even though "their is no fear in love" (1 John 4:18); and Jesus came to invite us into wholeness and abundance, into genuine relationship, not terror! I will be praying for you, that these fears might ease in time and that God will help you truly feel Their deep, unconditional love for you. <3

_______

Do gay people go to hell? What about "mistaken" people?

I obviously don't believe it is sinful to be LGBTQA+. I fervently believe that God created all of us as diverse so that together, humanity reflects the Vastness of God's own Self; and that embracing and living into our LGBT/queer identities is a way of saying "yes" to the God who made us this way! If / when you struggle to believe that, wandering through my #affirmation tag might offer you some encouragement.

Meanwhile, I totally feel you on the worry that, even if most of you believes that God does affirm and embrace LGBTQA+ folk, there's that little what if in the back of the mind: "what if it turns out I'm mistaken? Won't God be angry — maybe even mad enough to send me to hell??"

But the good news is that even if we are wrong, God is a God of compassion, of understanding of our limitedness — Xe doesn't ship people off to hell for getting elements of theology wrong!

We can pray for God's Spirit to give us the wisdom to discern what God's will is; but at the end of the day, our finite minds won't get everything right. And that's okay — because heaven isn't a reward for getting the best grade on a theology test: heaven is a gift from God to us, pure and simple. That can be hard to digest, but it's the core of Jesus's message: we don't earn salvation; it's given freely and joyfully to us by the God who longs to be with us forever. There is nothing you can be or do to cancel out that gift.

_

Finally, for the official Roman Catholic stance, since it may provide you some comfort: Catholic doctrine does not state that LGBTQA+ people go to hell — "not even" those who "act on" being gay, trans, etc.

Catholic teaching around LGBTQA+ persons centers around compassion and understanding towards us. It does also teach that we should abstain from sex, can't get married, etc., and claims that gay sex is a sin — but, unlike some other non-affirming denominations, Catholicism does not elevate the "sin" of gayness above other sins. It's not an "unforgivable" sin; it's not The Worst Sin; it's not a damnable sin.

Obviously I'm not giving the Catholic Church a pass when it comes to its homophobia and transphobia, but yeah — while there are individual clergy members who teach against official doctrine and claim gay people go to hell, that is not what the official doctrine says. So while it's not a perfect stance, I hope that knowledge helps ease some of your fears.

Meanwhile, there are so many Catholics out there who disagree with anti-LGBT doctrine!

There are so many individual nuns, priests, laypersons, etc. who are in your corner! —

...from my aunt who is a Catholic nun, and has consistently celebrated my queer marriage & my being trans, as well as writing a beautiful message supporting my little sister coming out as bi, and even happily coming on my podcast that's all about being trans...

to the wonderful Father James Martin, a Catholic priest who advocates for LGBTQA+ folk...

...to Brother Robert Lentz, a monk and iconographer who frequently features queer Saints in his icons.

In fact, according to the Pew Research Center (2020), about three quarters of Catholics in the USA say society should be accepting of "homosexuality." Catholics in many other countries have even higher rates of that acceptance, such 95% in the Netherlands and 93% in Germany.

There are also lots of fabulous Catholic groups that advocate for LGBTQA+ folk:

DignityUSA works for respect and justice for people of all sexual orientations, genders, and gender identities—especially gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons—in the Catholic Church and the world through education, advocacy, and support. You can see if there’s a local chapter near you on the site!

New Ways Ministry (thanks to @c4bl3fl4m3 for reminding me about this group!!) has been advocating for justice, equality, and reconciliation within the larger church and civil communities since the late 1970s. .

The Progressive Catholic Voice is an “independent and grassroots forum for reflection, dialogue, and the exchange of ideas within the Catholic community of Minnesota and beyond.” It’s not LGBT specific, but here’s a link to all the posts that have been categorized as LGBT. .

The Wild Reed is a blog by Michael J. Bayly, an Australian who resides in the US and who served as the executive coordinator of the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM) from 2003-2015. This blog has been churning out posts since 2006(!), with the most recent post being about Lil Nas X coming out. Lots of older posts review books, talk about queer Saints, and more.

Remembering that there are countless Catholics on your side can be a huge encouragement when facing fears that God doesn't accept you. You are supported, you are loved, and you don't have to choose between embracing your whole self & being Catholic.

_____

Is there even a hell at all??

It may help you to start rephrasing ideas around hell, and to explore alternative conceptions of heaven and hell in the Christian community.

Instead of thinking of hell as a place God "sends" "bad people," many Christians (including a lot of Catholics) conceive of hell as a place some people choose to go — "hell's door is locked from the inside" — the only way to "end up" in hell is to say no to God's freely offered gift of heaven.

Meanwhile, Orthodox tradition holds that heaven and hell are the same "place" — we all end up in the unfiltered presence of God, but to evil people that Presence is agony.

And there are some Christians (myself included) who don't think hell exists at all! (or at least that very few, if any, people end up there.)

Some posts that might help you explore conceptions of hell that don't lead to being frozen in fear:

From another Catholic fearful of going to hell for being gay; plus my whole #fear of hell tag

My essay about how hell is a human solution to the problem of evil, not a divine solution — that God's justice is restorative, not punitive

This Shirley Guthrie quote about how "heaven is for sinners"

The concept of purgatorial universalism

______

In closing

Dear anon, you are a beloved child of God. God made you gay, God made you trans, and most simply, God made you — not for suffering, not for fear, but for the purpose of loving and being loved by God.

When it's hard for you to remember that...

Check out those previously linked organizations for a reminder of how many Catholics are in your corner

Wander through my #queer and Catholic tag for a reminder that you're not the only LGBT Catholic; or my #affirmation tag; or my trans Jesus or God beyond gender tags...

Reach out to someone you can trust; or take some time to sit quietly with God, asking that They enfold you in their love.

I wish you the best, anon. This kind of fear is hard to shake, but even in the midst of it, you are deeply and eternally loved. Hang in there <3

[femsolid]

Do you realise that denying trans people their identity offends so many ancient cultures where trans men and women are part of the stories and play important roles in their histories? Do you realise how racist you're being? Some ancient cultures and religions have trans gods and trans warriors in their stories. Arjuna was trans for a year in the Mahabharata. He taught dance. Vishnu is gender fluid. Loki is gender fluid. By being a transphobe you're also being anti pagan. "a man is a man, is a man". Fuck you. It's nothing but white Christian propaganda. This is why no one likes you guys. It's because you hide behind women empowerment, using the word "radical" as an excuse to say and do racist shit. Transphobia is also racist. It's literally denying people who worship trans gods their culture.

Racist scum.

What a strange read that was.

You're obviously white. And you live in a western country. Probably the USA. You don't know anyone who believes in Vishnu or Odin. Maybe not even Allah. You've grown up in some form of judeo-christian culture, so other cultures appear very exotic to you. And you view people of other countries, especially people of colour, as a monolith hanging onto old legends, the right kind of legends, not that boring Jesus shit that uncool white people like. Cause it's about being cool isn't?

Well, so far, no scandinavian has ever come up to me to tell me that Bruce Jenner is a woman because of Loki (the god of mischief and illusions, by the way) and that my disbelief in gendered souls annihilates their entire culture. No greek has ever told me that men can be mothers because Zeus gave birth to Athena through his fucking head. All the indian feminists I've been lucky enough to interact with agreed with me on the topic of gender. None of them believed in Vishnu or Shiva, by the way. It's almost like people from other countries are not some hobbits still living in medieval times practicing witchcraft. It's almost like they can differenciate between legends and reality more than you do.

Do you know how many radical feminists are women of colour from all around the world? And do you know how many indians, native south americans and africans are reactionary christians? People of colour are not pawns for you to use. They have their own thoughts, beliefs and moral values. Right wing, left wing, believers, atheists. Stop portraying them as martyrs for your western centric cause. This performative anti-racism is pathetic.

Also, my bio literally states that I'm an anti-theist so I don't know why you'd think bringing up religious nonsense would appeal to me. Plus metamorphosis is a very common theme in legends, so what's your point? Those are fairy tales dear. Full of symbolism and adventure, as they always are. Just because it's "ancient" doesn't mean it's good, or right, or valuable. Loki also gave birth to a horse. Are we transpecies? Do you really think northern europeans believe in that shit? And they aren't a "race" even by north american standards either.

You know what's christian propaganda though? Believing that there's your body, and then there's you. A gendered soul trapped in flesh, waiting to be reborn under a new name after you've killed the old one. You've replaced Jesus by "trans woc" and the crucifixion by "stonewall" and you harass non believers all the same. You even hunt witches. You're really boring.