A few years ago, my parents were downsizing their condo and summoned my partner and I back to their city to get some of my old stuff out of their storage locker. Among the piles of old art projects and Build-A-Bears we found my Harry Potter books, dog-eared and worn from many rereads as a kid. I was admittedly a devoted fan—much of my earliest writing published online was Harry Potter fanfiction I’d written when I was 13, and in high school I even participated in a very 2011-era group YouTube channel themed around the series, the receipts for which are still online. But considering the path my life has taken since then—I am not only trans now but calling out the horrors that J.K. Rowling and her ilk are besetting upon my community and the world has sort of become my job—my first reaction was to toss them in the “get rid of” pile without a second glance.

I ended up keeping the books, however. It was less about nostalgia and more so for academic reasons. While I would love to cast off everything Rowling has touched with the brazen rejection it deserves, there is always the chance that my work (which often involves writing pieces like this) might one day require some sort of reference to the books’ content themselves. The last thing I’d want to do is have to buy more copies, or go through the public shame of taking them out of the library.

And so my partner and I packed all seven books up into our rental car alongside my other childhood literary artifacts (shout out to K.A. Applegate’s Animorphs series, which has comparatively aged like fine wine), drove them home to Vancouver and filed them away at the bottom of a bookshelf in our office where they have sat gathering dust, untouched.

If I had my way, that is how everyone should treat Rowling’s output in light of her pivot to full-time anti-trans crusading: as a regretfully significant cultural artifact of a moment in time, with which any present-day engagement should be treated as deeply embarrassing and problematic.

And yet next month, Canadians will be able to snag various Harry Potter– themed items at Tim Hortons locations across the country as part of a brand collaboration celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first film.

“Harry Potter has been a beloved part of so many of our guests’ lives for decades and we couldn’’t be more excited for Canadians to discover the wizarding world at Tims restaurants,” Hope Bagozzi, Tim Hortons’ chief marketing officer, said in a press release Monday.

So to be clear: the discount Canadian coffee chain where I get my daily slurry of caffeine, cream and sugar syrup alongside a tragic-looking sour-cream-glazed donut and whatever a protein bagel is … is apparently going to become the place to “discover the wizarding world” of an almost three-decade-old book series by a British author who has since pivoted to campaigning against the human rights of trans people.

I accept that brand collaborations are a fact of life in our capitalistic hellscape, and some of them even manage to spark joy—last year my partner went out of her way to track down the McDonald’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Sanrio collaboration simply because this little Cinnamoroll dressed like Michelangelo is too cute. But launching a Harry Potter collaboration in the year 2026 feels like a bit of a stretch for a Canadian fast food chain—even putting aside the cultural context of how royalties from partnerships like this directly fund J.K. Rowling’s fight against trans people’s existence.

Like, surely Timmies could find a Canadian property to slap on a donut? Tate McRae didn’t want to make a “Sports Car” Timbits box? No one thought to put Anne of Green Gables braids on the iced coffee cups? Did Heated Rivalry turn down the prospect of a Shane Hollander “I’d prefer to be the hole” donut?

But no, Canadians will instead have the chance to purchase themed donuts for each Hogwarts house, alongside a special Snitch-shaped Timbits holder and themed drinks. They’ll also get to do Harry Potter trivia at select Tim Hortons locations later next month. And to be clear, in doing so they will be funding and supporting the visibility of one of the most vocal and influential voices in the global anti-trans movement.

@xtramagazine The U.K. has a new prime minister, Andy Burnham. Burnham becomes the country’s seventh prime minister in the past decade. Burnham easily took over the leadership following the resignation of Keir Starmer last month. He was a longtime Labour MP from 2001 until 2017 and was most recently the mayor of Greater Manchester until earlier this year. He re-entered Parliament via byelection a few weeks ahead of Starmer’s resignation, ran essentially uncontested for leadership of the governing Labour Party and officially became prime minister on July 20. While there’s lots to be said about what his leadership means for the U.K., he also takes office at a key moment for LGBTQ+ rights. Burnham has long been heralded as a queer ally and has been vocal about his support for trans rights. But recent statements, and the makeup of his first cabinet, suggest that some of those views may be complicated. We break down what you need to know. #lgbtqnews #ukpolitics #andyburnham #lgbtq #trans ♬ original sound – Xtra Magazine

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The collaboration has rightfully garnered criticism from LGBTQ2S+ people and allies. In a statement Tuesday, Egale Canada noted that the collaboration hits particularly hard in the wake of rising anti-trans hate across Canada.

“As a brand that is synonymous with Canada, Tim Hortons and their partnerships should reflect Canada—a country that is inclusive and proud of its diversity,” the statement read. “Tim Hortons’ partnership with the Harry Potter franchise contributes to the continued visibility and commercial success of a brand associated with a person whose public advocacy has contributed to anti-trans narratives and the rollback of trans rights around the world.”

Despite Rowling’s escalating anti-trans activism, this is far from the first modern-day brand collaboration with the queen TERF and her work. Last year, visitors to Stanley Park in Vancouver could pay an exorbitant price to wander a themed “forbidden forest” and look at moving statues of hippogriffs and other creatures. Every day, thousands of people flood theme parks around the world to ride roller coasters through imaginary goblin banks and spend an obscene amount of money on a novelty wand. And of course, there’s the massive upcoming TV adaptation of the series, with multiple seasons planned for HBO Max.

All have received varying degrees of pushback from the public. But it is clear from the continued investment in Rowling’s creative IP that the general culture has not decided to put the books away on a bottom shelf to gather dust, and instead is leeching as much money out of the brand as it can.

There are likely two ways this Tim Hortons collaboration transpired. Either a bunch of suits in a boardroom carefully weighed the value of how much money they’ll make off existing Potter fans compared to the public shame of associating their brand with Rowling and the anti-trans movement right now. Or—much more likely—they didn’t even think to care about the backlash.

It’s probably unrealistic to expect Tim Hortons to be a bastion of trans activism. Brands are not our friends, and queer and trans people rightfully roll our eyes when they try too hard in the other direction to do corporate Pride activism. But collaborating with Rowling is not simply a tone-deaf brand partnership—it’s actively harmful.

Rowling has not just become the perennial main character of anti-trans activism; she is driving it around the world. She is not simply someone with bad opinions but in fact is someone actively using the royalties gathered from brand partnerships like this to fund fighting human rights organizations that dare to suggest trans women should have rights.

However much money Tim Hortons spent to secure the rights to slap “Hufflepuff” on a donut is going to fund initiatives like Rowling’s public fight against Amnesty International UK after the organization characterized an anti-trans sexual violence support centre set up by Rowling as … well, anti-trans. Those colour-changing Patronus iced drinks are boosting the profile of someone who tried to ruin a cis woman boxer’s life last year just because she was a masculine woman at the Olympics. That themed trivia event at your local Timmies will support the continued visibility of someone who has decided to spend every day making trans people’s lives worse.

No one wants this. Even the people who haven’t given up Harry Potter in the way that I have, the ones who stretch every day to justify their continued interaction with Rowling—none of them were banging down Tim Hortons’ door specifically to demand this of all collaborations. The world doesn’t need a Gryffindor donut mass-produced by a Canadian coffee chain.

And yet, here we are.