R.I.S.E. Perris Pride is calling for a boycott of the new Harry Potter-themed Hogwarts Express train experience in Riverside County, California, saying that ticket purchases funnel money to author J.K. Rowling, who puts that wealth toward initiatives targeting trans rights.
The Southern California Railway Museum is temporarily hosting “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure,” a one-hour moving train theater performance featuring singalongs, spellcasting and House cheers, with tickets priced between $72.25 and $93.25 per passenger.
Ashley Williamson, lead director of R.I.S.E. Perris Pride, said “What’s really terrifying is that influence. It’s already being felt in the United States. There’s a trans genocide happening. It’s very serious.”
Williamson, who is nonbinary and identifies under the trans umbrella, said it is “already very scary being openly queer in Perris,” where the Harry Potter experience is hosted.
Williamson continued that financially supporting the experience “and anything to do with a Harry Potter trademark — funnels money to Rowling, who puts that wealth toward initiatives targeting trans rights.”
The experience is the first of its kind in the United States, according to Jarrette Ireland, vice president and general manager of Colorado-based Rail Events Inc., and Kathleen Wallis, vice president of global themed entertainment at Warner Bros. Discovery.
Ireland said Rail Events “is really proud to welcome all guests to a great experience” and later clarified that it doesn’t have “a personal connection” to Rowling.
The organizers have sought to keep the focus on fandom.
There was no mention of Rowling during a recent preview of the train experience, which is geared toward children.
Passengers travel through “Platform 9¾” and board the train, where four Hogwarts students belonging to each House greet them.
The boycott reflects broader tensions in the Harry Potter fanbase.
The train event opened as J.K. Rowling continues to draw criticism for her opposition toward transgender women, with critics noting she has long been criticized for transphobic commentary on X and for funding organizations that fight to exclude trans women from public life.
In May of 2025, Rowling publicly committed to using her private wealth from the Harry Potter series to develop the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund, an organization dedicated to removing transgender rights “in the workplace in public life, and in protected female spaces.”
Rowling’s fund will offer financial support to individuals or groups in the UK or Ireland who want to fight trans inclusion “in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces” to set legal precedents and force policy change.
Bookstores in San Francisco have pulled “Harry Potter” books from the shelves over J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans views, with Booksmith, a popular bookstore in the city’s Haight Ashbury neighborhood, announcing the move in response to the launch of the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund.
Booksmith characterized the fund as “an organization dedicated to removing transgender rights” and stated “With this announcement, we’ve decided to stop carrying her books. We don’t know exactly what her ‘women’s fund’ will entail, but we know that we aren’t going to be a part of it.”
Rowling has responded to past boycotts with defiance.
In April, when activists organized a boycott of the new Harry Potter television series, Rowling wrote on X: “Activists in my mentions are trying to organise yet another boycott of my work, this time of the Harry Potter TV show. As forewarned is forearmed, I’ve taken the precaution of laying in a large stock of champagne.”
Rowling has consistently defended her positions on sex and gender.
The author maintained that she is “a longstanding donor to LGBT charities and a supporter of trans people’s right to live free of persecution” and “absolutely refute[s] the accusation that I hate trans people or wish them ill, or that standing up for the rights of women is wrong, discriminatory, or incites harm or violence to the trans community.”
As of July 23, the Perris train experience had sold just under 11,000 tickets in pre-sales.
The Hogwarts Express experience runs on select dates and times from July 24 through September 27.