J.K. Rowling Just Took on Westboro Baptist Church Trolls and the Result Was Amazing

Impact

Magical author and troll-fighter J.K. Rowling gave her fans even more reasons to love her after yet another epic Twitter confrontation with anti-gay trolls.

After her public support for the successful marriage equality referendum in Ireland, Rowling was targeted by the grandparents of all trolls, the infamous Westboro Baptist Church. When a Twitter account linked to the church tweeted their displeasure at the idea of a Dumbledore/Gandalf union, Rowling would have none of it.

Did somebody say expelliarmus?

For Rowling, the elegant takedown was only the latest in a string of pro-equality tweets. Last week, the author posted about Harvey Milk Day, the underappreciated U.S. observance that commemorates the life and times of early gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk. Rowling also tweeted her approval of the results of the Irish referendum that made the country the first to adopt marriage equality through a popular vote.  

The Westboro Baptist Church, which has attracted infamy since the early 1990s picketing the funerals of dead American soldiers with anti-gay signs, may have bitten off more than it could chew by picking a fight with Rowling. The Twitter misfire was part of a larger botched response to the results of the Irish referendum. 

Previous Westboro Baptist Church tweets confused the Irish flag with that of the West African Ivory Coast. When the error was pointed out online, the church hastily responded that both nations were, in fact, condemnable.  

Harry Potter managed to defeat a troll in the Hogwarts bathroom when he was only a first-year student, signifying the prodigious talent he would become. With every new Rowling smackdown, it becomes clearer that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.