Starting the Day with a Transphobic Donut

By Abigail Anthony

Thursday, July 30, 2026

 

The Canadian branch of the coffee-and-donut chain Tim Hortons announced on Monday that it is launching a brand collaboration with themed donuts and merchandise to celebrate the “Back to Hogwarts” season and the 25th anniversary of the first Harry Potter movie release. Starting on August 12, customers can order the Gryffindor Strawberry Cheesecake Donut, the Slytherin Chocolate Pistachio Donut, the Ravenclaw Blueberry Donut, the Hufflepuff Lemon Meringue Donut, and Golden Snitch Caramel donut holes, along with a limited-edition Golden Snitch container. The chain is also offering Potter-inspired drinks in a special cup, hosting a trivia night at select locations, and holding a contest for a trip to England. “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, the chief marketing officer of Tim Hortons, said in a press release.

 

But what you thought was a sugary celebration of a globally popular franchise is actually a genocide, since J. K. Rowling thinks that men who put on a dress aren’t women.

 

One problem with the themed donuts is that they might make unstable people feel lousy, which of course is wholly unacceptable. Egale Canada, an organization that received more than $4 million from Canadian taxpayers in 2023 to fight for “2SLGBTQI people,” released a statement condemning Tim Hortons and its dangerous donuts: “As anti-2SLGBTQI hate continues to rise in Canada, especially for trans and gender diverse communities, campaigns that celebrate the Harry Potter brand can be deeply disappointing, infuriating, and saddening for those who are directly affected by that harm as well as their allies. Egale urges companies to consider the impact their partnerships and marketing decisions can have on communities — particularly communities that are already facing heightened levels of discrimination, violence, and hostility. Everyone deserves to feel seen, respected, and included, and marketing promotions such as this only further exclusion and harm.”

 

Aside from upsetting people, the donuts actively promote Rowling’s views and advance the “global anti-trans movement,” in part because she benefits financially from the collaboration. “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,” wrote a “they/them” in Xtra Magazine. “But collaborating with Rowling is not simply a tone-deaf brand partnership — it’s actively harmful.” In other words, Tim Hortons should have known that recognizing one of the most popular book series of all time would amount to assault on already vulnerable people and spark backlash.

 

Pink News reports that some individuals are calling for a boycott, and indeed, some individuals have posted online that they will never make another Tim Hortons purchase again. “If you need another reason to hate tim hortons, here’s one: They are collaborating with a transphobic hate monger. F*** JK Rowling,” one person wrote on X. Someone else declared that Tim Hortons is “coming out in 2026 as a proud sponsor of bigotry.” Another person on Bluesky urged calling the donut shop’s customer service line to complain. In response to that post, an individual — a self-described “47yo Stoner Furry Aspiring Pro-Wrestler Queer Transgender Woman” — responded that the phone line operator committed the unforgivable crime of misgendering.

 

Others have argued that the brand collaboration is bad because the Harry Potter series itself is replete with evil views; not only is Harry Potter deeply “transphobic” by virtue of its author’s views on gender, but the books themselves also espouse white supremacy. “Try the new Tim Hortons anti-miscegenation doughnut,” someone wrote on Bluesky. That person added that “we should talk more about how a quarter of [Harry Potter’s] branding is a symbol for in-universe race science” and “one might have expected the series to culminate in some kind of refutation of the values of Wizard Hitler, but instead the slave-owning protagonist became a cop and his school retained its race supremacist house.” The fictional distinction between wizard and Muggle blood is reminiscent of the Third Reich, I guess.

 

It’s all so tiresome. What’s annoying about the culture wars is that the battles are not confined to the trenches, and the most anodyne things — pistachio donuts, the Crab Museum, bunny sanctuaries, colorful yarn, and chewy candy, to name a handful — are somehow politically inflected. While progressive activists are usually entirely unsympathetic but fiercely intimidating, this particular episode reveals how they are so psychologically fragile.

 

If you perceive flashy new donuts as a direct attack on you, then you probably need professional help — ideally not from providers who will reflexively “affirm” your every delusion and feeling.