Your Mileage May Vary is an advice column offering you a unique framework for thinking through your moral dilemmas. It’s based on value pluralism — the idea that each of us has multiple values that are equally valid but that often conflict with each other. To submit a question, fill out this anonymous form. Here’s this week’s question from a reader, condensed and edited for clarity:

My partner and I are having a disagreement about JK Rowling that we want you to weigh in on. For reference, we’re a same-sex couple, and despite our different upbringing, we tend to have similar moral compasses and political feelings.

I love the Harry Potter world — books, movies, broadway plays, video games, etc. He never did. We both agree that JK Rowling’s transphobia is problematic and not something we tolerate. However, I still want to engage in the Harry Potter world, which I feel sends a positive message overall.

To assuage my guilt, whenever I buy something Harry Potter-related that might make JK Rowling any money, I then donate a larger sum of money to the Human Rights Campaign. This is only in addition to what we typically give to the HRC. Is this acceptable? Is this hypocrisy? Am I an ethical Slytherin? Settle this for us.

Dear Guilty Gryffindor,

Ah, the classic “can we separate the art from the artist” question! I’ve encountered this dilemma before, and I’ll tell you straight off the bat that I’m not the type to condemn you as a Slytherin just because you still want to engage with the works of JK Rowling.

I’m totally fine with reading books penned by problematic writers — even if their views have seeped into the books themselves — because I believe I’m capable of separating the wheat from the chaff in these works. And I think it insults readers’ intelligence to assume that they’re not capable of that.

In fact, so many of us have practically had to become experts at this sort of literary winnowing, because 99 percent of the books humanity has thrown at us contain that chaff. I’m a queer Jewish woman, and if I had to excise from my library every book whose writer was anti-LGBTQ, antisemitic, or misogynist, my shelves would be pretty much empty!

In the case of JK Rowling, both the writer and the books themselves present us with problems. We all know at this point how anti-trans the writer is and

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