Entertainment magazine Variety and Europe's Top lesbian magazine DIVA both report that trans and progressive activists united in London November 4th to protest the opening of the "Harry Potter" franchise store. As many of our listeners will know, the writer of the Harry Potter novels is a woman called Joanne Rowling, closely allied to the extremist ideology known as "TERF" (or trans exclusive radical feminism). Rowling has according to DIVA, donated over seventy thousand pounds to groups which oppose transgender civil rights and writes many hurtful and hateful messages on her web feed. Ironically, Ms Rowling sometimes masquerades as a man called Robert Galbraith, named for an anti-gay psychiatrist of the pre-war era. Protesters held up signs that read “Trans kids deserve to grow up. Trans adults deserve to grow old” as well as chanting that Rowling had “blood on her hands”. Speaking to Variety, one of the protesters spoke about why they were demonstrating outside of this new shop. “Considering the impact that J.K. Rowling has on trans rights, it would be a disappointment if trans people weren’t here to have their voices heard. It is largely J.K. Rowling making the biggest impact on people’s lives, I think, unfortunately. People don’t realise that, so that’s why we’re here today." Over 11,000 people have signed a Good Law Project petition to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, asking him to “pull the plug on transphobia”.  This is a reference to a plan to have "Harry Potter" themed Christmas lights along Oxford Street. The progressive legal group, the Good Law Project, are hosting the petition on their website.

https://diva-magazine.com/

https://action.goodlawproject.org/sadiq-khan-pull-the-plug-on-transphobia