Trans People Launch High Street Protest Against Sale of Harry Potter Merchandise

[IwantToRetire]

Trans rights activists launched a peaceful protest outside Waterstones in Guildford this afternoon (May 16), chalking messages on the pavement to draw people’s attention to the company’s marketing of Harry Potter merchandise.

Protest group Defund Transphobes says Harry Potter author JK Rowling uses money from the sale of merchandise to fund what they describe as her “anti trans campaign”.

Continues at https://guildford-dragon.com/trans-people-launch-high-street-protest-against-sale-of-harry-potter-merchandise/

Apart from anything else, Rowling would never need to earn another penny in her life and it wouldn’t impact her lifestyle. It
really does seem pointless on every level.

I'm amazed that Waterstones are stocking the products. That's a turnaround.

harry potter was created long before Jk's views so why the hate for harry ?

why should any business be held to ransom by protestors (regardless of weather they are correct or not)

thats the puzzlement the only people they hurt are the waterstones business itself

It absolutely isn’t.

There may be a tiny minority of Waterstones shops where staff try to hide Potter books and merchandise, but every store I’ve been in has had a section dedicated to them.

Because it is about standing up for what is right and not making a prestigious bookstore feel unsafe for members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

That's good to hear

so they instead make the staff feel unsafe ? i thought we got rid of terrorism ?

How could a book, which is just a collection of pages and ink, make any one feel unsafe?

That it just bonkers.

It always amazes me that people who think they must be doing something wonderful and positive for trans people, just make remarks that are not in any way attached to reality.

Not forgetting the hijacking of groups who have no interest in this childish vendetta against a woman who is just (well not just just) a remarkably sucessful writer.

No way do gay, lesbian women and those who are bi-sexual feel unsafe because a book shop has (shock horror) books written by a woman who believes as most do that a woman is a biological female.

Hahaha.
Unsafe, because there's books by an author you don't like?
This is why no one takes you seriously.

😂

'90s me says "oh get a life"

Unsafe my arse.

Anybody using this term shows themselves up as an idiot who wouldn't know a genuine problem if it jumped up and bit them.

I was watching Children of the Blitz earlier on bbc iplayer.

I would suggest anyone who feels unsafe about a bookshop selling books watches it to gain a little perspective.

https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/1lpvztd/bit_late_posting_this_funeral_for_harry_potter/

At least this time they weren’t inside the shop, unlike when they held a “funeral” inside the Piccadilly branch. I wonder if this kind of nonsense makes even some of the blue haired staff question their own side.

No. They got the blue hair as a magical charm to ward off the unreasoning fury of tall, deep-voiced ladies wielding bottles of piss. Used together with they/them name badges, they believe it keeps them safe from attack or, worse, shaming.

JKR’s views have been consistent for decades. She has financially and practically supported women’s rights since her youth and set up major charitable giving before she was half way through the Harry Potter books. Anyone claiming the Harry Potter books aren’t steeped in her philosophy either hasn’t read the books or (far more likely) believes the misrepresentation of her views that TRAs have consistently pushed.

Not wishing to minimise your concerns @InstantlyBella but any group of adults made to feel unsafe by merchandise relating to a book about fictional teenage wizards fighting evil might actually have issues with reality...

Don’t drag LGB into this nonsense.

If these young women (who think they are men) need ‘safe spaces’ why are they fighting to get access to places where only men congregate like toilets and changing rooms?

The whole terminology around ‘unsafe’ and ‘both sides’ etc is vile and dangerous and has to stop. Women actually are made unsafe by male behaviour and claiming our words are some kind of justification for aggression and intimidation is dangerous nonsense of the ‘look, she made me do it’ variety. Words do not compromise safety – particularly words that take the form of a beloved children’s book series.

Anyone who ‘feels unsafe’ going into a bookstore needs to nip over to Tesco to see if they can buy a packet of ‘resilience’ and some ‘get a grip’ juice.
What’s right, is the fact that women are being shafted by the ‘LGBTQI+++++’ brigade because they stupidly think people can change sex.

I'm pretty certain JKR knew there were two biological sexes long before writing Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.

What are they standing up for exactly, and how would selling the best selling book around the world make the store unsafe for anyone?

It’s just so tedious and absolutely ridiculous. If you want to be taken seriously and advocate for your needs as a group this is not the way to do it. It childish, redundant, and pointless. Latching on to JKR and abusing her name and creation every chance they get is the laziest bit of mass bullying I’ve seen in a long time. Thank for she has the resources to rise above it.