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/

😂

Thank you. I listen to what Muslim people are saying - both the extremists and moderate Muslims, and they gave very different views.

I am always amazed at how eager some on the the ‘progressive’ left are to ignore the moderate Muslims, many of whom have left their countries to get away from the extremists but then are shut down in raising concerns by British people arguing on the side of the extremists.

There are Iranians here who fled the IRGC only to find they have followed them to the UK and the British government are enabling them and turning a blind eye to the persecution of Iranians here. We are becoming an unsafe place for refugees and Brits alike.

Even in so many threads on here, people are happy for moderate Muslims to lose their democratic right to a free vote to so called ‘family voting’ and other coercive practices, as long as they get the result they want.

Our own Prime Minister seems to be unable to differentiate between people with extreme views (the actual far right) and British people (including moderate Muslims and assimilated immigrants) with views on immigration. He lumps us all into the same ‘hate group’ rhetoric. He is obviously not winning hearts and minds with this approach. I do wonder if he actually doesn’t want to be PM any more and is trying his best to insult us all and get booted out.

His failure (and that of the ‘progressives’ to even acknowledge British values, let alone uphold them is harmful for all.

As an LGB person (no I'm not writing the rest of the alphabet bollocks) I went into Waterstones a couple of days ago and was absolutely fine! I know ? Astonishing isn't it ? No need for anyone to tell me how brave I am.

Standing up for what’s right? You mean the biological fact that no one can change sex and many fetishists are using ‘gender’ ideology to invade women’s single sex spaces?

Considering the aggressive nature of TiMs it’s actually women who are unsafe in the store not LGBTQRSTWXYZ people. No woman, including JKR, has ever threatened or incited violence on the trans community.

Unsafe because of books?
Unless she's wired some dynamite to every copy of Harry Potter I don't think you've got much to worry about.

Are you also on board with boycotting the biology, genetics, evolution and anatomy and physiology section? I've heard their books are just rampant with hurtful biological truths.

Surely there's more hatred in those sections than a couple of frothy stories about boy wizards?

Because there is nothing that JK has said that is not in those books.

Words are not literal violence.

So true.

I agree with you, not your cousin because that situation implies there is a good degree of visibility which safeguards everyone (as most men are good men and would stop an attack if they knew it was happening).

I think all men are safer in men’s toilets that are designed properly because the alternative are different designs.

When you look at actual recent U.K. evidence, which I believe I am the only person to have done in terms of design, it is the design of the toilet compartment that is important. Boys and girls and women seem to be targeted. I think there’s a case that unisex private toilets are more dangerous. It is the privacy which determines misuse.

All mixed sex toilets are private. It is regulated that way. All ‘gender neutral’ (unregulated) designs mention privacy. Your cousin is technically arguing for all toilets being a universal/unisex design.

In design terms, if you have men going into women’s toilets (with the common sense exception of cleaners) then the designs have to change to stay within regulations and legislation to be unisex. They get rid of the door gaps that prevent misuse and get made bigger to hold a sink and dryer and are made into more sound resistant rooms. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that is less safe.

We have enough evidence from what’s going on in schools, from past British Standards, and what has happened in ‘disabled’ toilets (the reason RADAR keys were introduced), the all the reasons for most council run toilets closing, to show that sex in toilets is always a problem.

Single sex toilets can have door gaps only in a single sex environment. They are there to safeguard, for ventilation and for cleaning.

There have been situations eg. where a desperate man has attacked a young boy in a male toilet cubicle and it has been stopped by people seeing and hearing what’s going on by the floor-door gap. But I think the gaps also prevent situations happening in the first place. It’s a risky thing to do as the chances of getting caught are high.

But, to be fair to your cousin, men’s toilets and sex is a problem. There’s websites where you can arrange hook-ups. Men used toilets when homosexuality was illegal but it continues as a destination today. These can be in shopping centres or supermarkets as well as parks. So there’s possibly a chance your cousin has seen/ heard sex in toilets and therefore has a different view on what goes on in toilets.

All sexual activity in toilets has been illegal since 2003, although it was argued against by a male MP that it was discriminatory against men to make it so. There’s certainly not much appetite to prosecute like there was in the 80s and 90s. It’s not a popular opinion but make toilet cubicles less private and ensure men know it’s illegal. People don’t like getting caught or named and shamed. That safeguards all people wanting to use the toilets for sanitary purposes.

We have lost so much provision since the 80s and 90s due to men’s behaviour. The ‘answer’ has been that toilets just get shut down.

r u ok hun? 💐

the whole experience on this thread has been pretty hard to read

This I can believe. Basic literacy skills seem to be lacking.

@InstantlyBella you need to read more. Read opposing points of view. Read everything that’s on your book club’s banned list. Read what JK Rowling wrote, in her own words. Don’t just take anyone’s word for things, read widely and be curious about everything. The only people who want to ban books are people who want to control what others think, and that never ends well. We have no freedom without freedom of speech.

It's a favourite fantasy of AGP TIMs. All part of the fetish. They're so sexually desirable that no man could resist them and they are in constant peril from ravaging, slavering "cis" men.
See also, "I could steal your husband" and "you really want ME in the men's with your husbands?" 🙄

I've just had an email from Chemist Warehouse (Aussie chain also in NZ) announcing a Colgate x Harry Potter collaboration. JK's cancelation is not going well in the Antipodes. My child has been asking for an electric toothbrush so I may have to investigate. Not sure about the bubble cauldron fruity toothpaste though.

Bella's education appears either not to have left a mark, or to have concentrated on what to think, not how to think.

Genuinely worries me that a generation of indoctrinated, intolerant crowd-followers are going to be the demographic in charge at some point.

We're already seeing it, aren't we? The growth of sectarianism. Intolerance, introspection and the cult of the individual.

Last weekend we were out in town and DH made eye contact in passing with a TIM who smiled at him ad DH smiled back as he’d usually do. He then commented on how many TIMs there were out that day. Since Sandie Peggie’s case we actively do transpotting because we are aware it’s a thing and to get an idea of how common it now is. I explained he’d probably made that chap’s day - from where I was standing the TIM seemed delighted that he’d “passed” and DH was “giving him the eye” rather than simply being courteous as he’d be to anyone. It’s now become a family joke that DH is doing a public service by fulfilling AGP fantasies across our local area.

Lol, and then you wonder why people say trans is a mental illness. Imagine feeling unsafe because a book store is selling <checks notes> books.

Again, you would probably have to cancel so many authors including some renowned writers of the classics, many of whom led questionable lifestyles and believed bizarre things, or who actively engaged in paedophilia, adultery, etc.

Poe married his 13 year old cousin.
Dickens was rumoured to have had many affairs and "moved in" his young sister-in law" and tried to get his wife committed to a mental asylum.
JD Salinger had many relationships with under age girls and was in a long term relationship with a 14 year old.
Victor Hugo was a regular user of brothels.
Lord Byron had a "relationship" with his own half sister.
L. Frank Baum (Wizard of Oz) advocated for the extermination of Native Americans.
Lewis Carroll was rumoured to have an unhealthy interest in children. His diaries and photography are interesting to say the least.
William Golding attempted to rape a 14 year old girl.

I would argue that incest, exploitation, paedophilia, adultery, rape, and advocation of genocide are invariably worse that stating some biological truths, no?

Should we feel unsafe around the classics section too?

Or as adults, can we accept that it is possible to separate the artist from the art, and that words are not literal violence?

Where do we draw the line? Do we dissect every thought, feeling and action of an author before we decide that we are "allowed" to read their work?
Obviously that would be ridiculous.

A final thought. Have you actually read what JK said? Her actual words?
What part do you disagree with? Or have you simply attached yourself to the unwarranted outrage, without deciding for yourself based on your own understanding of what she said? I would guess that the vast majority of those outraged by JKs words have not read the article which prompted this whole debacle.
And if you have, can you tell me specifically what part makes people feel "unsafe"?

Pathetic isn’t it. These people are a complete joke.

They say 'made me feel unsafe' because it sounds way more important and serious than 'made me get in a teenage strop because I can't have everything my own way. '

I, too, abhor this twisting of words. Its a weaselly way to try to cancel other people by suggesting they are putting you in actual danger.

We see you, though.

Imagine spending your weekends campaigning against a philanthropist who has given millions to support women and children. It beggars belief.

Great post.

I would say that, as usual, women get judged on their words (even words they haven't actually said).

Men get excused their actual actions.

'unsafe' comes certainly through one route from nice sunny emotional/social therapeutic programmes for kids to help talk about anxiety and feelings and friendship skills, the materials are around schools. Like the line a poster came out with a few weeks ago about 'I see that makes you feel sad', it reflects some of the biggest underpinning issues on multiple fronts to be understood, not least the the social and emotional challenges and learned phrases from TAs and youth workers.

I sympathise a lot with some of the underlying stuff. But coping with boundaries and respecting other people's needs and limits in these support programmes probably should have taken a bigger role.

I also find it quite funny, that poster refers to Salman Rushdie as an Islamophobe, considering that he was born into a Kashmiri Muslim family.

But these are speshul trans and handmaidens people. Anything other than total capitulation makes them feel unsafe.

Not the usual unsafe, their speshul unsafe, even more speshul than Mark's and Spencer puddings.

Yes.

"Otherwise I will be sad" shouldn't be carte blanche to do whatever you like. Or "feel unsafe"

They're such nasty, manipulative Darvo phrases (or can be when taken out of context, I should say).

Why do the trans activists always make a mess? Scribbling on the pavements like the toddlers they are. Enjoying being vindictive.

Glad to hear Waterstones is stocking HP.