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/

What a load of shit. No one is unsafe by going into Waterstones.

I’m sad i wasn’t there so i could have gone into the shop and bought loads of the stuff.

Should I protest the BBC becuse the Drag Race makes me unsafe due to their overly sexual portrayal of women?

Hey those books can be terrifying you know. Waterstones in particular is a very threatening place to be in.
It’s on a parr with encountering 100s of pissed up violent men.
Much safer to be surrounded by misogynists than those books.
See also the Harry Potter bookstores at Universal studios, not to mention the Harry Potter shop on The Shambles in York. Probably the most unsafe places for women and children in the entire universe.

Honestly people need to get a grip if they feel “unsafe” because a shop sells a book written by someone who once said something they disagree with. The victim mentality is strong in these snowflakes.

JKR is just the boogeyman in their TERF fanfics.

They gotta build her up into a demon to fight as it serves their fantasies and delusions of fighting evil.

Would you say that to a Muslim if Waterstones stocked a book by notorious Islamophobe Salmon Rushdie? I think you would rightfully find that hurtful and offensive, which is the same for trans people who have their identity disregarded by stocking books written by that woman.

Yes I would.

Banning books is a slippery slope. Nazis used to ban and burn books they disagreed with.

And I’m sorry you think she is disregarding the identity of a trans person by speaking a biological fact. But that’s all she’s done, correctly said that it’s a scientific impossibility to change sex.

Trans people and their allies might not like people pointing that out so have a little tantrum and stamp their feet and kick off. They honestly need to,grow up and accept that most people are aware of biology and won’t indulge them in their make believe.

She’s never been hateful about trans people, not that I’ve seen.

I'm pretty sure Waterstones will have books by Salman Rushdie in it. I've bought several myself from them in the past.

But thank you for your devotion to the Omnicause.

you seem to think that people shouldn't have to be offended... that's not the way it works. imagine if women had the power to get rid of all books that offended them, there might very few books left, especially historical ones.

trans people could actually learn to have some courage and resilience from Rushdie (who has been stabbed for his ideas).

Why am I not surprised that you actually have books written by Salmon Rushdie. Do you have a copy of Mein Kahmpf too by any chance?

I wouldn’t take Instantly Bella seriously on public safety - that one’s been trying to excuse football violence over on Scotsnet thread. Funny old world….

Yes I would as well.

@InstantlyBella im going old school here…
Can you give me a quote of JKRs that makes you feel so unsafe?

Perhaps this poster isn't being serious?
Salmon Rushdie 😀
Like fishing in the Yemen?

Since when can people not tolerate "hurtful and offensive" books? And how is the Harry Potter series even comparable to the example you've provided? Are trans people so delicate and thin-skinned that a fictional tale about a wizard and witches school that does not mention trans people written by a woman who has literally said she wishes no harm to trans people, that they can dress as they like, and love who they want, is that upsetting to them? The argument that trans people just want to live their lives is getting pretty hard to accept don't you think?

Rushdie won the Booker of Bookers for Midnight's Children.

Many people have the wonderful literature of Rushdie in our lives.

Why would you think this is a bad thing?

So many people who can’t actually do this but have jumped on the hate JKR bandwagon it’s untrue. My Dd when she was about 19yo was a prime example. I asked her to tell me what JKR had actually said and she couldn’t tell me. She’d blindly believed it must be something bad/hateful about trans people. So she googled, read actual quotes and I said to her do you think that’s actually hateful? I can understand that a trans person might not like it, but that doesn’t make it hateful does it. She agreed. I think she learnt a good lesson that day about questioning things she’s told and doing the research herself.

My reading group have him on the list of banned authors (alongside she who shall not be named incidentally so take note Waterstones). I haven't looked too deeply into it but from what I've been told he has written some things that are deeply offensive to the Islamic Community. My reading group is full of very open and commited progressive folks so I trust their judgement.

Funny you say that when out of all the people on the thread it’s you who seems to most closely align with being a Nazi. What with wanting to ban books,

Oh dear. Hopefully your frontal cortex develops soon.

@InstantlyBella i actually csnt believe you’re berating someone for reading a book by an author (SR) and then you go on to admit you haven’t looked into what he’s said and don’t know what he’s said. I am truly cringing for you. Aren’t you embarrassed? You should be.

Bella is just here to wind up as many people as possible. She was bigging up the ineffable Polanski the other day, saying he would be PM after the next election, what great vibes the Greens give off, or similar. She overplays her hand eventually, as I think she's just done here with her Salman Rushdie smear.