Petition urges LondonMayor to scrap Harry Potter Christmas lights over transphobia

[IwantToRetire]

Thousands of people have signed a petition calling on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to cancel Harry Potter-themed Christmas lights planned for Oxford Street this year.

The display is intended to promote the forthcoming Harry Potter TV series, but campaigners object to the promotion of JK Rowling's work due to what they argue are here anti-trans views.

Signatories to the petition, which was organised by the Good Law Project, also say the lights will leave trans people feeling unwelcome and unsafe in one of London's best-known festive locations.

Article continues at https://www.localgov.co.uk/Petition-urges-Khan-to-scrap-Harry-Potter-Christmas-lights-over-transphobia-/65071

At a large shopping centre today happily drenched in HP, there's going to be a lot of it about this season. I did look for the grumpy protests, but everyone just seemed to be having a good time.

Is it just me or is 10,000 not really that many signatures considering how much publicity this got?

Absolutely love it.

As do the general public.

Trans activists have decided that every parent who wants a stuffed owl or a plastic wand is actually genociding them, unfortunately. They may eventually learn that the issue is not with the uninterested woman on the Clapham omnibus, or the child who likes a good wizard story, nor even with a woman standing up for women's rights, but something within themselves that they need to fix.

The world cannot be engineered to suit the dysfunction or preferences of a small group of people.

Are these signatures checked? Seems like a lot to me. I am surprised that many people worldwide actually care.

Okay, I just got a friend overseas to sign it using a very stupid fake name, fake email, fake postcode.

It thanks them for taking action and their fake name showed on the list of signatories.

I expect a lot of the signatures are equally bullshit. It's an email harvesting campaign for GLP, if anything.

I hope your friend used a comedy name 😂

He identified as Lotta Nonsense. Briefly. 🙂

Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/8ed6b3b4453e63bd

🤣

Thanks for the link, she's right not fast enough.

The whole thing is just ridiculous, I love the HP books and dd would love to see the themed lights. I hope they do go ahead with it.

I really can’t imagine they won’t just because a bunch of losers had a tantrum.

So it’s not even 10,000 - how many people walk down Oxford street each day in comparison.

'Oxford Street averages roughly 500,000 visitors daily'

Amazing….imagine how many people will see it.

How many millions of people buy Harry Potter books or merchandise, watch the films or visit the HP theme parks? A few thousand people pressing a button on their computers or phones pales into insignificance.

To put this into context, more than 120,000 people have signed the petition to end the mandatory fortification of white flour with folic acid.

Is that pre or post pedestrianisation?

Plus they are totally sending their emails to the wrong place, which I guess may or may not be deliberate for some reason.

They are CLAIMING they've sent 10,000 emails but I'd be interested in the office receiving these emails confirming or possibly denying this number. For all anyone knows they might have only sent 10 or 100 or 1.

I'd also wonder exactly how many people (and bots) generated those 10k if that is the number. I very much doubt its a 1:1 ratio.

Good one. 😆

Arguably flooding the Mayor's office with thousands of unwarranted emails is an offence under the Computer Misuse Act just like other DDoS attacks.

I think someone mentioned that on trans Reddit but it got brushed off.

Well, who are we to interfere 😂

The dates for the switching on of all the other Christmas lights in London have been announced, but not Oxford Street. (See Time Out feature below).

That could be because there are fears of disruption by the alphabetties. Though I think a more likely concern is that it will be so popular, the crowd numbers will be unsafe.

https://www.timeout.com/london/news/every-major-christmas-light-displays-switch-on-dates-2026-102626