Museum cancels JK Rowling over 'super hateful' trans views
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A museum has airbrushed JK Rowling out of its hall of fame and Harry Potter exhibits because of her gender-critical beliefs.
The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, Washington, accused the author of holding “super hateful and divisive” opinions in a lengthy blog post explaining its decision.
Rowling has received online abuse for her opinions on transgender issues after arguing that women should not be ousted from their jobs for believing biological sex is real.
She strongly denied accusations of transphobia in 2020 after mocking the use of the phrase “people who menstruate” in place of “women”.
While MoPOP continues to display memorabilia from the Harry Potter films, which are adapted from Rowling’s most famous novels, an article by its exhibitions project manager confirms references to the franchise’s creator are no longer included.
The museum doubled down on its decision on Saturday, saying it “unequivocally stands with nonbinary and transgender communities”.
Chris Moore, who is transgender and uses ‘he/they’ pronouns, wrote in the 1,400-word piece: “There’s a certain cold, heartless, joy-sucking entity in the world of Harry Potter and, this time, it is not actually a Dementor.
“This certain person is a bit too vocal with her super hateful and divisive views to be ignored…Her transphobic viewpoints are front and centre these days, but we can’t forget all the other ways that she’s problematic.”
Explaining the removal of Rowling from MoPOP’s hall of fame, Moore wrote: “For the time being, the curators decided to remove any of her artefacts from this gallery to reduce her impact. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s what we were able to do in the short-term while determining long-term practices.”
On the author’s induction in 2018, a year before she first publicly expressed her views on trans issues, MoPOP described the Harry Potter books as “beloved” and published a three-paragraph biography of Rowling outlining her literary achievements.
In his post, Moore also accused Rowling of “fat-shaming”, a “lack of LGBTQIA+ representation” and using “racial stereotypes” in her books.
“We learned that [Rowling] was a problem, which is why you’ll see the artefacts without any mention or image of the author,” he said. After all, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint are all incredibly vocal allies.”
Radcliffe, who launched his career playing the titular wizard, said last year that young fans of the series has been “hurt” by Rowling’s views on transgender issues.
Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley, has insisted “trans women are women, trans men are men”, while Watson, his co-star as Hermione Granger, donated to controversial trans lobby charity Mermaids in 2020 before encouraging her Twitter followers to follow suit.
Last year, Mermaids staff agreed to discreetly send a breast binder to a girl they believed was only 14, despite being told her mother would not allow its use, while online help centre staff told adolescent users that hormone-blocking drugs were safe and “totally reversible”.
In 2021, Rowling said she had received “enough death threats to paper my house” after trans activists revealed her address online and staged a protest outside her home.
She has regularly spoken out about her concerns that making it easier to legally change gender would threaten the safety of biological women, and was one of the most prominent critics of Nicola Sturgeon’s ill-fated attempts to change the law to allow trans people to self-identify without a medical certificate.
A spokesman for MoPOP said: “MoPOP is proud to support our employees and unequivocally stands with nonbinary and transgender communities. In an increasingly divided world, pop culture can unite, inspire, and spark important conversations.
“Education and creative expression are the heart of our mission and in our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, we strive to elevate those that are left out of the mainstream pop culture conversation, by amplifying voices and stories that are not always seen on museum walls.”
