JK Rowling’s golden handprints in Edinburgh have been vandalised with… a trans Pride flag
A golden imprint of JK Rowling’s hands were splashed with red paint and a decorate trans Pride flag left beside it. (Supplied)
Harry Potter fans across the world have wrestled with how to reimagine the wizarding world without JK Rowling in light of her views on trans people, but it seems one fan has taken it into their own hands.
Or, Rowling’s, rather.
In Edinburgh, Scotland, where the writer lived for a time to be near her sister, the Harry Potter fanbase has for years gone on pilgrimages to the city where it seems every street has something to do with the book series.
One such landmark is a pair of golden handprints of Rowling’s engraved on the grounds outside the City Chambers. But according to photographs shared to PinkNews, the imprints have been daubed with red paint and a trans Pride flag,
The flag was placed by the concrete prints which were produced when Rowling was awarded the Edinburgh Award in 2008. An Edinburgh local, who wished to remain anonymous, told PinkNews that the red paint may symbolise how Rowling has “blood on her hands” for her comments on trans people which some have dubbed “dangerous“.
(Supplied)
JK Rowling has increasingly spoken out on trans rights. Her fans aren’t sure how to handle it.
For years, fans of the beloved British author have sought to give Rowling the benefit of the doubt. The odd liked tweets. The following dubiously anti-trans accounts. All “middle-aged moments“, her representatives soothingly said.
Rowling has steadily risen from her stoop-sitting approach to trans rights – occasional comments and vague gestures – to full-on commentator on trans healthcare and rights.
She has outlined her views on trans people extensively across various Twitter threads and blog posts, plunging her LGBT+ fans into unease as the writer of a book series people have loved for the last 23 years unleashes anti-trans tirades.
Her comments have prompted the holy trinity of the series’ film adaptations – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint – to come out swinging for trans rights.
And as more Harry Potter fans begin to denounce Rowling and the 54-year-old’s own publishing house begins to distance itself from her, it seems fans have responded to Rowling by vandalising the Royal Mile handprints along 253 High Street.
