Book Festival Cancels Harry Potter Quiz Over Rowling Transphobia
The Featherston Booktown Kaukatea Festival in New Zealand will not include its regular Harry Potter quiz this year, due to author J.K. Rowling s transphobic statements. May 03 2021 4:14 PM EDT
A Harry Potter trivia quiz at a popular New Zealand book festival is being canceled this year due to the book series’ author’s history of transphobic tweets and statements.
The Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival is held every year, but after consulting with the local LGBTQ+ community, organizers have decided that one tradition, a Harry Potter quiz, will not be returning this time. When the festival takes place Friday through Sunday, J.K. Rowling’s books will not be celebrated.
Whyte, who is lesbian, admitted that she shared some of Rowlings’ views around biological women’s rights and argued they were not transphobic. “It’s really funny that all the way from the UK where a world-famous writer has gotten into trouble for expressing quite compassionate and reasonable views, all the way down to tiny little Featherston. It encapsulates the whole madness of it quite well.”
Joel C Ryan/AP
Author J.K. Rowling’s online discourse has struck a nerve with many in the LGBTQ community. Rowling has come under fire from many in the LGBTQ community about her public opinions on biological women’s rights in the context of political and legal evolution of transgender rights.
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