Trans Activists Want Harry Potter Christmas Lights Pulled Over Rowling - And Sadiq Khan Won't Touch It
More than 10,000 people have emailed London Mayor Sadiq Khan asking him to cancel Harry Potter-themed Christmas lights on Oxford Street, the Telegraph reported Sunday, and the company that runs the display is going ahead with them. The Good Law Project, which launched the campaign, says the lights "will not make trans people feel Christmassy, welcome, or safe." Its petition page showed 10,312 emails sent as of this writing.
The lights are a tie-in for HBO's new Harry Potter series, which Time Out reports is an eight-episode adaptation of Philosopher's Stone premiering Christmas Day. The display is a partnership between HBO Max and the New West End Company, the body that organizes Oxford Street's lights. A Harry Potter flagship store opens on the street on Nov. 4.
The group's objection is Rowling. Its petition says Khan presents himself as an ally of the trans community and asks: "So why is he allowing one of the most famous anti-trans people in the world to take over Oxford Street?" It also says Rowling "has promised she'll use some of the money from the new Harry Potter series to fund the anti-trans rights movement."
That last claim is the campaigners' own framing. What Rowling has announced is the J.K. Rowling Women's Fund, set up in May 2025 and financed from her own money, which says it backs people and groups "fighting to retain women's sex-based rights," including in "protected female spaces." The fund is not a charity and does not accept donations.
Khan's office says it's not within the purview of his office - telling the Telegraph that the mayor does not arrange the Christmas lights on Oxford Street, the New West End Company does, and added: "The Mayor is clear that he will always support and champion all of London's diverse communities, including trans and non-binary Londoners." City Hall said so when the petition launched on Oct. 9, saying the lights are "a matter for the New West End Company and local businesses." The company is keeping its plans, according to the Daily Sceptic.
The Good Law Project lost in court earlier this year. In February, a High Court judge refused it permission to challenge the Equality and Human Rights Commission's interim guidance on single-sex spaces for lack of standing, and dismissed the claim brought by the three individual claimants who joined it.
