Seattle Museum Removes References to J.K. Rowling from 'Harry Potter' Exhibit

A Seattle museum has forged forward with a "Harry Potter"-themed exhibit, but stricken the franchise creator J.K. Rowling's name and image from the displays, Entertainment Weekly reported.

"In a March blog post from Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture, project manager Chris Moore slammed Rowling for her 'hateful' comments and announced how the museum would proceed with Harry Potter related displays," EW detailed.

The post referred to Rowling as "a certain cold, heartless, joy-sucking entity in the world of Harry Potter," the article noted.

"Her transphobic viewpoints are front and center these days," the museum's blog post said, "but we can't forget all the other ways that she's problematic: the support of antisemitic creators, the racial stereotypes that she used while creating characters, the incredibly white wizarding world, the fat shaming, the lack of LGBTQIA+ representation, the super-chill outlook on the bigotry and othering of those that don't fit into the standard wizarding world, and so much more."

EW detailed that "Museum of Pop Culture curators decided to remove Rowling's name and likeness from various galleries to 'reduce her impact.'"

"Though memorabilia from the Harry Potter films is still included in the 'Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic' gallery, the author is no longer cited in the exhibit," EW explained.

"While the Harry Potter series is a major player in the pop culture sphere, we wanted to give credit to the work of the actors, prop makers, and costume designers in our Fantasy gallery," the museum explained in the blog post. "We learned that You-Know-Who was a problem, which is why you'll see the artifacts without any mention or image of the author."

"The blog post adds that 'it's not a perfect solution, but it's what we were able to do in the short-term while determining long-term practices,'" EW noted.

Rowling waded into controversy in June of 2020 with a tweet that mocked the phrase "people who menstruate" – a way of acknowledging trans men who experience menses without denying the validity of their gender identity.

The author doubled down in subsequent posts, claiming at one point that transgender people asserting their gender identities was tantamount to "erasing the concept of sex" altogether.

In a subsequent essay, Rowling wrote that "I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe. When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he's a woman... then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside." That explanation appeared to deny the femininity of trans women.

Various actors from the "Harry Potter" franchise, including Daniel Radcliffe, spoke up in support of trans people; others have defended Rowling.

EW cited an interview with Rowling in which the author defended her stance, saying, "I am absolutely upholding the positions that I took in 'Potter,'" and adding: "My position is that this activist movement, in the form that it's currently taking, echoes the very thing that I was warning against in 'Harry Potter.'"