For the six years now that I have been a walking tour guide in the city of Edinburgh I have given Harry Potter walking tours alongside historical ones. Since going independent back in February, these have continued to be part of the mix. It’s something that I grew up with. But there’s an increasing amount of negativity around the series which is making it much harder to conjure up affection and for that reason the Edinburgh Street Historians are having internal discussions.
Why are we having the discussions and what might be the outcome? Well, let’s explore together.
The backdrop behind the current climate
Essentially, JK Rowling, the writer of Harry Potter, for years beloved by many due to her championing of some pretty great causes related to children’s books and funding research into multiple sclerosis, got involved in politics. In particular, LGBTQ politics was her issue. In particular, comments about the trans community. There are many great writeups on this. Here’s a timeline which seems pretty comprehensive. The point is, Rowling’s position on trans issues is very clear.
When these issues first were coming out, I was sure it was going to be the end of Harry Potter walking tours as an event people wanted to go to. Her stances looked like they were going to make the world more dangerous for trans people, and by extension everyone else under the LGBTQ umbrella. This is a thing which straight people might not get about the issue here. Once a person is part of the LGBTQ umbrella, there’s a level of respect and solidarity to defend other members. Even if you don’t specifically understand what they are going through and know the ins and outs of their feelings, an attack on one is an attack on all.
It is a stated goal for the right-wing group the Heritage Foundation to split up LGBT activism. They see the trans part of the acronym as being the most dissimilar from the others and therefore have directed enormous sums of funding to the task. Even if you do not understand the issues that trans people face, you need to recognise this as being a problem for the wider community. You only need to see how emboldened homophobia has become in the US to see how this can have a larger issue on everyone else. There’s threat to gay marriage in the US. This is motivated in part by the success of hate groups at mobilising people against trans people. This will impact all LGBTQ people’s ability to live a life without prejudice.
How does this current climate affect Harry Potter walking tours?
Rowling’s earlier comments did not significantly alter the numbers of attendees to Harry Potter walking tours. From my personal experience, group sizes remained roughly the same. Others in the industry have echoed similar experience. Hardly anyone has ever mentioned Rowling’s position on trans people during any of my tours unless we were having a conversation between stops. In this it might seem like a bit of a damp squib.
We’re used to writers having terrible ideas. Roald Dahl made antisemitic comments. Dr Seuss cheated on his wife. Ezra Pound was a Mussolini supporting fascist. Charlotte Perkins Gilbert who wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ was a hardcore eugenicist. Who knows what William Shakespeare thought on the issues. It’s a good thing they didn’t have Twitter back then.
Can Edinburgh Harry Potter tours exist without talking about JK Rowling?
The issue is a personal one for tour guides but it is is also economic. A good number of Harry Potter tour guides are LGBTQ+ and those that aren’t tend to be allies. It can seem incongruous to continue giving them when this is the case.
But it would definitely have an economic impact to not offer Harry Potter walking tours in Edinburgh. It’s one of the big draws that we are the city where it was written. I’ve heard that it could be as high as 20% of visitors to the UK are in part motivated by Harry Potter (sadly the source for this cannot be directly found though it was reported in the Daily Mail). I’ve seen some guides try and cut round JK Rowling while giving the tour. This would create tours that are in some way missing a core element.
The link Edinburgh has to the world of Harry Potter is the fact it was written here. The person it was written here by is Rowling. So it cannot really be gotten around.
To make matters more interesting, she has began expanding her involvement in LGBTQ politics. Especially since most recently she has expanded her repertoire to also attack asexual people for no reason.
The choice facing tour guides is passing up money for values. It is a choice I suspect most guides do not relish. Entire companies have been built up around the idea that they do Potter tours. It gets harder and harder to square.
An ethical approach to Harry Potter walking tours
In order to alleviate any concerns, no money made from the Edinburgh Street Historians Harry Potter walking tour goes to JK Rowling or the wizarding world. The reason for this is because walking tours are closer to literary criticism rather than merchandising. A writer does not make money from someone talking about their works. This is one way that these tours can continue to provide joy to the millions of Harry Potter readers who continue to feel connection to the series and the story of how it got written here in Edinburgh.
To add to this, part of the money made on the Edinburgh Street Historians Harry Potter walking tours goes to support LGBT Health and Wellbeing (recognised as a charity by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, no. SC034216) to ensure the wider Scottish queer community benefits from these tours.
It’s all part of the continued mission of Edinburgh Street Historians. We want to provide walking tours that are fun, funny, enlightening and entertaining on a variety of topics around Edinburgh. That does involve interacting with one of the biggest book series to have ever existed which also happened to originate in the city. Certain pieces of journalism recently have suggested continuing to interact with the series at all is unethical given Rowling’s views, but our view is that these Harry Potter walking tours provide an excellent framework for talking about how inspiring the city of Edinburgh is. It is a walking tour of possibility.
So we hope you join us when you take your Summer holidays here. Though for Pride Month, I will be replacing my Potter tours with additional LGBTQ tours just because it’s really funny.
The writer of this piece kind of looks like Harry Potter doesn’t he?
To book one, you can find the link right here. Otherwise, look up our socials and stay in touch.
Leave a Reply