'I Love JK Rowling' poster removed from Edinburgh train station after trans comments

A poster saying 'I Love JK Rowling' has been removed from Edinburgh's main train station after the Harry Potter author criticised trans ideology. 

Network Rail Scotland, which manages Waverley station, confirmed the decision on Twitter. 

The advert was put up at the station on Monday by feminist campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, who has been outspoken in her criticism of gender recognition laws. 

She announced the posting of the billboard in a YouTube livestream earlier this week, saying she was "very pleased" with it. 

"It cost a lot of money," she said. 

But in a statement on Twitter, Network Rail Scotland said the advert has now been pulled for being too political. 

"This advert is no longer being displayed at Edinburgh Waverley," it said.

"The poster in question is against our code of acceptance for advertising in our stations owing to its political nature.

"We do not allow advertising that is likely to support or promote one viewpoint over another."

The statement was posted in response to a Twitter post by Lewis C Baird, founder of the Theatre Scotland review website, who claimed it made Edinburgh look like "an unwelcoming and transphobic city". 

Rowling has waded into the transgenderism row in recent months, criticising an article that referred to "people who menstruate" and writing a lengthy personal essay in which she said that free speech and single-sex spaces should be protected. 

She was a signatory to an open letter alongside Noam Chomsky, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie warning of increasing censorship over the issue, and has criticised hormone therapy and surgery for transgender young people. 

Network Rail Scotland's decision to remove the billboard has been strongly criticised on social media, with Twitter users asking why an 'I Love JK Rowling' poster is considered too political, yet displaying the rainbow logo is not. 

One Twitter user wrote: "If a poster saying 'I Love JK Rowling' on her birthday, in the place she wrote her most famous books is offensive, you have truly lost your minds." 

Another said: "JK Rowling has contributed vast amounts to theatre, arts, literature and charities, this kind of bullying under the guise of morality has to stop." 

The Free to Disagree campaign group said: "This is the febrile political climate in which the Hate Crime bill will operate."