JK Rowling ’s golden handprints have been vandalised with red paint in Edinburgh amid the controversy over her comments on transgender people.
A trans pride flag was also planted next to the Harry Potter author's prints - a tourist favourite close to the Capital's city chambers.
Rowling was accused of transphobia for her tweets over the last month after taking issue with a headline on an article discussing "people who menstruate."
The writer's comments on the subject have included referring to the hormones taken by many trans people as "a new kind of conversion therapy".
Rowling addressed the controversy in a lengthy essay in which she laid out her beliefs while a furious backlash ensued.
She said some of her reasons for speaking out were 'freedom of speech', 'education' and 'safeguarding'.
Daniel Radcliffe, the star of the Harry Potter film series, and Eddie Redmayne, who leads the cast of Fantastic Beasts, have both criticised Rowling for her comments about transgender issues.
Rowling lived in Edinburgh before her books became world famous.
Her golden handprints were engraved in 2008, when Rowling was awarded the Edinburgh Award in 2008.
