A bookstore in San Francisco announced earlier this month that it will no longer sell titles by J.K. Rowling, including her popular “Harry Potter” series, due to the author’s anti-transgender views and advocacy.
Booksmith, which opened in 1976 and is in the city’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, said the final straw came last month, when Rowling announced on social media that she would use her personal wealth to fund the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund, which describes itself as a legal fund to support “individuals and organisations fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.”
Though the fund doesn’t mention trans people specifically, Rowling has been vocally opposed to trans women’s inclusion in women’s spaces, and proponents of efforts to restrict trans rights often describe such efforts as advocating for women’s “sex-based” rights.
“With this announcement, we’ve decided to stop carrying her books,” Booksmith said in a statement on Instagram. “We don’t know exactly what her new ‘women’s fund’ will entail, but we know that we aren’t going to be a part of it. As a group of queer booklovers, we also had our adolescences shaped by wizards and elves. Look at us, it’s obvious. If you or someone you love wants to dive into the world of Harry Potter, we suggest doing so by buying used copies of these books.”
Rowling did not immediately return a request for comment.
On Monday, Booksmith provided a list on its website of fantasy books similar to the “Harry Potter” series for readers who are interested in alternatives, sparking some backlash and a debate about whether bookstores should make decisions about which books their customers can access.
“So you’re going to curate your selections to only sell books by authors that you agree with politically,” one commenter wrote on social media. “Good to know. I’ll be shopping elsewhere.”
Booksmith responded: “There are plenty of books we carry that we don’t ‘agree’ with, but in this case, it’s not politics at all. When the author of a book states that all sales of those books will contribute to an anti-trans fund, the only way we can choose not to participate is by not selling the books any longer. It’s no different than when we encourage you to buy your books in indies rather than purchase them on Amazon. It stands in direct opposition to everything we believe in and that we have tried to uphold in our nearly 50 years of selling books. If you want to read the HP books, we implore you to buy them used locally, where the money stays in the community you love.”
Other commenters thanked the store and said they would be returning to shop soon.
Booksmith did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for additional comment.
Rowling first faced backlash for her views on trans people in 2019, when she tweeted in support of a British researcher who lost her job over social media posts that said allowing trans women into female spaces poses a safety threat to cisgender girls and women. In 2020, after facing repeated criticism that her views were transphobic, Rowling doubled down in a 4,000-word blog post in which she said she fears that social media is fueling a “contagion” that has led to more young people coming out as trans and that, as a survivor of domestic abuse and assault, she is concerned about allowing trans women into female spaces.
In that post, she said she wanted “trans women to be safe,” but, “at the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe.” Trans-inclusive policies, particularly for restrooms, do not increase safety risks, according to a study published in 2018 and another earlier this year.
Her views have become more extreme over the years, with her recently referring to trans women as men on social media. In August, she also perpetuated misinformation that Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif is a man, leading Khelif to file a cyberbullying complaint against her later that month.
Rowling has not publicly responded to the complaint except to share an article on social media that criticized Khelif for a beauty PR campaign and called for her to release DNA results. Khelif’s lawsuit against Rowling is ongoing.
