Joining the likes of Booksmith — the first reported bookstore in San Francisco to remove texts by the popular author behind the Harry Potter series — Fabulosa Books in the Castro has ceased selling books by J.K. Rowling.
J.K. Rowling’s fall from grace doesn’t need to be studied at length; it’s all down to transphobia, simple as that. Rowling championed (and subsequently applauded) the United Kingdom’s supreme court decision earlier this month to define women as only those who were born so at birth. On those coat tails, she then started a political cohort that essentially fights against transgender rights under the guise of feminism.
As we summarized earlier this June when Booksmith vowed to stop selling Rowling’s books, Rowling is no ally to queer or trans people:
J.K. Rowling, the polarizing writer and public figure who grabbed the minds of tens of millions through authoring the “Harry Potter” book series — which have sold more than 600 million copies, making her a billionaire (again) — nowadays takes to a different type of wordsmithing: using her social media platform to lambast transgender people. Rowling’s anti-trans rhetoric started taking shape around 2018, liking ant-trans posts on then-Twitter; Rowling issued a subsequent apology, clearly done so out of backlash, and assured her stance as an LGBTQIA+ ally […] However, Rowling’s actions — social media posts, op-eds, fiscal donations, etc. — have only shown how hollow her initial apologies toward anti-trans rhetoric were; Rowling most recently celebrated the UK Supreme Court judgment that ruled trans women should not be considered women.
Now taking the cue from Booskmith, Fabulosa Books, a queer-owned-and-operated bookstore that’s quasi-new to SF’s Castro neighborhood, has vowed not to sell Rowling’s books as well.
“We are now longer selling [and] buying books from J.K. Rowling,” reads a sparse and simple, yet resonant and powerful Instagram post by the bookstore.
Ahead of Pride week in San Francisco, the bookstore’s choice was one based on her continued “nastiness” (read: outward and outright transphobia; a reminder to all that trans rights are intrinsically tied to gay rights, and to blight one is an attack on the other) and exists as tangible act of allyship amid an increasingly transphobic society.
“Thanks for setting a good example, [Booksmith,” reads the post’s caption. An example well set, indeed … Now we just need City Hall to raise the transgender flag after its glaring omission earlier this month during SF’s Pride kickoff celebration.
