Following J.K. Rowling’s announcement that she’s personally funding a group organized around trans rights, Booksmith has vowed to stop selling her books.
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 collectively sold more than 600 million copies, making her a billonaire (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.
San Francisco, unarguably the queer capital of the world, has no time for such nonsense. Especially at one of the city’s foremost independently-owned bookstores, which recently swiped its shelves clear of books authored by Rowling as a result of her anti-trans rhetoric, public actions, and support of anti-LGBTQIA+ lawmaking.
“In May of 2025, author JK Rowling publicly committed to using her private wealth from the Harry Potter series to develop the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund, an organization dedicated to removing transgender rights ‘in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces,’” reads a post on Instagram by the Haigh-Ashbury-located bookstore, Booksmith. “With this announcement, we’ve decided to stop carrying her books.”
Booksmith has served as a popular touchstone for queer authors and literature, dedicating sections specific to queer subjects and hosting a long list of queer authors for readings, book singing, and community-building events. Offering Rowling’s books for purchase seemed like a blight and misstep of that support … so Booksmith chose to remove her work from its store.
Like us, Booksmith doesn’t know exactly what Rowling’s new “women’s fund” entails. Or its goals. Or its objectives. Or its greater purpose. But humans behind the bookstore do know one thing — “we know that we aren’t going to be a part of it.”
“As a group of queer booklovers, we also had our adolescents shaped by wizards and elves. Look at us, it’s obvious,” concludes the post, offering some insight on how “someone you love” can purchase these books without financially supporting Rowling: “ 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.”
Booksmith your disregard of the truth is no better than Trump’s. Rowling’s Women’s Fund has nothing to do with taking away Trans rights in the workplace or in public spaces. It DOES seek to protect women’s only spaces such as rape counseling centers, prisons, lockerrooms. Reasonable people can have different opinions about this but your purposefully false description of her Fund makes you no better than Trump. Do what you want as is your right but I will never set foot in Booksmith again.