Two San Francisco bookstores are taking Harry Potter off the shelves.
This week, a scrappy San Francisco bookstore announced that they’ll be removing a certain seven book fantasy series set at a dangerous boarding school from their shelves indefinitely. The decision is motivated by the author’s hateful politics.
Booksellers at Booksmith, an indie founded in 1976, explained the choice in a statement on the store’s blog. I reprint it in full below because they make a swell case.
Are you looking for Harry Potter? 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.”
With this announcement, we’ve decided to stop carrying her books. 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.
The post goes on to include a lovely list of recommendations for both kids and adults looking to scratch a fantastical itch.
As Dan Gentile reported in SFGate, Rowling’s “Women’s Fund” was started to help defendants who have been “forced to comply with unreasonable inclusion policies regarding single sex spaces and services.” I, like the Booksmith sellers, think we can reasonably infer that this means a billionaire will be helping TERFs secure Cadillac legal defense as part of her ongoing campaign to terrorize trans women out of public space. But I note this isn’t explicit yet in the org’s mission materials.
In happier news, this bold bookstore stance seems to have set a local trend. On the heels of Booksmith’s announcement, Fabulosa Books in the Castro also announced that it will also stop selling Rowling’s books.
Considering the author’s (vast) coffers, her (evil) intentions, and what must be millions of used copies taking up attic space around the world, I say way to go, Booksmith.
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