Celebrity1 min(s) read
Published 16:09 16 Sep 2020 GMT
Books penned by JK Rowling have been banned by an Australian store in solidarity with the trans community.
Rabble Books and Games in Maylands, Perth, announced on Wednesday, September 16, that they have ceased stocking new novels by JK Rowling, inclding those written under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
The Harry Potter franchise will be removed from bookshelves, but will be available upon request. The profits from any novels that are sold will be donated to the trans and gender diverse support service, TransFolk of WA.
"Hey Rabblers, we want to talk about JK Rowling. We are always trying to make Rabble a safer space for our community, and part of that is trying not to put books by transphobes on the shelves, when we know about them," the owner Nat Latter on Facebook.
"Here is where we’re at: we’re not going to stock new JK Rowling books and we won’t be keeping Robert Galbraith books (her pseudonym for crime novels) on the shelf anymore*. Though we don’t sell many, we’re going to phase out the Harry Potter books too," Latter continued.
"We know that HP means a lot to a lot of people and that often you want to share them with the youngsters in your life. We will always be happy to order them in for you, as with any books we don’t stock. For any we do sell, we’ll be donating our profits to @transfolkofwa. We’re physically a very small shop, and this opens up so much space for awesome books by Jessica Townsend, Jeremy Lachlan, Tamara Moss, Rebecca Lim, Ambelin Kwaymullina and Akwaeke Emezi and other amazing writers with middle grade and young adult fantasy adventure books.
"Whilst stocking a book isn’t an endorsement (good grief, that would be a minefield), and we will always take orders for books that aren’t in stock, there are more worthy books to put on the shelf, books that don’t harm communities and won’t make us sad to unpack them.
"Just a note about this pseudonym - Robert Galbraith Heath was a psychologist who helped develop conversion therapy. Hard to imagine that’s a coincidence. Maybe read Dervla McTiernan and Tara Moss instead?
What I’d love to hear is your suggested alternatives - what are some queer and trans positive fantasy books for young people and crime books for adults?"
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This comes after social media was sent into meltdown after the subject matter of J.K. Rowling's upcoming crime novel was revealed online.
As per a now-viral tweet from Pink News, the new novel, titled Troubled Blood and written under Rowling's pseudonym 'Robert Galbraith', is about "a murderous cis man who dresses as a woman to kill his victims".
This comes after Rowling penned an essay earlier this summer, outlining her views about transgender people, including her belief that trans activism is "pushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender", something that is "offering cover to predators like few before it".
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Following the revelation of the author's new book's subject matter, #RIPJKRowling began to trend, prompting people to recommend books by trans authors instead.
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