JK Rowling has exposed how desperate the gender extremists have become
Consider the latest example. A bookstore in San Francisco – a city known for its adherence to transgender ideology and extreme wokeism – has declared that it will no longer sell any of JK Rowling's books because of, wait for it, her role in supposedly 'removing transgender rights'.
Announcing this brave and stunning move on Instagram, Booksmith explained that the final straw was a legal fund recently established by Rowling for the purpose of defending and protecting women's 'sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.'
Yes, that's right – protecting women's rights apparently now amounts to bigotry and prejudice towards the transgender community. The fact that this fund is necessary only because women on both sides of the Atlantic have been bullied and hounded out of their jobs and off college courses, and prevented from applying for promotions if they are deemed 'anti-trans', seems irrelevant to these people.
The bookstore is a commercial enterprise that seems quite happy to forego certain profit by refusing to stock such hugely popular titles as the Harry Potter series and Robert Galbraith Strike novels; virtue-signalling is clearly considered much more important. But when it comes to identity politics and gender nonsense, publishing is one of the worst-affected institutions. During a tour in the US to promote my book on feminism, one bookstore cancelled my event at the last minute because a trans activist customer had complained. This was despite the fact that it had sold out.
The revenue from JK Rowling's books probably funds a good chunk of the publishing industry worldwide, yet these for-profit enterprises would rather have huge display tables groaning under the weight of books by trans activists that barely sell at all.
A new report on this kamikaze phenomenon was launched just this week in the UK by Sex Matters. Written by Matilda Gosling, it highlights the fact that several female authors have had contracts broken, manuscripts rejected, and even been pushed out of the industry, because of accusations of transphobia. Rowling herself, with her stratospheric success and wealth, need not worry about pointless gestures such as the one by Booksmith – but the careers of other authors have been left in tatters. This is exactly why Rowling's women's legal fund is so necessary.
The fund is the first of its kind: many women, and some men, have found themselves in a terrible situation for merely stating scientifically correct facts on sex and gender, and expressing a view with which the vast majority of people agree.
It would be interesting to know whether this particular bookstore will be ploughing through its thousands of titles to check that all of its staff agree politically with the premise of each and every author and the contents of each and every book.
It looks very much as though this so-called civil rights movement is actually a witch hunt against women – for the crime of daring to assert our rights rather than rolling over and capitulating to misogynistic bullies.
As it dawns on the extremists that they are going down with a sinking ship because they overreached on their demands and bullied and cajoled refuseniks, their rising desperation only makes them look more ludicrous. Some time ago, when yet another trans activist announced on X that he was burning Rowling's books, she had the perfect riposte: 'I get the same royalties whether you read them or burn them. Enjoy your marshmallows!'
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