If you’re looking for Harry Potter at the San Francisco bookstore Booksmith, you’ll be met with a disclaimer instead. “In May 2025, author JK Rowling publicly committed to using her private wealth from the Harry Potter series to develop the ‘JK Rowling Women’s Fund,’” reads a message from the staff posted on the shelf, “an organization dedicated to removing transgender rights ‘in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.’”
Booksmith decided to remove Harry Potter books from its shelves earlier this month. The staff, who identify themselves as queer people whose “adolescence was shaped by wizards and elves” in the statement, also curated a Rowling-unaffiliated collection of fantasy books called “Wizards, but not That Wizard” both in the store and online.
Since 2019, the billionaire author has used her massive platform to speak out against the inclusion of trans women in women’s spaces. Along with regularly referring to trans women as men online, Rowling has spread misinformation about Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who sued Rowling for alleged cyberharassment.
On its website, the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund says it “offers legal funding support to individuals and organisations fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights.”
Booksmith staff are not the first former fans to distance themselves from Rowling over her views. In 2022, U.S. Quidditch and Major League Quidditch — a real-life sport inspired by the fictional game that Potter and his classmates play on broomsticks in the series — rebranded as quadball.
