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Bookselling Association Begs for Mercy After 'Violent' Mailing of 'Anti-Trans' Book to Its Members

Julio Rosas
Julio Rosas  |  July 15, 2021 12:25 PM

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) released an apology on Wednesday after including "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters" by Abigail Shrier in its July mailing for its members.

In the apology, ABA said the inclusion of the book was a "serious, violent incident that goes against ABA’s ends policies, values, and everything we believe and support. It is inexcusable":

"An anti-trans book was included in our July mailing to members. This is a serious, violent incident that goes against ABA’s ends policies, values, and everything we believe and support. It is inexcusable. We apologize to our trans members and to the trans community for this terrible incident and the pain we caused them. We also apologize to the LGBTQIA+ community at large, and to our bookselling community. Apologies are not enough. We’ve begun addressing this today and are committed to engaging in the critical dialogue needed to inform concrete steps to address the harm we caused. Those steps will be shared in the next three weeks."

Shrier's book examines the sudden surge in young girls identifying as transgender that began in the 2010s:

"Until just a few years ago, gender dysphoria—severe discomfort in one’s biological sex—was vanishingly rare. It was typically found in less than .01 percent of the population, emerged in early childhood, and afflicted males almost exclusively.

"But today whole groups of female friends in colleges, high schools, and even middle schools across the country are coming out as 'transgender.' These are girls who had never experienced any discomfort in their biological sex until they heard a coming-out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discovered the internet community of trans 'influencers.'"

Despite the apology, some users on Twitter said ABA had done serious harm to the trans community while others called the ABA wannabe book burners for apologizing for the simple act of including a best-selling book that offended some people: