The American Booksellers Association apologized on Wednesday for including a book about the harms that come with allowing gender-confused children to “transition” in their July promotional box.
ABA first labeled Abigail Shrier’s book “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” as “anti-trans” after receiving backlash on social media. In response, the association apologized for committing the “inexcusable” crime of promoting literature offering an alternative perspective.
“This is a serious, violent incident that goes against ABA’s ends policies, values, and everything we believe and support,” ABA tweeted. “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.”
The company went on to conclude that “apologies are not enough” and that moving forward, the people at ABA are “committed to engaging in the critical dialogue needed to inform concrete steps to address the harm we caused.”
— American Booksellers Association (@ABAbook) July 14, 2021
The apology, while filled with regret mixed with extreme claims about Shrier’s book, did not appear to be enough for the mob who pressured the association into issuing another groveling statement on Wednesday night about the inclusion of Shrier’s book and another “racist” incident where the association confused “right-wing extremist” Candace Owens’ book “Blackout” with another novel.
“We traumatized and endangered members of the trans community. We erased Black authors, conflated Black authors, and put the authors in danger through a forced association. We further marginalized communities we want to support,” ABA CEO Allison Hill wrote. “There is nothing that I can say that will make this right. This should not have happened. I want to apologize for both of these harms and for the pain that ABA caused.”
“But I know only action matters,” she continued. “These were egregious, harmful acts that caused violence and pain. One negligent, irresponsible, and racist; the other negligent, irresponsible, and transphobic.”
The ABA board of directors also weighed in with their own thoughts that the organization has “systemic problems” and “institutional failures and biases” that need to be addressed.
“These incidents harmed booksellers, ABA board members, and ABA staff who identify as LGBTQIA+ and/or BIPOC, as well as the wider community. They also added to a toxic culture overall,” the board wrote. “We are not the ABA of two years ago. These actions are antithetical to the values we are working to promote in our organization under the strong leadership of our CEO, Allison Hill, and COO, Joy Dallanegra-Sanger. This is not acceptable behavior and goes against the bylaws changes instituted last year.”
Shrier responded to the ABA and said “if there were a Hall of Fame for capitulations to Woke bullies, the American Booksellers Association is hereby inducted.”
“The ‘serious, violent incident’ they perpetrated? Including my book in a large box of new book samples sent out to independent booksellers,” she tweeted.
If there were a Hall of Fame for capitulations to Woke bullies, the American Booksellers Association is hereby inducted.
The "serious, violent incident" they perpetrated? Including my book in a large box of new book samples sent out to independent booksellers. https://t.co/SgnKvPy4AU
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) July 15, 2021
Trans activists previously tried to cancel Shrier and her bestselling book from Target and other bookshelves all across the nation shortly after it was published. Just this week, two Amazon employees reportedly quit after big tech oligarch Amazon declined to bow to their demands that the company stops selling and profiting off of Shrier’s “transphobic” work.
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1415694860062011398
