31/10/2024
We usually recommend that LGBTQIA+ people will get the best service from independent, queer owned and progressive businesses such as the network of independent bookstores around the UK. The problem with Waterstones, a big chain store in Britain, was underlined this week after it dismissed a worker for making a personal comment on their own website about a transphobic author. LGBTQ Nation takes up the story and says " Tilly Fitzgerald, a bookseller at the British bookstore chain Waterstones, was fired after she made a social media post criticizing a so-called “gender-critical author.” After posting the comment, Fitzgerald was fired by Waterstones. She posted about the situation on Instagram on July 8, saying “I’ve just been sacked from the only job I’ve ever loved.” Waterstones told The Guardian, saying that Fitzgerald had been fired for “contravening Waterstones policies” and that it had “nothing to do with transgender rights.” People have come strong in support of Fitzgerald, however. More than 500 authors and book industry professionals have signed an open letter that calls on Waterstones to rehire Fitzgerald. “We are a group of authors and book industry workers deeply concerned about the recent events surrounding a much-loved member of the book community, known on social media as TillyLovesBooks,” the letter reads. “We feel it is an egregious error to terminate the employment of a dedicated, passionate, and knowledgeable bookseller for expressing a personal opinion about an author and their work on their social media page,” it continues. “The page was not associated with Waterstones. Neither Tilly’s personal opinion nor what she chooses to do with her own private property, should have been grounds for her losing her work and livelihood.” Emma Szewczak linked the case to Waterstone's notoriously poor wages and noted "waterstones hires full-time booksellers for a pathetic 18k a year, and yet has the nerve to implement a social media useage policy stricter than that of the government's civil service".
