In the months since the North Carolina state legislature passed HB2, the "bathroom bill" mandating that transgender people can use only public restrooms corresponding to the gender indicated on their birth certificate, Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, N.C., has seen a slump in sales, reported the Washington Post.
Malaprop's owner Emoke B'Racz told the Post that sales were down in both April and May and that the store's "business is off on a day-to-day basis." Tourists have been avoiding Asheville generally; some travelers who were unable to cancel their visits have even dropped by the store just to announce that they would not purchase a book there out of protest.
When two major authors, Sherman Alexie and Mark Z. Danielewski, canceled readings in protest of HB2, they could not have done it more differently, B'Racz said. Danielewski, whose most recent book is The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain, wrote B'Racz an apologetic note, while Alexie, who was promoting his children's book Thunder Boy Jr., gave no warning except for a tweet announcing that he would cancel all upcoming events in North Carolina. According to the article, B'Racz is "still furious" with Alexie, and feels that Alexie went about his boycott the completely wrong way.
"Lots of children were denied the chance to get to know him," said B'Racz, who added, "there are other ways of protesting and making an impact."
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| Malaprop's owner Emoke B'Racz, author Charles Frazier and general manager Linda-Marie Barrett. (photo: Jon Mayes) | |
On the same night that Alexie would have read in Asheville, several local writers, including Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain, and Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants, appeared at an event protesting HB2 that raised $5,000 for local LGBT groups. Store manager Linda-Marie Barrett, meanwhile, has written pieces protesting the bill and describing the store's plight in both Shelf Awareness and the New York Times.
"I don't think we should be punished for the government's stupidity," B'Racz told the Post. "I think we should protest the government's stupidity every chance we get."