RuPaul’s Allstora Apologizes for Selling Anti-LGBTQ Books

metroweekly.com:

TikTok video. He touted the platform as a place where readers could access books that might be at risk from censorship bans, offering up to 10 million different titles for sale.However, the platform quickly came under criticism from the LGBTQ community for including titles that espoused right-wing and anti-LGBTQ messages.

Among the controversial books found on Allstora were Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Matt Walsh’s anti-transgender What Is a Woman?, anti-trans extremist Abigail Shrier’s Bad Therapy, which criticizes the mental health establishment, and a children’s book by Chaya Raichik, founder of Libs of TikTok.Other works by anti-LGBTQ extremists like Riley Gaines, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Robby Starbuck, and Kirk Cameron were also found on the site, according to the culture website Vulture.Critics said the inclusion of books with anti-LGBTQ views were contrary to the site’s claims of providing a “welcoming” and “inclusive” space for LGBTQ people.

Others decried it as an example of “rainbow capitalism,” in which corporate entities profit from the sale of products while claiming to support LGBTQ rights.Allstora initially argued that it would not remove or censor the objectionable books, and a pop-up note on the site told visitors they might find books with which they disagree.“We cannot fight the ideologies of hate if we lack the ability to study, understand, and react to them.