Waterstones responds after sacking employee who ‘stood up for trans rights’
Waterstones has issued a statement after firing an “exemplary” bookseller who criticised an author for their gender-critical views.
Tilly Fitzgerald, a book influencer who shares reviews of novels on her TikTok page Tilly Loves Books, revealed that she was “sacked from the only job I’ve ever loved” for threatening to bin the books of Christina Dalcher. “She’s not huge, but apparently she has enough sway to get me sacked,” Fitzgerald told her followers in a tearful Twitter/X video. “I told her on Twitter that I was going to throw away her books after I found out that she was a bigot and just trying to get lots of other people in the publishing industry fired purely for standing up for trans rights.” Fitzgerald criticised the author in late June after she voiced support for SEEN Publishing, a network launched for those who are “concerned about the impact of gender ideology”. “Ooh I’ll enjoy tearing your books up and popping them in the bin today,” said Fitzgerald. “Thanks for the heads up.” Although she explained in her video that her comments “weren’t trying to get anyone cancelled or taken off shop shelves”, Fitzgerald was subsequently fired from Waterstones. “I was speaking of my choice to throw my own books of theirs away as I didn’t want to personally support them,” she said.
Tilly Fitzgerald/@tillylovesbooks In an interview with The Independent, Fitzgerald said she’s “absolutely devastated that this escalated to me losing a job a love”.
While she acknowledged that her comments towards Dalcher were “a violation of the social media policy”, she said getting sacked “was disproportionate and a warning would have been more appropriate”.
