For the past eight years, Category Is Books has been able to comfortably operate without roller shutters. Unfortunately, this is now more crucial than ever for our little queer bookshop!

One of our windows was recently smashed. The word “TRANS” had been directly targeted, making the perpetrator’s transphobic intentions clear as day. We have also become increasingly aware of an escalation in violations and intimidation from fascists in our neighbourhood.

After months of experiencing regular spitting and other forms of aggression, we can no longer tolerate the increasing ways in which our space is being threatened. This has led us to the difficult decision to install roller shutters around the bookshop as an additional step to protect the bookshop, and safeguard ourselves and our community who use this space.

To make this happen, we need your support to raise £10,000 towards the cost and installation of the shutters. This is an important measure for ensuring that we can continue doing what we do: maintain the security of an queer, independent and community-oriented space!

Category Is Books has never existed in isolation. Our responsibility is towards the queer communities and groups that are actively using our space for organising and gathering. It has been and will continue to be shaped by the people who visit us, support us, recommend us and take part in our community events.

We will miss our windows too! They have been an important part of how we stay connected to our immediate community. From hand-painted quotes that ground us to lists of monthly community events, our window displays have offered a subtle way of sharing and make visible what matters to us and what is happening around us.

We’re excited to imagine what this change might make possible and how the shutters will eventually become an extension of the shop. We are genuinely excited to imagine it as a new canvas we can paint on together, opening up possibilities for how the shop continues to speak out into the street.

Moving forward… We are currently working with our insurance company to recover the costs of replacing the smashed window. However, this process may take some time, and we have to cover these costs upfront. We are also absorbing the additional costs and labour ourselves while we navigate the aftermath.

Every donation will crucially contribute towards the new shutters and make a tangible difference to how we run a secure space. Please share this far and wide! Thank you!

More about Category Is Books:

Started by Bug and Fin, we hope to create a space for the queer community to learn about, be inspired by and share in our love of queer books, art, history, activism, writing and storytelling.

As queer trans people that grew up under Section 28, it wasn’t until later in life that we started to explore our own queer history and culture in more depth - discovering in the process an expansive world of books, magazines, comics, zines, films and art, created by the LGBTQIA+ community that was completely life changing.

We were delighted to find a shopfront just round the corner from our home in Govanhill and spent a summer DIY-ing it up ourselves. The doors opened in September 2018.

We stock new and second hand queer books, magazines, graphic novels, comics, zines, badges and lots of stickers!

To find out more, click here to visit our website or follow us on IG @categoryisbooks for more updates.