Austin LGBTQ+ Bookstore BookWoman Vandalized in Suspected Hate Crime

Sarah Schoonhoven, assistant manager of LGBTQ+ feminist bookshop BookWoman, arrived to open the store shortly before noon on June 15 to find that someone had smashed the front window overnight. A piece of concrete had been thrown through the window directly below a LGBTQ+ pride flag display, knocking over a rack of greeting cards inside.

The placement of the broken window and the lack of any signs of theft or entry to the store have led BookWoman’s staff to believe the vandalism was motivated by hate, particularly in the middle of Pride Month and hours after the large “No Kings” anti-Trump protest in downtown Austin.

“It wasn’t a chunk of concrete they picked up from in front of the building from what I could tell,” Schoonhoven said. “They had to look for the thing, find it and then choose a window. They picked the window that has a pride flag right under the feminist symbols.”

Schoonhoven and BookWoman’s owner, Susan Post, filed a report with Austin’s 311 non-emergency system and shared details of the incident on social media. The response, Schoonhoven said, was overwhelming.

“We’ve gotten a tremendous amount of response,” Schoonhoven said. “A couple people have asked if they could give us donations to help cover the cost of the window. Somebody offered to help repaint the window. People have been really, really kind.”

Post opened BookWoman nearly 50 years ago as part of a lesbian collective. The store is now one of an estimated five remaining feminist bookstores in the United States dating back to the 1970s.

Lisa Rogers, who moved to Austin in 1969, said she has been a customer at BookWoman for over half her life.

“I was a young, scared lesbian 50 or 60 years ago,” Rogers said. “It was thrilling to find a place to go and not only be myself, but find other people like me. It was a sanctuary of a store, it still is.”

In the store’s early years at a location on Sixth Street, religious groups would often picket the store and place religious tracts inside feminist books. In recent years, Post says she has started to see a resurgence of anti-feminist religious materials appear around the shop again.

“They can tell their god ‘Look I did something to combat this ungodly space,’” Post said. “I don’t feel afraid, I’m just really appalled. It does hurt, because we have to spend time and energy on it.”

Justin Galicz, co-owner of Little Gay Shop in East Austin, said BookWoman is a crucial piece of Austin’s intersectional community.

“They’ve done a phenomenal job of laying a blueprint for what an intersectional space can be and what a queer space can be and what a feminist space can be,” Galicz said.

While Little Gay Shop has not been the target of any anti-gay vandalism that he is aware of, Galicz said he has also noticed an uptick in hateful rhetoric in recent years and even received a death threat over a drag queen story hour event last year.

“Definitely within the past year or two, it seems like it has become more common,” Galicz said. “We have seen an increase of slurs and day-to-day harassment.”

GLAAD, a national LGBTQ advocacy nonprofit, has recorded 23 anti-LGBTQ incidents in Austin and 163 anti-LGBTQ incidents in Texas since 2022. Incidents recorded by GLAAD include rallies, bomb threats, threats, harassment, vandalism and assaults targeting the LGBTQ community.

In a statement to the Statesman, Colton Ashabranner, vice president of marketing and events for the Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce, said the LGBT Chamber stands in solidarity with BookWoman.

"These kinds of incidents, whether motivated by hate or meant to intimidate, remind us why our work to support LGBTQ+ owned and allied businesses is so critical. Hate has no home in Austin," Ashabranner said via email. "What happened to BookWoman is a call for all of us to show up. Supporting queer-owned businesses isn’t just about dollars — it’s about visibility, protection, and community resilience. Now’s the time to visit your favorite queer-owned business, buy a book, show some love, and send a clear message that hate doesn’t win.”

Rogers said she plans to organize a benefit concert with her band, The Therapy Sisters, to help raise funds and bring more customers to BookWoman.