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This week, Amazon said it won’t sell books that showcase gender or gender identity as a mental illness. His statement came weeks after the company pulled one of its bestselling books titled ‘When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement“.
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The book
‘When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement‘is written by curator Ryan T. Anderson, a researcher at the University of Dallas in Texas. It was released in 2018.
According to its preview, the book exposes “the contrast between the media’s sunny portrayal of gender fluidity and the often sad reality of living with gender dysphoria. It gives a voice to people who have tried to ‘make the transition’ by changing bodies and who have not found themselves better off ”.
In one column, the author claimed to have been “attacked twice on The New York Times opinion page ”, and that The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, posted a “hit” that was “riddled with errors.”
The book was withdrawn days after the US House of Representatives passed the landmark equality law that protects LGBT + people from discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill is now headed to the Senate, where in 2019 it failed to garner enough support to pass.
Amazon’s decision
On February 21 of this year, after three years of selling the book on its site, Amazon decided to remove it. The company said the decision was made following a change to its “Book Content Guidelines”, based on which it would no longer sell books “portraying LGBTQ + identity as mental illness” .
Amazon said this in a letter to Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Mike Braun of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri, who had asked the company to explain its decision. In defending its position, the company added, “… we provide our customers with access to a variety of perspectives, including books that some customers may find objectionable.”
He also said that before dropping the book, he emailed the distributor, informing them of the company’s decision to stop selling because it violated their content guidelines. “The email provided a link to our content guidelines and offered a way to contact us with questions,” the letter says.
Anderson said neither he nor his publisher had been made aware of Amazon’s decision to withdraw the book. In a column published on the site First things, Anderson said, “I know there is no reason to blindly believe that granting Big Tech unlimited freedoms is the best way to protect human development and human dignity.”
Meanwhile, Encounter Books, the publisher, said in a statement: “If Amazon, which controls most book sales in America, has decided to write off a book that some of its officials disagree with. , this is an unacceptable assault on freedom of expression. “
Amazon’s decision was also criticized by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). He said the company has the right not to sell a book under the First Amendment, but that “when Amazon decides to remove a book, it matters not only to the author and their publisher, but to the entire public sphere. “
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