Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN 1.83%
He said he recently pulled a three-year-old book on transgender issues from his platforms because he decided not to sell books that portray transgender and other sexual identities as mental illness.
The company explained its decision in a letter on Thursday to Sens Republicans. Marco Rubio from Florida, Mike Lee from Utah, Mike Braun from Indiana and Josh Hawley from Missouri, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Senators wrote last month to Chief Executive Jeff Bezos asking for an explanation of why “When Harry became Sally: responding to the transgender moment” was no longer available on Amazon AMZN 1.83%
nor on its Kindle and Audible platforms.
“As for your specific question about When Harry became Sally, we chose not to sell books that frame LGBTQ + identity as a mental illness,” said Amazon in the letter, which was signed by Brian Huseman, vice president for public policy at Amazon, referring to sexual identities that include lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, among others.
“When Harry Became Sally”, written by conservative scholar Ryan T. Anderson, was published in February 2018. The book focuses on a variety of issues, including gender identity.
“Everyone agrees that gender dysphoria is a serious condition that causes great suffering,” said Anderson and Roger Kimball, editor of Encounter Books, the New York-based nonprofit that published the book, in a statement Thursday in response to Amazon’s letter.
“There is a debate, however, that Amazon is trying to end, about the best way to treat patients suffering from gender dysphoria,” they added, calling their book “an important contribution” to this conversation. “Amazon is using its enormous power to distort the market for ideas and deceive its own customers in the process,” they said.
Amazon’s decision comes at a time when the country’s largest technology platforms are under increasing scrutiny over decisions they make about what content is acceptable. The senators, in their letter dated February 24, characterized Amazon’s decision to remove the book as a signal “to conservative Americans that their views are not welcome on their platforms”.
The four senators could not be reached for comment late Thursday afternoon.
The senators in their letter also asked Bezos whether Amazon has changed its content guidelines since 2018. In Thursday’s response, the company said it has actually changed its guidelines since that year, without providing further details.
Amazon said it provides its customers “with access to a variety of points of view, including books that some customers may find objectionable.”
“That said, we reserve the right not to sell certain content,” wrote Amazon’s Huseman. “All retailers make decisions about the selection they want to offer, just like us.”
Amazon is the dominant book retailer in the country, accounting for 53% of all books sold in the United States and 80% of all e-books, according to recent 30-day sales data from Codex Group LLC, a company of audience research for books. Removing a title from Amazon’s platform can have a significant impact on its performance.
Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at [email protected]
Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8