Amazon has pulled a bestselling book criticising radical gender ideology, under a new policy of banning works which it claims “frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness”.
‘When Harry Became Sally’ by Ryan T. Anderson went on to become a bestseller after its release in 2018. But last month it was removed from the retail giant’s online stores, e-book and audio book platforms with little warning.
Amazon accounts for 53 per cent of all physical book sales in the US and 80 per cent of all e-book sales.
‘Woke groupthink’
The book’s publisher says the work exposes “the contrast between the media’s sunny depiction of gender fluidity and the often sad reality of living with gender dysphoria”.
unabashedly wielded its outsized market share to silence an important voice merely for the crime of violating woke groupthink
Several US senators demanded an explanation for the removal. They stated that the book argues its position from a “rigorously researched and compassionately argued” stance that is important for understanding transgenderism.
They concluded that the removal showed the company had “unabashedly wielded its outsized market share to silence an important voice merely for the crime of violating woke groupthink”.
Different rules
The removal was met with frustration from author Anderson, who tweeted: “Amazon appears to have never read my book, but relied on hit pieces.”
He added: “Everyone agrees that gender dysphoria is a serious condition that causes great suffering. There is a debate, however, which amazon is seeking to shut down, about how best to treat patients who experience gender dysphoria.”
In a joint statement with his publisher, the author said: “No good comes from shutting down a debate about important matters on which reasonable people of good will disagree.”
Grateful
Anderson’s book was defended by Chad Felix Greene, a formerly gender-confused man who said the book helped him with his issues.
Writing for The Federalist, Greene said the stories of “people just like me who did transition and then realized it was a mistake” made him realise “how truly grateful I was to have hesitated earlier in my life”.
He stressed “Anderson’s book asks necessary questions that deserve to be given fair consideration and debated, not restricted from public view”.
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