Amazon has revealed that its new corporate position is that it will no longer be selling books on the e-commerce giant that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness.
The news came in the form of a letter in response to four Republican Senators (Marco Rubio of Florida, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Braun of Indiana and Mike Lee of Utah) who demanded an explanation from the web company after it stopped selling the 2018 book by Ryan Anderson, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, a book that opens by stating, “In this book, I argue that Dr. McHugh got it right,” in reference to Dr. Paul McHugh’s theory that being transgender is a mental illness. The book had been one of Amazon's best-selling books on the topic before being pulled from the site.
Brian Huseman, Amazon's Vice President of Public Policy, sent a letter to the Senators explaining that, "[W]e reserve the right not to sell certain content. All retailers make decisions about what selection they choose to offer, as do we. As to your specific question about When Harry Became Sally, we have chosen not to sell books that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness."
The Senators also asked if Amazon's webhosting service would de-host websites with similar views, and Huseman explained, "AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect our customers’ right to determine for themselves what content they will allow. We simply require that our customers comply with our terms of service which, are designed to prevent encouraging and inciting violence that could harm people. AWS operates as a separate business from Amazon’s retail organizations and AWS’s terms of service and customer sign-up process are separate and independent from Amazon’s bookstore."
Anderson and his published released a statement expressing their outrage, “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.”
However, the Human Rights Campaign released a statement in support of Amazon, stating “Books, or any media, that tell someone that their identity, their sense of self, is a mental illness are indescribably harmful. Authors perpetuating damaging falsehoods about LGBTQ people — which have been disproved by medical professionals — are not guaranteed a platform, and Amazon is correct to remove the materials from its store.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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