Amazon on Thursday announced plans to stop selling all books framing sexual and transgender identities as a mental illness, a decision it made after four Republican senators complained last month to CEO Jeff Bezos when the company pulled out a single book on the subject of its virtual shelves.
In his response to senators Thursday, Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of public policy, said the company’s content guidelines are regularly updated, sometimes resulting in the removal of previously approved books.
The company had no intention of highlighting a book, he explained. Rather, it will ban the entire category.
“We reserve the right not to sell certain content,” Huseman wrote. “All retailers make decisions about which selection they choose to offer, like us.
“As for your specific question about When Harry became Sally, we have chosen not to sell books that frame LGBTQ + identity as a mental illness. “
The book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” was available on Amazon for three years before retiring in February.
His sudden disappearance from the Amazon store prompted Republicans Marco Rubio (Florida), Mike Lee (Utah), Mike Braun (Ind.) And Josh Hawley (Mo) to accuse the e-commerce giant of political censorship “for to a crime of group rape thought of waking up “.
The men also accused Amazon of having “an inaccurate and indefinite” offensive content standard that had been inappropriately invoked to justify the withdrawal of a single book, noting that it had previously been allowed to sell.
In response to that statement Thursday, Huseman noted that Amazon has clarified its content guidelines. The company now explicitly bans “books that frame LGBTQ + identity as a mental illness.”
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