Amazon.com Inc.
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he said he recently withdrew from his platforms a three-year book on transgender issues because he decided not to sell books that framed transgender and other sexual identities as mental illness.
The company explained its decision in a letter Thursday to Republican Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Mike Braun of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri, which was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Senators had written last month to chief executive Jeff Bezos to ask 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 their 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,” Amazon said in the letter, signed by Brian Huseman, vice president of public policy of Amazon. to sexual identities that include lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people, 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 topics, including gender identity.
“Everyone agrees that gender dysphoria is a serious condition that causes great suffering,” Mr. Anderson and Roger Kimball, the publisher of Encounter Books, the New York nonprofit organization that published the book, in a statement Thursday in response to Amazon’s letter.
“However, there is a debate that Amazon wants to close, about how best to treat patients who experience gender dysphoria,” they added, considering their book “an important contribution” to that conversation. “Amazon uses its enormous power to distort the marketplace of ideas and deceives its own customers in the process,” they said.
Amazon’s decision comes as the nation’s largest technology platforms are subject to greater control over the decisions they make about what content is acceptable. The senators, in their letter dated Feb. 24, characterized Amazon’s decision to withdraw the book as a signal “to American conservatives that their views are not welcome on their platforms.”
The four senators could not be reached for comment on Thursday afternoon.
The senators in their letter had also asked Mr. Bezos if Amazon had changed the content guidelines since 2018. In Thursday’s response, the company said it had indeed changed the guidelines since that same year, without providing more details.
Amazon said it provides its customers with “access to a variety of points of view, including books that some customers may find unpleasant.”
“That said, we reserve the right not to sell certain content,” Mr. Huseman of Amazon wrote. “All retailers make decisions about the selection they choose to offer, just like us.”
Amazon is the country’s leading book retailer, 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 book audience research. Removing a title from Amazon’s platform can have a significant impact on their performance.
Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg to [email protected]
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