Amazon announced Thursday that it intends to stop selling all books that include transgender and other sexual identities as mental illness, a decision it reached after four Republican senators complained to CEO Jeff Bezos last month when the company released a single book about this topic from its virtual shelves.
In a response to senators on Thursday, Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of public policy, said the company’s content guidelines are regularly updated, sometimes leading to the removal of previously approved books.
The company had not intended to identify a single book, he explained. Rather, it will completely 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, just like us.
“As for your specific question about When Harry became Sally, we chose not to sell books that frame LGBTQ + identity as a mental illness. ”
The book “When Harry Became Sally: The Answer to the Transgender Moment” was available on Amazon for three years before being released 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 the crime of violation aroused by thought by the group. “
The men also accused Amazon of having a vague, indefinite standard of “offensive content”, which was improperly invoked to justify the removal of a single book, noting that it had previously been allowed to sell.
Responding to that statement on Thursday, Huseman said Amazon had clarified its content guidelines. The company now bans “books that frame LGBTQ + identity as a mental illness.”
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