The American Psychiatric Association declassified trans identity as a mental illness 9 years ago, but there are a number of books that still attempt to falsely paint transgender people as such. On Thursday, Amazon — the world’s largest online bookseller — announced in a letter to Congress that the company will stop selling books that portray LGBTQ+ people as having a psychiatric disorder.
Amazon didn’t announce the change until after several prominent Republicans — including Florida’s Marco Rubio, Indiana’s Mike Braun, Utah’s Mike Lee, and Kansas’ Josh Hawley — penned a February 24 letter to CEO Jeff Bezos asking why the book When Harry Became Sally no longer appeared on Amazon’s retail site, as well as on Audible and Kindle. After the controversial anti-trans screed was published in 2018, ThinkProgress reported that its author, Ryan T. Anderson, advocates that there are “healthier ways to deal with gender dysphoria” and “alternatives to transitioning.”
But despite the fact that those views are tantamount to advocating for conversion therapy — a debunked, harmful, practice that’s illegal in 20 states — conservatives blasted Amazon after the book was removed last month. Rubio noted in a tweet that Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf is still available to purchase, while the conservatives’ letter claims the book “prompted important discussions in the national media.”
“By removing this book from its marketplaces and services, Amazon has unabashedly wielded its outsized market share to silence an important voice merely for the crime of violating woke groupthink,” the Congressmen alleged.
In a Thursday response to lawmakers, Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of public policy, replied that the tech giant had changed its content guidelines.
“As a bookseller, we provide our customers with access to a variety of viewpoints, including books that some customers may find objectionable,” Huseman said in a letter obtained by the Wall Street Journal. “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.”
Following the announcement Anderson accused Amazon of seeking to stifle debate “about how best to treat patients who experience gender dysphoria.”
“Gender dysphoria is listed in the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which Amazon sells,” he claimed in a series of tweets. “So the real deciding factor seems to be whether you endorse hormones and surgery as the proper treatment or counseling.”
Anderson, a noted opponent of same-sex marriage who previously worked for the anti-LGBTQ+ think tank Heritage Foundation, has previously accused Amazon of “erasing” his book. It is still available through retailers like Etsy and eBay and via its publisher, Encounter Books. On Barnes and Noble’s website, the Nook version is of When Harry Became Sally is available for a 41% discount, generally indicating low sales; the text has only been reviewed by the site’s users seven times.
While its advocates in Washington argue that When Harry Became Sally is “one of the most rigorously researched” books on trans identity, Anderson’s tweets are extremely misleading. “Gender dysphoria” is, indeed, listed as a diagnosis in the DSM, the taxonomic and diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiatric Association, but it is not classified a disorder. The term “gender identity disorder” was discontinued in 2012 by the APA, which recently denounced anti-trans conversion therapy for the first time in its history.
Transgender identity is not considered a mental illness by any leading medical or psychological association and yet anti-trans advocates continue misconstrue these terms and use gender dysphoria as a way to portray trans people delusional and undeserving of basic rights.
It’s unclear how Amazon plans to apply the policy across its platform, and the retailer — which worker’s rights advocates have criticized for its harsh union-busting tactics and alleged abuse of warehouse workers — has continued to sell other anti-trans titles. A notable example includes Wall Street Journal reporter Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage, which pushes the false notion of “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” a debunked theory that trans identity is a social contagion that teenagers can catch through social media.
While many medical experts and LGBTQ+ advocates have condemned the book, Irreversible Damage is currently ranked #2 in LGBTQ+ Demographic Studies on Amazon. In November, Target reversed a decision to remove the book from its shelves after proponents falsely accused the retailer of violating the First Amendment right to free speech.
Although Irreversible Damage is still available for purchase on Amazon, the company has reportedly stopped hosting paid ads for the title.
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