Amazon pulls book questioning transgender movement
When Harry Became Sally' author Ryan Anderson details the situation on 'The Ingraham Angle'
The author of the book removed by online retailer Amazon after owner Jeff Bezos’ newspaper once labeled it anti-transgender feels the decision to remove the book was politically motivated.
Author Ryan T. Anderson penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday titled, "Amazon Won’t Let You Read My Book," calling for an "enterprising state attorney general" to investigate why it was suddenly withdrawn from sale.
The book, "When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment," was removed last month by Amazon over claims it portrayed transgenderism as a mental illness.
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"When Harry Became Sally," which had previously been on Amazon’s bestseller list, said it aimed to provide "thoughtful answers to questions arising from our transgender moment" and offer a "a balanced approach to public policy on gender identity, and a sober assessment of the human costs of getting human nature wrong."
Anderson noted in his piece that President Biden has said "transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time," and pondered what conversations are warranted.
"We might want to talk about what policies are best when it comes to athletics, for example," Anderson wrote. "Should high-school girls be losing championship races to boys who identify as girls? How about female-only spaces, like shelters for victims of domestic violence? Should women in dire straits be forced to spend the night with men who identify as women?"
Anderson said people might want to know why the number of girls seeking sex-reassignment procedures has surged before rushing to declare that "puberty-blocking drugs," "cross-sex hormone therapies" and "double mastectomies for 13-year-olds" are considered a human right.
The author noted the United Kingdom has launched investigations into similar matters, but he doesn’t see it happening in the United States anytime soon.
"Not if Jeff Bezos’ companies get their way. The Washington Post has allowed its writers to spread falsehoods about me and my work, and Amazon is using its outsize market power to prevent readers from accessing one side of this debate," Anderson wrote.
Indeed, Bezos owns both the Washington Post and Amazon, and the online retailer’s controversial decision to remove Anderson’s book went unreported by the paper.
While the Washington Post has not covered the decision by Amazon to remove the book, it did cover the same work in 2018 with a story headlined, "Ryan Anderson’s book on transgender people is creating an uproar."
The three-year-old story said the book "makes what some feel is an inflammatory case against transgender people" because Anderson "argues that American society’s growing acceptance of transgenderism has more to do with ideology than science."
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Anderson accused the Post of printing misleading information about his book – specifically that he called transgender people mentally ill -- before Bezos’ other company "canceled" it years later.
"I contacted the Post asking them to quote a single sentence from the book supporting their contention that I had called transgender people mentally ill. They couldn’t, because it doesn’t exist. Within a day, the newspaper had entirely rewritten the story, removing the falsehoods and changing the headline," he wrote. "Three years later, the world’s largest e-commerce platform—owned by the richest man on the planet—has canceled my book."
The Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon claimed to inquiring Republican lawmakers last week that "we have chosen not to sell books that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness."
Anderson feels the claim was inaccurate three years ago and remains inaccurate.
"This recycled charge is as false now as when Mr. Bezos’ newspaper first made it," he wrote, noting that Amazon essentially "has a stranglehold on the book-selling market" and can therefore silence who it chooses.
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"Why would Amazon exercise its unrivaled market power to banish my book? Because the book is changing minds in a continuing debate about how best to help patients who experience gender dysphoria. ‘When Harry Became Sally’ has been praised by medical and legal experts—and that’s what makes it unacceptable to the woke," Anderson wrote.
"The timing of Amazon’s move is telling, coming the weekend before the House voted on a radical transgender bill—the so-called Equality Act—of which I have been publicly critical," Anderson continued. "Why did Amazon suddenly delist my book without warning me or my publisher? Did an advocacy group or elected official reach out to Amazon on the evening of a big vote to ask it to remove a book it had happily sold for three years? An enterprising state attorney general may have ways to find out."
Amazon declined to comment when reached by Fox News.
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