Ryan Anderson's book When Harry Became Sally was removed from Amazon after three years without warning or explanation. Amazon cited a policy against framing LGBTQ identities as mental illness but never specified which passages violated it or why they'd allowed it for years. Anderson argues the timing reflects political shifts and that Amazon's vague response exposed them to potential libel claims.
Amazon sells something like 70% of all new adult nonfiction books, 80% of all ebooks. This is them using outside market share to try to shut down the data.
Did you contact Amazon?
We did, because their own content policy says that before they remove a title, they will reach out to publishers and authors to try to explain the decision and try to work something out ahead of time. They never reached out to us. We reached out to them immediately trying to figure out, like we thought maybe it was a technical glitch. And then they got back to us saying that the book violates their content policy. But they wouldn't tell us what aspect of the content policy the book violates. They wouldn't tell us what page of the book commits the violation. They wouldn't tell us why after 3 years of not violating the policy, it only now violates the policy. We all have our suspicions that Trump was no longer president. Barr was no longer the Attorney General. Senator Hawley was no longer a member of the majority party. And so there wouldn't be consequences, they thought, at least at the federal level. And there was a big vote coming up in the House of Representatives. 4 senators sent them a letter asking for an actual explanation, and all they will say is that the book violates their policy because, quote, they don't sell books that, quote, "Frame LGBTQ identities as mental illnesses," end quote. And my book does nothing of the sort, right? And so they've now added libel to the list and defamation to the list of, you know, potential legal problems that they are in for, you know, first delisting the book.
I inferred from your earlier take that you do regard gender dysphoria as abnormal condition?
Well, I definitely think it's a condition. The analogy that I use in the book is that it's similar to anorexia, right? And so no one would prescribe liposuction to a high school girl with anorexia, but we also wouldn't say that that high school girl is mentally ill, right? It's just, it's not the way that we talk about these issues. So Amazon is intentionally misdescribing the book to make it seem like I take uncharitable rhetorical approach, you know, make it seem like I'm trying to, you know, denigrate and stigmatize people as their excuse for delisting the book, right? So they're actually, you know, adding insult to injury here by trying to like defame me, to try to harm my professional reputation. Because what the book does, it talks about this issue in a civil and compassionate way, the way that you would talk about, you know, someone who's struggling with anorexia, right? You wouldn't say that girl's mentally ill, but you would also say she doesn't need liposuction, right? What she needs is counseling. What she needs is help to feel comfortable in her body, and there's not a problem with her body.
It's a very good analogy. I, I, I, I like that. We'll be back in a moment. Ryan Anderson's book removed from Amazon after 3 years. The book is When Harry Became Sally.
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