- Almost exactly three years after “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” was published, author Ryan T. Anderson discovered his book was unavailable for purchase on Amazon.
- “No one from Amazon notified me or my publisher,” he told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “My publisher has reached out, but still no response.”
- Amazon has not addressed why the book is unavailable for purchase and has not responded to many requests for comment.
Almost exactly three years after “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” was published, author Ryan T. Anderson discovered his book was unavailable for purchase on Amazon.
“No one from Amazon notified me or my publisher,” he told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “My publisher has reached out, but still no response.” (RELATED: Target Reverses Decision To Remove Book Critical Of Transgenderism After Receiving Complaint That It’s ‘Transphobic’)
Anderson, who is also the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), said he found the book was unavailable on Amazon as of at least 3 p.m. Sunday. Amazon has not addressed why the book is unavailable for purchase and has not responded to many requests for comment from the DCNF.
“When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” sparked a backlash after its Feb. 20, 2018 release when the book hit the Amazon bestseller list. Critics bashed the book in Washington Post and New York Times op-eds.
“People who have actually read my book discovered that it was a thoughtful and accessible presentation of the state of the scientific, medical, philosophical and legal debates,” Anderson told the DCNF. “Yes, it advances an argument from a certain viewpoint. No, it didn’t get any facts wrong, and it didn’t engage in any name-calling.”
“It’s not about how you say it, it’s not about how rigorously you argue it, it’s not about how charitably you present it,” he continued. “It’s about whether you dissent from a new orthodoxy.”
Anderson highlighted that the book disappeared from Amazon the “very same week” that the House of Representatives may pass the divisive Equality Act — “a radical transgender bill amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” according to Anderson.
Equality Act sacrifices “the hard-won rights of women, while privileging men who identify as women,” giving them the “right” to “spend the night in battered-women’s shelters, disrobe in women’s locker rooms and compete on women’s sports teams.” @RyanTAnd https://t.co/47HofcEgLb
— Mary Rice Hasson (@maryricehasson) February 22, 2021
“Make no mistake, both Big Government and Big Tech can undermine human dignity and liberty, human flourishing and the common good,” he added.
Though Amazon apparently has removed “When Harry Became Sally” it still allows books that “promote the transgender revolution,” Mary Rice Hasson, director of the Catholic Women’s Forum and a Kate O’Beirne Fellow at the EPPC, told the DCNF.
Hasson specifically referred to a book responding to Anderson’s book: Let Harry Become Sally: Responding to the Anti-Gender Movement.
“Amazon is not silencing conversations about the transgender issue– it is silencing one side of the conversation,” she told the DCNF. “After driving most of its competitors out of business, Amazon has dropped its mask. Instead of providing an open marketplace facilitating the exchange of ideas, it is booting conservatives from the market and locking the gate after them.”
I hope you’ve already bought your copy, cause Amazon just removed my book “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” from their cyber shelves…. my other four books are still available (for now). https://t.co/cnMGZV1L0A
— Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) February 21, 2021
Walt Heyer, a biological man who once transitioned to a woman and now advocates against gender transitions, warned the DCNF that left-wing organizations are focused on silencing voices like Anderson who are willing to speak out against progressive ideology.
“Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, they’re political organizations,” he told the DCNF. “They’re just a tool of the Democratic party to take people down.” (RELATED: ‘It Destroyed My Body’: Here’s Why This Former Trans Woman Regrets His Gender Transition)
Heyer suggested that there is a concerted effort by left-wing organizations to silence conservatives, referencing media censorship of the Parler app, that begins with cutting off sources of income for those who speak out against progressive ideology.
“This is all about starving the money trails,” Heyer said. “If they can shut down a book, they can shut down some of Ryan’s income.”
Anderson is not the first author to face apparent censorship over a book examining gender dysphoria and transgender issues. Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters has sparked controversy and gained the attention of media pundits such as Joe Rogan since it was published in June.
Target temporarily removed the book from its shelves after a Twitter user complained that the book was “transphobic” — then added the book back after backlash.
The book examined what Shrier described as concerning spikes in transgenderism among teenaged girls who formerly displayed feminine traits and tendencies. The author, who has said on multiple occasions that she is a friend to the transgender community, warned that many young girls are identifying as trans merely out of a desire to find community.
Shrier declined to comment for this story. (RELATED: Berkeley Professor Urges Followers To Steal, Burn Book On Trans ‘Craze Seducing Our Daughters’)
“It’s bad enough that the Left, which controls academia, media, tech, pharma, government, and much of the marketplace, is closing ranks to silence dissent and suppress opposition,” Hasson told the DCNF. “What worries me most is how few GOP leaders seem to possess the spine or strategic thinking needed to fight back.”
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