At least two Amazon employees have exercised their apparent privilege in deciding to give up their jobs with the e-commerce company over its decision to continue selling a book they claim promotes anti-LGBT sentiments.
The staffers resigned after employees posted a complaint to the company’s internal messaging board in April, rebuking Amazon for reversing course after telling Republican senators in March that it would not “sell books that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness.”
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That statement was in response to the company’s decision to stop selling “When Harry Became Sally” by Ryan T. Anderson.
The April complaint was reportedly supported by more than 467 corporate employees, according to NBC News.
Now, employees are petitioning Amazon to remove author and journalist Abigail Shrier’s book, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” which explores the “epidemic” of preteen and teenage girls identifying as transgender.
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One of the top three bestsellers on Amazon, Shrier’s book is in the “LGBTQ+ Demographic Studies” category of the company’s book section.
Selene Xenia, a transgender software engineer at Amazon, said she left the company in June after learning that the site would not stop selling Shrier’s popular book, noting she takes great issue with the way Shrier describes the proliferation of transgenderism among kids and teens.
“The book literally has [craze] in the title and considers being transgender a mental illness in many senses throughout the book,” Xenia said. “I found it extremely hypocritical for Amazon to say that it would stock this book and not another similar one.”
Shrier, for her part, took to Twitter Wednesday afternoon to respond to the report about employees’ quitting their jobs at Amazon.
Amazon – “Earth’s Biggest Selection” – reviewed every page of IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE and decided to keep selling it, with dozens of books that uncritically celebrate teen transition.
Companies that can’t stand up to censorious employees betray their mission & public trust. https://t.co/NwJUo0UriK
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) July 14, 2021
As for Xenia’s claims, Shrier told NBC News her book never suggests transgenderism is “a disease.”
She went on to say the issue at hand — the debate over transgenderism — won’t go away “just because some disgruntled Amazon employees wish it would.” Shrier noted again that her book “never implies that the trans identity is a mental illness” but “honor[s] the experiences of transgender adults.”
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