Ryan T. Anderson is a former assistant editor of First Things, a magazine about faith and culture, and is the current president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. In 2018, he wrote a book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, published by Encounter Books. The book claims to be a refutation of transgender ideology, which Pope Francis calls “demonic,” from a scientific, philosophical, legal, and religious perspectives. I’ve not read it (yet), so I can’t recommend it. But, the real point of these “Elijah Lovejoy Alerts” is to bring attention to incidents of cancel culture, and this certainly is one.

Anderson writes that, in the same week the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Equality Act, Amazon has erased When Harry Became Sally from its cyber shelves, making it impossible to purchase the book from Amazon or from its subsidiary, Audible. (Honestly, in consideration of Amazon’s history of horrible workplace conditions and cancel culture, if you’re still buying books or anything from Amazon, please re-consider).

Over 83% of the books sold in the United States are sold through Amazon. So, if Amazon decides to cancel a particular book, it’s reasonable to conclude that the impact will be devastating to sales of that book. With that kind of monopoly, I have no problem at all with the government looking into Amazon’s practices and vice-grip on the book market. But, I don’t expect the Biden administration to take any action, Jeff Bezos being a strong supporter.

Amazon didn’t inform Ryan Anderson of the reason for scrubbing his book. Heck, they didn’t even inform Anderson or his publisher that they were scrubbing his book. Neither have they responded to inquiries about their decision to scrub the book. I guess if you’re big and rich enough, you don’t have to concern yourself with the little people.

You can still purchase When Harry Became Sally at Encounter Books.

I plan to post about the Equality Act tomorrow.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.