In 2021, a handful of Amazon employees left the company over its decision to sell books that suggest that children who identify as transgender are mentally ill. Now a group of employees is protesting the continued sale of those books by disrupting a Pride event at its Seattle headquarters. According to The Washington Post, about 30 members of the No Hate at Amazon organization lay on the floor wrapped in trans flags to halt the company’s annual Pride flag tradition. An organizer said: “Amazon has an ongoing policy against hate speech in the content and technically they say we don’t sell it.” But in reality, those controversial books are still listed on the website.
In a petition the group previously did to get Amazon to stop selling anti-trans books, it cited two titles: Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters and American conservative political commentator’s Johnny the Walrus. Matt Walsh. “By continuing to sell and promote anti-trans books and repeat the rhetoric of the anti-trans hate movement, Amazon’s senior management has made the store we build and operate complicit in [the anti-trans] hate movement,” the petition reads.
At least one employee who attended the event left the company this week. Senior software engineer Lina Jodoin explained that it’s not just about the sale of those books, but the response they’ve received from management when they tried to escalate their concerns. And based on the company’s response to the protest, it will continue to sell those titles.
Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told The Post in a statement:
“As a company, we strongly believe in diversity, equity and inclusion. As a bookseller, we have chosen to offer a very wide range of viewpoints, including books that conflict with our corporate values and corporate positions. We believe it is possible to do both – provide a wide range of viewpoints in our bookstore and support diversity, equity and inclusion.”
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