"De-ranking" gay books: Are homophobes now running Amazon.com?

Did you know that if you type "homosexuality" into Amazon's massive search engine the very first book listed is "A Parent's Guide To Preventing Homosexuality?"  That's followed by anti-gay tomes like "Coming Out of Homosexuality: New Freedom for Men & Women" and "Can Homosexuality Be Healed?"  (The authors of these books argue that gays can be "cured" by praying.) 

During the last few days Amazon.com has quietly - and with deadly efficiency - de-ranked hundreds of book titles with gay subject matter on the grounds that they're "too adult."  Books without sales rankings don't show up on the retailer's bestseller lists, no matter how many copies they've sold.  And so visibility is diminished and the authors lose revenue.

Did you know that "Unfriendly Fire," a well-reviewed non-fiction book about how Don't Ask Don't Tell undermines our nation's military, has been stripped of its ranking while "American Psycho," a novel about a man who rapes, tortures and murders women is deemed acceptable?  Author Mark R. Probst (and other LGBT writers) contacted Amazon to ask why their rankings had suddenly disappeared. Amazon's customer reps were either evasive or unaware of the problem.  Probst finally received this email:  "In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature."   On his blog, Mark says:  Amazon admits they are indeed stripping the sales ranking indicators for what they deem to be "adult" material. Of course they are being hypocritical because there is a multitude of "adult" literature out there that is still being ranked – Harold Robbins, Jackie Collins, come on! They are using categories THEY set up (gay and lesbian) to now target these books as somehow offensive.  (Probst's book, The Filly, is still available through Amazon, just buried under that "adult" label.)

Carolynn Kellogg writes on LA Times Blog:  Our research shows that these books have lost their ranking: "Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs, "Rubyfruit Jungle" by Rita Mae Brown, "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" by Alison Bechdel, "The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1" by Michel Foucault, "Bastard Out of Carolina" by Dorothy Allison (2005 Plume edition), "Maurice" by E.M. Forster (2005 W.W. Norton edition) and "Becoming a Man" by Paul Monette, which won the 1992 National Book Award.  Books that remain ranked include: "Naked" by David Sedaris, "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller, "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis, "Wifey" by Judy Blume, "The Kiss" by Kathryn Harrison, the photobooks "Playboy: Helmut Newton" and "Playboy: Six Decades of Centerfolds," "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs, "Incest: From 'A Journal of Love'" by Anais Nin" ...  Certainly many of the books that are no longer ranked are no more "adult" than many of those that are -- as the list above shows, the same book, by different publishers, might meet either fate. And Kindle editions of some books remain ranked. "Unfriendly Fire," for example, is #1 in Gay and Lesbian Nonfiction on the Kindle -- even as the hardcover of the book, which was released on March 3, does not show up at all when searched for.

SmartBitches did some Google bombing with the words "Amazon Rank":

Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): amazon ranked
1. To censor and exclude on the basis of adult content in literature (except for Playboy, Penthouse, dogfighting and graphic novels depicting incest orgies).
2. To make changes based on inconsistent applications of standards, logic and common sense.
Etymology: from 12 April 2009 removal of sales rank figures from books on Amazon.com containing sexual, erotic, romantic, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or queer content, rendering them impossible to find through basic search functions at the top of Amazon.com's website.

I won't be ordering any more books from Amazon.com until this is satisfactorily resolved - and believe me, I use their service a lot.  Half-Price Books, here I come!

Comments

[Sunnie]

Hello, Progressive Puppy. Thank you for bringing this to light. I just sent off this email to Amazon:

Hi there. I Stumbled Upon this article http://www.progressivepuppy.com/the_progressive_puppy/2009/04/is-amazon-controlled-by-homobigots.html today. I was shocked to read that

During the last few days Amazon.com has quietly - and with deadly efficiency - de-ranked hundreds of book titles with gay subject matter on the grounds that they're "too adult." Books without sales rankings don't show up on the retailer's bestseller lists, no matter how many copies they've sold. And so visibility is diminished and the authors lose revenue.

OK, here's the deal, Amazon. I'm getting a $10,000 tax refund, all of which I intend to spend on stuff I need for my new house. You can know FOR SURE that Amazon will not see one red cent of this money. I may now have to place multiple orders on other sites; rather than just 1 order on Amazon, but I feel it's worth the effort. This is not the Dark Ages, Amazon. And your actions did not go unnoticed. I will also be placing a link to the article on my blog, as well as sharing it with my friends at work. I won't hold me breath for a response that says your policy has been reversed.

Sunnie XXXXXXX

[pat]

This is shameful. I'm also going to stop buying from Amazon.

[Fernanda]

I also placed a link to this article on my blog, asking to spread. This is outrageous!

[ClubPenguinCheats]

I may now have to place multiple orders on other sites; rather than just 1 order on Amazon, but I feel it's worth the effort. This is not the Dark Ages, Amazon.