Amazon just struck back at right-wing homophobes and Marco Rubio is pissed

An Amazon warehouse
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

In a huge win for LGBTQ equality, sales giant Amazon has clapped back at right-wing outrage, declaring it will not sell any book that labels being gay or transgender as a mental illness.

Cue the lament.

The news follows an open letter to CEO Jeff Bezos from Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Mike Braun of Indiana, and Josh Hawley of Missouri. In it, the four lawmakers protested Amazon’s banning of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, a book of dubious authority that labels transgender people as mentally ill. The Senators have accused Amazon of curtailing right-wing speech by banning the book.

Amazon, however, responded to the allegations by making clear it will not sell any book that characterizes queer identity as illness.

“We carefully consider the content we make available in our stores, and we review our approach regularly,” Amazon wrote in a statement, responding to the letter. “As described above, we have chosen not to sell books that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness.”

“[Amazon Web Services] provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect our customers’ right to determine for themselves what content they will allow,” the letter further stated. “We simply require that our customers comply with our terms of service which, are designed to prevent encouraging and inciting violence that could harm people. AWS operates as a separate business from Amazon’s retail organizations and AWS’s terms of service and customer sign-up process are separate and independent from Amazon’s bookstore.”

Marcio Rubio took to Twitter to rant…

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