A few minutes ago I was about to post a link to a book to a friend on Facebook — at Amazon. But in my newsfeed, writer Lawrence Schimel had a link to a story about Amazon removing the sales rankings for many lgbt titles from another writer. And he went to check his own books (many of which I own and love) and found that indeed, the rankings were gone.
Schimel linked to a blog entry by Mark R. Probst, in which he posts a response from Amazon that I find completely unacceptable.
I will not link to books sold by Amazon here again, and I will no longer buy online from them. I urge everyone to do the same and to make your decision known to Amazon along with the reason why.
In New York City, this is all the more chilling a development considering the recent closing of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. The gay "community" may not remember a time when finding queer titles was difficult if not impossible. And we must be watchful for corporate bigotry and censorship.
The growing list of titles with their ranking stripped reads like the usual list of books people try to ban. It's very disturbing.
This is amazing.
Posted by: NYfellow | April 12, 2009 at 10:34 PM