Following a complaint from a customer, Amazon has decided to pull a book about conversion therapy from its marketplace, according to New Now Next.
The book is titled A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality by Joseph Nicolosi, a man who, when alive, said, according to The New Civil Rights Movement that he doesn’t believe anyone is actually gay, but some people have a “homosexual problem.” Activist Rojo Alan stumbled upon the book after he discovered Nicolosi and his work. Alan, being aware of the fact that conversion therapy actively harms the people it is intended to “cure,” complained that Amazon was selling such a book and now there are no works from Nicolosi on the website. While this is definitely a victory, similar books are still for sale in the Amazon Marketplace, as well as in Barnes and Noble and Wordery.
Books such as Help! My Teen Struggles with Same-Sex Attractions by Ben Marshall or Restoring Sexual Identity by Anne Paulk can still be purchased on Amazon, which will continue to remove any material that violates its content guidelines. Books that violate the guidelines include books that are “violent or offensive material that has no historical significance” and/or “promote intolerance based on race, religion, and sexual orientation.” Judging by the content in conversion therapy books, I would say that they are offensive and promote intolerance based on sexual orientation. Hopefully, more conversion therapy books will be pulled from the Amazon Marketplace sooner rather than later.
You can see where I stand on this issue, but I would like to hear from you. There is definitely negative historical significance of banning books in regards to censorship and violations of free speech, but are there exceptions? Should Amazon and other places be able to remove books or is that limiting someone’s right to free speech?
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Source: New Now Next