I'm a boy, I'm a boy, but my ma won't admit it

Once again, this Banned Books Week, let's see how the sponsors of Banned Books Week like to pay lip service to opposing censorship while actively attempting to limit access to books they disapprove of.

In 2020, Regnery published Irreversible Damage by journalist Abigail Shrier, subtitled The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. This book discusses the rapid proliferation in recent years of transgender identification amongst young women and girls. It defends the idea of "rapid onset gender dysphoria," a form of social contagion in which several members of a young peer group, who previously showed no signs of confusion about their gender identity, suddenly identify as transgender and show symptoms of gender dysphoria. (Or, as my medically unqualified self would tend to call it, peer pressure.)

Irreversible Damage has controversial: generally receiving positive reviews in newspapers and news magazines, but more critical reviews in science and (understandably) LGBT publications. But it has sold well. At the time of writing, it is the #1 book on Amazon on transgenderism, and #13 in political topics. The Sunday Times of London predicted it would be one of the best books of 2021. As a brisk-selling book, then, it was understandable that the American Booksellers Association (ABA) would promote it to its members.

And that's where the trouble started.

This past July, a bookseller in Brooklyn, Casey Morrissey, received a promotional box mailing from the ABA. In the box was a promotional copy of Irreversible Damage. On Twitter, Casey seethed:

@ABAbook I’m seething. I was excited to open our July white box, and then the first book I pulled out is “Irreversible Damage.” Do you know how that feels, as a trans bookseller and book buyer? It isn’t even a new title, so it really caught me in the gut. Do better. pic.twitter.com/VYb1ZKrv9A

— Casey (@CaseyBookEater) July 14, 2021

Within hours, the ABA had issued a groveling apology:

(1/3) An anti-trans book was included in our July mailing to members. This is a serious, violent incident that goes against ABA’s ends policies, values, and everything we believe and support. It is inexcusable.

— American Booksellers Association (@ABAbook) July 14, 2021

(2/3) We apologize to our trans members and to the trans community for this terrible incident and the pain we caused them. We also apologize to the LGBTQIA+ community at large, and to our bookselling community.

— American Booksellers Association (@ABAbook) July 14, 2021

(3/3) Apologies are not enough. We’ve begun addressing this today and are committed to engaging in the critical dialogue needed to inform concrete steps to address the harm we caused. Those steps will be shared in the next three weeks.

— American Booksellers Association (@ABAbook) July 14, 2021

Note the weaselly use of passive voice: "An anti-trans book was included," sidestepping the fact that it was the American Booksellers Association itself that perpetrated this "violent incident." Response from booksellers to this apology was fierce, noting in particular the use of weasel words to deflect blame.¹

The previous week, the ABA had already embarrassed itself: promoting the young-adult novel Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton and five other black authors in their indie bestseller list, they mistakenly used the cover of the similarly named Blackout, by conservative pundit Candace Owens, which was published around the same time. "We erased Black authors, conflated Black authors, and put the authors in danger through a forced association," apologized the ABA, calling the gaffe "negligent, irresponsible, and racist." Negligent and irresponsible I can buy—;careless searching resulted in a case of mistaken identity—but "racist" and "eras[ing] Black authors"? That's an odd thing to confess to. Candace Owens is black, too. They didn't erase black authors. They promoted the wrong black author by mistake.

On August 9, the ABA issued a further, self-flagellatory statement. Explaining the circumstances that led to the Blackout cover confusion, it calls the incident "a terrible mistake with terrible racist implications," although "we have no reason to believe the action was malicious in intention."² While it was the previous policy of the ABA not to screen the books placed in the box mailing (and the preference of many of its members, even those who disagreed with the content of Irreparable Damage), going forward, the ABA "will begin implementing checks and balances, including conveying our expectation to publishers that books submitted for the mailing adhere to our equity and inclusion policy."

Remember: The ABA is a co-sponsor of Banned Books Week along with the American Library Association and others. While promoting displays in public libraries opposing censorship, they are now screening the contents of the promotional materials sent to its members to make sure they conform to their own in-house opinions. Bookstores are, of course, free to sell whatever materials they wish. But is the ABA's curation of mailout content, in contrast to its previous policy, not an influence on the booksellers' business decisions?

Meanwhile, Target removed Irreversible Damage from its shelves last November, following complaints from social media. They quickly reversed the decision following a backlash. Then, in February, they pulled the book again.

Amazon continues to sell the book, leading two employees to resign in protest. However, in February, they discontinued Ryan T. Anderson's When Harry Became Sally, a book on a similar topic, citing a change in their content guidelines, in which they chose not to continue to sell books that frame gender identity as a mental illness³—an accusation that Anderson denies.⁴

Amazon is a private company, and so, again, I support their right to determine what materials they will or will not sell. (And I note, as an aside, that if readers wish to purchase a book free of contentious gender issues, which clearly does not fall foul of Amazon's content guidelines, you may still purchase Mein Kampf in a variety of editions.) However, they have something like 50% of the U.S. market share for books (and even more of the ebook market). If Amazon chooses not to sell a book, might a publisher decide it's unprofitable even to publish it? Should we be concerned that a single company holds so much influence over the publishing industry? What is really the more serious concern: angry parents denouncing books available to their children in school libraries? Or the book purveyors themselves deciding what's appropriate for you to read?

In Halifax this spring, a petition circulated to have Irrreversible Damage removed from circulation at Halifax Public Library.⁵ To their credit, the library refused, stating: "Public libraries exist to provide equal access to resources for everyone and support individuals' freedom to seek information and form their own opinions. When we act to suppress access, we engage in censorship."⁶ In response, Halifax Pride ended its relationship with the library, cancelled all pride-festival events booked at library facilities, and resolved to "refrain from booking library spaces until this issue is addressed with some combination of internal review, policy change, and training."⁷

Similarly, here in Ottawa in March, Elm Klemic, a "queer, nonbinary" parent of a six-year-old child who is "not a boy or a girl and they present themselves [sic] as pretty gender non-conforming," petitioned the Ottawa Public Library to pull Irreversible Damage.⁸ Again, the library defended the book's inclusion in the stacks, citing popular demand and critical acclaim for the book, noting also that the library holdings include many controversial works. "Libraries in Canada have a core responsibility to support, defend and promote the universal principle of intellectual freedom," they said.⁹

I've known a number of librarians over the years. They tend to be a left-leaning group. I'm sure it's tempting to go along with the Zeitgeist and deny a platform to disagreeable opinions. So kudos to Halifax and Ottawa librarians for sticking to their guns and facing down the crybullies. (Chicago librarians, on the other hand, receive zero kudos.)

Footnotes

¹ Alex Green, "Booksellers Denounce ABA Promotion of Anti-Trans Book," Publishers Weekly, July 15, 2021, accessed September 30, 2021, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/86883-booksellers-denounce-aba-promotion-of-anti-trans-book.html.

² "ABA CEO Allison Hill's Letter to Members," Shelf Awareness, August 9, 2021, accessed September 30, 2021, https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4045.

³ Brian Huseman, Vice President of Public Policy, Amazon, to Senators Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, Mike Braun, and Mike Lee, March 11, 2021, accessed September 30, 2021, https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/Amazonletter0311.pdf.

⁴ Ryan T. Anderson, Twitter post, March 11, 2021, 8:32 pm, https://twitter.com/RyanTAnd/status/1370185959422181380?.

⁵ Qtd. in Haley Ryan, "Pride Breaks with Halifax Libraries After Controversial Book Kept on Shelves," CBC News, May 30, 2021, accessed October 1, 2021, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/pride-breaks-with-halifax-libraries-after-controversial-book-kept-on-shelves-1.6045823.

⁶ "Response: Community Petition for Book Removal," Halifax Public Libraries, May 27, 2021, accessed October 1, 2021, https://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/news/response-community-petition-for-book-removal/.

⁷ "Halifax Public Library Statement," Halifax Pride, May 28, 2021, accessed October 1, 2021, https://www.halifaxpride.com/news/2021/5/28/halifax-public-library-response.

⁸ Peter Szperling, "Parent Calls on Ottawa Public Library to Remove Controversial Book About Transgender Youth," CTV News, May 3, 2021, accessed October 1, 2021, https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/parent-calls-on-ottawa-public-library-to-remove-controversial-book-about-transgender-youth-1.5412620.

⁹ Elim Klemic, Twitter post, March 19, 2021, 1:07 pm, accessed October 1, 2021, https://twitter.com/placenta_pi/status/1372958040111116294.