Conservative author says Amazon made a 'purely political move’ to restore his book critical of trans ideology

Conservative author and scholar Ryan T. Anderson reacted to Amazon's recent decision to relist his 2018 book, "When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment," four years after the retailer pulled the book from its online marketplace.

"I think this is purely a political move. Four years ago, with the Biden administration, they thought that they were on the right side of history. And now, four years later, they see that they're not," he told Fox News Digital.

"My guess is that they didn't want the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation," Anderson continued.

"When Harry Became Sally" rose to the top of two of Amazon's bestseller lists after it was published in 2018. The book aimed to provide "thoughtful answers to questions arising from our transgender moment" and offered a "a balanced approach to public policy on gender identity, and a sober assessment of the human costs of getting human nature wrong."

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Author Ryan T. Anderson responded after Amazon relisted his book, "When Harry Became Sally" after a 4-year ban. (Getty Images/EPPC)

Amazon pulled the book from its website in February 2021, just weeks after President Biden took office. 

Amazon's Vice President of Public Policy, Brian Huseman, sent a letter to Republican senators defending the company's decision to pull the book, saying they choose not to sell books that "frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness."

Anderson, who is president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) and a former research fellow for conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, rejected Amazon's claim at the time, saying that "nowhere" in his book did he frame LGBTQ identity as a mental illness.

"There was nothing remotely hateful in the book," he told Fox News Digital this week, pointing to the book's success and accolades from academics at Ivy League universities.

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office recognizing two sexes. (Getty Images)

Even after Amazon announced on Tuesday that it had relisted the book, Anderson said that the company never communicated directly with him about why it returned the book to its online shelves. He suspects the retailer's motive for initially delisting the book and returning it, four years later, was based on who was in power in Washington.

"I do think professionally, the attempt here was to discredit me because of the timing of when the book was banned. It was a Sunday right before former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scheduled the vote on the Equality Act," he said, saying he had been one of the biggest critics of the transgender rights bill.

Since President Donald Trump took office and signed an executive order acknowledging and defending "the biological reality of sex," Anderson's organization has put pressure on Amazon to return his book to its platform.

President Donald Trump has signed several executive orders combating gender ideology in the federal government and public schools. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

With the Republicans controlling the Senate and a Republican heading the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Anderson suspects the retail giant reversed course because it didn't want to come under scrutiny.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Andrew Ferguson, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, expressed interest in Anderson's case this week. 

"It just strikes me that this was more of a political move on Amazon's part," the author told Fox News Digital. "They haven't apologized. Rather than apologizing, saying that we got it wrong four years ago, they make it seem like it's a tough call. That this is right on the razor's edge of what's acceptable speech and what's unacceptable speech."

Lauren Sanchez, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attend the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th US President in the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2025.     ( Saul Loeb/Pool via REUTERS)

Amazon released a statement on February 4 explaining why it had returned the book to its online marketplace.

"Balancing free speech and content that could be construed as hate speech is one of the most difficult adjudication decisions we make as a company. A few years ago, we removed ‘When Harry Became Sally’ from our store after concluding that it violated our guidelines prohibiting books that promote hate speech. This was not an easy decision and was hotly debated," the statement began.

"Since then, many other retailers (e.g. Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Powell’s, etc.) have continued to sell this book, and we’ve continued to receive feedback from customers that the ideas presented in this book, while controversial, should be available for those who want to read and understand the perspective of its author."

"The combination of our peer retailers continuing to sell the book and the ongoing feedback made us re-examine our decision. As was the case when we reviewed the book a few years ago, it was not an easy decision, but we concluded that we erred on the side of being too restrictive last time, and decided to return the book to our store," the statement concluded.

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Amazon and the FTC declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital.

The abrupt reversal comes after Amazon also "unbanned" the film "The War on Children" by conservative filmmaker and activist Robby Starbuck.

Starbuck told Fox News Digital he believes the movie now being available on Amazon proves that conservatives have "the momentum," and powerful companies don’t want to be associated with the "censorship apparatus" created by liberals in recent years.

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.

Kristine Parks is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Read more.