A group of Amazon.com Inc. employees plans to march in Seattle’s Pride Parade on Sunday to protest the online retailer’s sale of books they consider anti-transgender — an action that threatens to erode the company’s image as an inclusive employer.
In recent months, several hundred staffers have been pushing the e-commerce giant to ban books like “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.” They say such titles dehumanize trans people and dismiss their identities as mental disorders, which runs counter to the recommendations of almost every major medical group. Employees say the books could confuse vulnerable teens and their parents who turn to Amazon seeking information.
“It’s pretty jarring to see books that are promoting that trans people should not transition in the LGBT book section,” said Lina Jodoin, who transitioned two years ago and quit her engineering job at Amazon last month in protest. “It just hurts on a personal level.”
