Online bookseller Amazon.com blamed technical problems after lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) themed works disappeared from searches on the site over the weekend. Several authors, however, are skeptical of Amazon's explanation, and outrage over the de-ranking of the works has led to outcry within the online community . Early this afternoon, Amazon began re-ranking some of the affected works and, shortly thereafter, offered an explanation for the disappearance of the books, telling the Seattle Post-Intelligencer : Among the books that vanished on searches of Amazon's offerings were some editions of John Barrowman 's and Stephen Fry 's autobiographies, some editions of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, and Lesléa Newman 's children's book Heather Has Two Mommies , as well as works of erotica such as Emmanuelle Arsan's Emmanuelle . Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal: "GLAAD has reached out to Amazon.com and they indicate this was an error, so we expect to start seeing evidence of its correction immediately, and any loss of visibility of gay-themed books as a result of this error will be made right by Amazon." Authors of the affected works have expressed skepticism of Amazon's explanation, accusing Amazon of homophobia and deliberate censorship. Craig Seymour, author of All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C., recounts an exchange in early February 2009 with Amazon. On February 2, his book lost its sales rank, in the same fashion as the other LGBT-themed works this month. After inquiring about the loss of rank, Seymour received a reply on February 25 saying "the sales rank was not displayed for the following reasons: The ISBN #1416542051 was classified as an Adult product"; Seymour then found through routine searches that the rankings of gay themed works had been dropped but that rankings of books by porn stars like Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson had not, in an apparent double standard. Seymour's ranking was restored on February 27 and All I Could Bare is not among those books whose rankings have been dropped this month. The online community has also been investigating the de-rankings in order to clarify what works were dropped. Jane of publishing blog DearAuthor.com suggests in an analysis of the known dropped books that the de-ranking was performed automatically by a program examining the metadata of each book and dropping rankings from those tagged "Gay", "Adult", or "LGBT"; not all editions of the same book carry the same tag, which explains why some editions of books were dropped and others not. Meanwhile, Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Making Light suggests that the de-ranking started out as well-intentioned but that important information was lost along the way:
Online bookseller Amazon.com blamed technical problems after lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) themed works disappeared from searches on the site over the weekend. Several authors, however, are skeptical of Amazon's explanation, and outrage over the de-ranking of the works has led to outcry within the . Early this afternoon, Amazon began re-ranking some of the affected works and, shortly thereafter, offered an explanation for the disappearance of the books, telling the : Among the books that vanished on searches of Amazon's offerings were some editions of 's and 's autobiographies, some editions of Lady Chatterley's Lover by , and 's children's book , as well as works of erotica such as 's . Neil Giuliano, president of the (GLAAD), said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal: "GLAAD has reached out to Amazon.com and they indicate this was an error, so we expect to start seeing evidence of its correction immediately, and any loss of visibility of gay-themed books as a result of this error will be made right by Amazon." Authors of the affected works have expressed skepticism of Amazon's explanation, accusing Amazon of homophobia and deliberate censorship. Craig Seymour, author of All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C., recounts an exchange in early February 2009 with Amazon. On February 2, his book lost its sales rank, in the same fashion as the other LGBT-themed works this month. After inquiring about the loss of rank, Seymour received a reply on February 25 saying "the sales rank was not displayed for the following reasons: The ISBN #1416542051 was classified as an Adult product"; Seymour then found through routine searches that the rankings of gay themed works had been dropped but that rankings of books by like and had not, in an apparent double standard. Seymour's ranking was restored on February 27 and All I Could Bare is not among those books whose rankings have been dropped this month. The online community has also been investigating the de-rankings in order to clarify what works were dropped. Jane of publishing blog DearAuthor.com suggests in an analysis of the known dropped books that the de-ranking was performed automatically by a program examining the metadata of each book and dropping rankings from those tagged "Gay", "Adult", or "LGBT"; not all editions of the same book carry the same tag, which explains why some editions of books were dropped and others not. Meanwhile, at suggests that the de-ranking started out as well-intentioned but that important information was lost along the way:
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online community
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Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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John Barrowman
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Stephen Fry
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D.H. Lawrence, and Lesléa Newman
, and
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Heather Has Two Mommies
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Emmanuelle Arsan's Emmanuelle
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Gay
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Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
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porn stars like Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson
like and
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Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Making Light
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