Hear from Amazonians

These are comments from real Amazonians who signed the petition. They have asked that their comments be published here. Quotes are anonymous for privacy reasons.

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• At the very least I would like to be able to search for trans pride stuff on my companies website without having transphobic content thrown in my face.
• “Free Speech” is not unlimited. It only protects against government intervention, and does not require or compel corporations to propagate any/all speech on behalf of publishers. Like any company, Amazon has a civic duty to set, explain, and enforce standards regarding what’s acceptable, and in this case, the material is unquestionably unacceptable. These books spread misinformation and will lead to harm, for which Amazon will share responsibility. I object to this as an employee and as a shareholder.
• The above statement says it pretty well. Amazon should no sell hateful books of any kind. Especially books that might cause harm to children. This reflects very poorly on Amazon as a company.
• My son is trans male. I’m watching laws get passed in Texas that turn me into a child abuser for allowing this. Books are being published on “the craze seducing our daughters.” No. I don’t accept this. LOVE for my children is what will have a long term positive effect on their development. Boundaries will help them learn to be responsible adults. Censorship and demands that a child be someone who they are not will result in an adult who starts far behind the line of self confidence, self expression and the ability to explore options and decide based on their inner compass, not the demands of their parent.
• Selling books like these flies directly in the face of Amazon’s leadership principles, such as Customer Obsession, Ownership, Insist on the Highest Standards, Think Big, Bias for Action, Earn Trust, Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer, and Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility.
• Amazon has the responsibility as one of the largest platforms for media and information in the history of our species. We must meet the responsibility head on, rather than trying to avoid the issue in pursuit of some hypothetical perfect middle ground.
• Profit being the reason to allow hateful + cruel + harmful content to be viewed and monetized on our company’s storefront is a horrible policy. Every day at work, someone decides the content is worth keeping up, and every day, team members with the power to remove it leave it up. Let’s stop hurting real, wonderful people and remove hateful content from our store and our company.
• It is completely disingenuous and hypocritical that this company will praise themselves on being allies to trans people - but once the bottom line involves profiting off of our oppression everything said before is now off the table. The very things said in the literature that is pushed forth to shame, degrade, alienate and ostrisize us in society - is being sold by a company that turns around to tell their trans associates that we would be protected in the work place?? Why would we believe them when they have no integrity or backbone to follow through - safety being a number one priority as being said so often but there is no afterthought to how trans people will be treated in or outside the workplace with the falsified garbage they are promoting that will impact our day to day livelihood! Be more transparent and true to your motives Amazon - i suggest a new slogan to more closely match your true intentions - Profits over people, as always!
• Amazon needs to make systemic changes and take responsibility for the content it sells. This will not come from leadership and relies on worker power.
• As a transgender employee I truly do not think Amazon wants me here. Transitioning at Amazon completely burned me out and sapped any passion I had for working for this company. For all the work we did in 2020 to make this company a more inclusive place, it seems like Amazon stopped caring about that once profits started rolling in for these books. If they’re so confident the books don’t violate policy, then clearly it is time for policy to be updated.
• Please give me a chance to feel proud about working for Amazon, as it stands I can’t.
• Our leadership principles mean nothing if we’re willing to so flagrantly go against them. Sure some leadership principles can be in conflict with one another, but none of them align with continuing to sell, surface, and miscategorize hate speech.
• Equivocating about censorship to avoid dealing with hateful screeds is not principled, it is cowardly. These books do real harm, and the dismissive response to concerns from the very people it harms has been shameful.
• I am truly baffled how Amazon can state that they will stop selling books that frame LGBTQ+ identities as mental illness (per https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/12/amazon-stop-selling-books-lgbtq-mental-illness) yet continue to sell these books. This arbitrary enforcement undermine the new LP, “Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility”. It was not simply that the book was not removed (Amazon has removed books before, such as those promoting covid conspiracy theories or touting fake autism cures). If you won’t draw the line as these books being harmful, at least find a middle ground and work with the very advocate groups that represent Amazon/AWS. The lack of transparency and discussion is especially disturbing. A compromise could have been attempted - perhaps a disclaimer that these books are not meant to represent medical advice, not based on science, or at least that the content is inappropriate for those under 18 years of age, maybe with a suicide hotline or trans resources for young people prominently noted on the page.
• Amazon cannot be the world’s best employer while simultaneously running allowing hateful content targeting its own employees.
• Freedom of speech is not freedom of consequences. Amazon as a company has the right to not publish every book offered towards their catalogue of books, especially when the books being offered are being actively used in hateful ways towards the LGBT+ community. When this multi-billion dollar company ignores the legitimate concerns and evidence brought up by a community that already faces opposition on a daily basis, it proves less that the company is inclusive to all ideas and more that the company values shallow, surface level gestures of inclusion more than actually taking a stance on real issues that affect the lives of their employees. Just as every employee should have the right to fair pay and a safe work environment, every employee is owed consideration when establishing the true ideals of the company. This stance doesn’t have to be public, it doesn’t have to draw the line in the town square for all to see; but for all those behind closed doors, the actual consideration and empathy should be present, which is something I am not seeing currently.
• Amazon is a private company. The First Amendment does not apply. Amazon has already proved itself a non-objective participant in the marketplace contents. Do the right thing here and remove items focused on hate when they are found!
• As a trans-woman I am appalled that my company, inclusive and accepting would even consider this type of propaganda and hate. It is truly a shame that profit comes before the well being of the employees.
• I know Amazon will make the correct choice as soon as those in power fully understand the inconsistent application of policy, as well as the unethical profiteering. This is not the Amazon way.
• Please show us you are serious about transgender workers by taking this seriously.
• We must look at doing better because the fact that these books remain up is doing harm to the trans community. This is absolutely going against public statements that Amazon is a great place for LGBTQ+ folk if we still allow content like this to stay.
• It has been hard to watch as anti-transgender content continues to be sold by Amazon. This content amplifies hate against transgender people, including our colleagues. Success and scale bring broad responsibility: bringing diverse perspectives into the decision-making process will position Amazon to “make better, do better, and be better for our customers, our employees, our partners, and the world at large.”
• Amazon needs to take action on this immediately! Keeping these hate filled books is the opposite of inclusion and sends the wrong message to the trans and LGBQ+ community.
• Promoting hateful literature against trans individuals is wrong and goes against Amazon’s stated values.
• Like many LGBTQ+ people, I’ve experienced firsthand the harm that hate speech, propaganda, and misinformation cause. I want no part in promoting, propagating, or profiting from this content.
• Per the company’s own policy positions (www.aboutamazon.com/about-us/our-positions): “The rights of LGBTQ+ people must be protected. We were early and strong supporters of marriage equality and will continue to advocate for protections and equal rights for transgender people.” It would be nice if these words were followed up by actions that actually protect the LGBTQ+ community.
• There is a clear difference between books which explore topics in a thoughtful manner, allowing for multiple viewpoints and healthy discussion and those which are outright hate speech and harmful. Amazon can choose to be a leader in differentiating these two areas by adopting the solutions laid out in this petition and standing behind the decision.
• The handling of these issues is unconscionable. They have body counts. They are actively killing a community that includes me, and my children. Amazon must do better.
• Amazon needs to do better to live up to the values it espouses
• Whereas I understand our constitutional right to free speech and understand censorship and the marketplace of ideas, I do not understand how a company who champions diversity, equity, and inclusion could be selling such books like “Irreversible Damage” and “Johnny the Walrus” that do not promote diversity, equity, or inclusion. The probably small amount of employees who are anti-trans and transphobic should not be championed in this case. You have policies that prevent people from posting items regarding“Black Lives Matter” or the Ukrainian flag because it might offend someone. What about offending transgender employees? Banning the sell of these books, in my opinion, is not an assault on free speech or censorship. It is a stand against something that is obviously unethical and immoral. Anti-trans websites should feel free to sell these books, but a company who holds customer obsession as a leadership principle, starting at the customer (trans employees are customers too) and working backwards, should consider what selling books like these tells your trans and trans ally customers, let alone the rest of the world. A company that strives to be Earth’s Best Employer, as described in your leadership principles, is being the Earth’s Worst Employer by marginalizing your employees who belong to an oppressed group of individuals. Standing behind these products is sending the wrong message to your employees, stakeholders, stockholders, and the rest of the world. I urge Amazon to immediately cease and desist selling books of this nature. I wholeheartedly support the creation of an elected workers’ oversight board to prevent tragic mistakes like selling the books like “Irreversible Damage” and “Johnny the Walrus”.
• It’s possible to remain a neutral seller while still setting standards for what you will sell. It’s not customer obsessed to drive sales to some small number of customers at the expense of the health and well-being of others (and it’s ethically bankrupt, besides, and bad for business).
• No one should be hated because of who they are. Everyone has the right to be themselves.
• As the father of multiple daughters in the LGBTQIA+ community, I can’t stand by and allow this hate to grow.
• Amazon needs to step up and align with “Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility” and show they are indeed focused on Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity!
• I’m transgender and proud of it
• Hate speech and pseudo scientific propaganda is not worthy of inclusion under free speech protections. These are not sincerely held, evidence-based beliefs.
• Even if Amazon is committed to ignoring its leadership principle that success and scale bring broad responsibility by continuing to sell these hateful books, it’s unjustifiable to continue to categorize these books as LGBTQIA+. We don’t distribute antisemitic content under Judaism labels, but I guess queer people just don’t matter.*
• Amazon is failing to even come close to meeting the bar when it comes to the marginalized communities that absolutely make up the backbone of this company. We are tired of being targeted for your commercials and adds to make you look good and then yet get treated like we are worthless at work. I see the diversity but i do not see amazon as leader when we are forced to change scores of directs and be favorable of the white cis male, but i had to restore my poc and was told i had to. Amazon is a leader in fascism, is how it feels. I’m truly further ashamed to have seen this event play out live. My trans brothers and sisters are humans first, and you’re actively working to remove that from them by directly spreading hate speech to the masses. I predict amazon could be responsible for 100s if not 1000s of lives taken by ignorance and, or worse, suicide. Your actions and lack thereof affect people on a global scale. Stop colonizing workers.
• Former employee who quit and found new position outside of company, as leadership had abandoned their principles. Among other reasons, leadership lost trust by continuing to sell books not only mis-categorized, but also against their testimony in front of US Congress. They are striving to hurt lgbtq lives, not being a good employer to them.
• There cannot be a “discourse” or an “open conversation” that includes a group advocating for the non-existence, or stripping the human rights of another. In any marketplace, there are “goods” too defective or harmful to be sold.
• Why should my work support spreading this hate? How can I feel proud of my accomplishments if this is what they’re used for? Stop hiding behind lazy excuses like censorship, the ONLY reasons to keep these are profit and greed.
• Proud son of lesbian parents, proud father to a transgender son.
• Amazon is very vocal about diversity and equity, but doesn’t backup those words with actions. It’s past time to bias for action rather than failing to live up to our stated principles.
• I support my coworkers and I support trans kid’s right to exist. Allowing hate material to be sold and promoted on our platforms should be stopped.
• Books likes these tells people, tells children, that I am delusional or I’m sick to be the person that I feel most comfortable being, my most authentic self. These books, if handed to a LGBTQ young adult or teen, can do a great deal of harm to their emotional and mental well-being. Listing these books under “LGBTQ Studies” gives them false validation and are used to justify hateful opinions that lead to hateful laws (see bathroom bills, children banned from sports, parents being charged with child abuse for supporting their trans kids)
• I left amazon because of ongoing transphobia, it was clear Amazon’s commitment to marginalized peoples did not go an inch farther than making recruiting and marketing propaganda.
• Amazon’s push and claim to be a leading DEI company is overcast by the struggle that many minority groups (LGBTQIA+, neurodiverse, etc.) have had in implementing lasting and necessary changes to company policies internally. Amazon says they Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer but that smacks of hypocrisy when so many minority groups internal to the company struggle to get traction from upper management in even the smallest of changes like the removal of these blatantly transphobic and harmful works from the LGBT selling category. As a long time employee and a trans woman myself it has had an impact on my own mental health having to reconcile the work I do for a company that continues to overtly show how little they care for myself and others in the community.
• Hate has no business here, and it is up to industry leaders like Amazon to put their foot down and say, “No. This is more important than a bottom line. This cannot, and will not stand.” It is vital that Amazon acts as a leader in all things, including the rejection of hate and the vilification of LGBTQ+ members of society.
• It is past time for these conversations to have occurred.
• I remember something very similar happening in regards to offensive, racist t-shirts last year. There was a ticket opened in which employees voiced their concerns and disappoint at Amazon’s lack of action/transparency. Many were deeply hurt by this. What did Amazon do? Removed people from the ticket, closed it out (they may have even ‘deleted’ it) and shut down a very meaningful conversation with its employees. Hearing about this reminds me of that situation all over again. Amazon needs to take a stand against hate - period.
• It is utterly unacceptable that we are profiting off of hate. Amazon has publicly started that we do not sell these types of books, even stating it on a later to Congress. This isn’t about free speech, we’re a private company and we absolutely have the right to choose not to sell something that goes against our values, which these books quite obviously do. We remove books aimed at hating religious groups quickly, why aren’t we removing these books aimed at hate against LBGTQ+ individuals?
• Trans people are not a political debate, we are your employees and customers
• Amazon’s lack of action here has made me feel uncomfortable working at Amazon.