Comments on: Lowenstein: #Amazonfail should remind us of our economic power

By: Klaus

Klaus — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:52:58 +0000

Thank you for your great article.

I can not believe the books offered about homosexuality.

Hope lots of e-mail are send to have their choice corrected.
I sure let them know that a person interested to learn about this matter would get a very wrong and negative selection .

By: R & R

R & R — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:10:27 +0000

I have been a systems programmer for over 30 years. Anyone who believes that this is a “glitch” has been drinking way too much cool aid. A program that does this sort of thing had to have been tested more than once by running it in a restricted environment before being released system wide. So, Amazon knew exactly what they were doing. If not, then someone in the systems department should be fired! This was planned without any thought being given to the marketing results.

I suspect that those behind this stupid move will pull back and then find a way to do the same thing only in a more hidden way – one little step at a time. I would also speculate that this move was intended to attack the gay community in spite of comments to the contrary. I would also not be surprised if the christian right had their fingers in it. Why? Because they see the writing on the wall and they are finding ways to attack us anyway they can and doing so through markets is one way. They are frightened! And they should be! The closet door is not only open but we have torn down the bloody door. Next? Destroy the closet!

The email I got from Amazon asked if I would, after 11 years of being a customer, reconsider closing my account. What friggin nerve. ACCOUNT CLOSED!

By: Lee Ann Jackson

Lee Ann Jackson — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:00:50 +0000

I’ve ordered quite a few books from Amazon, but not any more. Not only are they homophobic, they’re also insulting to our intelligence–”glitch,” yah right…!

By: Will I am

Will I am — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:10:55 +0000

OMG those horriable gay books you mentioned.I saw all of them atBarnes and knobles.Know what I did.Bought all of them. Yes sir, and BURNED them!Gay change books.There was one even on How to be a good prositute but gay, with class.

By: Teresa

Teresa — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:40:34 +0000

Did anyone notice that searching on “homosexual” does indeed bring up mostly negative books, but you also get a SECOND level to enter for all the gay-positive. In other words, the positive stuff is there but they made it harder to find. I have a screen capture at my blog.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:27:47 +0000

What a joke, boycotts don’t work and this one is particularly silly. Over rankings? You people are hilarious…

By: AR

AR — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:16:12 +0000

Last night, after reading 365’s article on Amazon.com, I sent them an email. I received this response on 3:24am from Amazon.

Hello,

Thanks for contacting us. We recently discovered a glitch in our systems and it’s being fixed.

Thanks again for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:

If yes, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=adhwwcyf3478793081
If not, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=adhwwcyf3478793081

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail.

To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section of our web site.

Best regards,

Radhakrishnan S.
Amazon.com
We’re Building Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company
http://www.amazon.com/your-account

By: Glenn I

Glenn I — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:04:04 +0000

I sent a sternly worded letter, too. (I mean, I only asked if they turned into Christianist evildoers, right?) I, too, got the “glitch” explanation.

By: tarshishel

tarshishel — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:42:20 +0000

I don’t understand about this problem… I’ve looked up a lot of the books which are supposed to have been classified as adult content yet I found them all on amazon and none of them seemed to be classified as adult…so I don’t really get what’s going on….

But more importantly it seems to me absurd that one would accuse amazon of purposely classifying all of its homosexual themed books as adult out of homophobia. One reason why it seems absurd is that this change of policy did not occur at the same time as changes in management. Therefore this theory supposes that a fair number of bigwigs in amazon’s management suddenly all became homophobic or at least decided the time was ripe to put their homophobia in action.

This brings me to my second point. There is no way that the managers of a big company like amazon do not understand that it’s bad for business to alienate the LGBT community. Furthermore, the fact that they immediately said it was a glitch, supposes that — if they were acting out of homophobia — they knew that alienating homosexuals was bad for business (because they felt the need to cover it up). Furthermore, if they were trying to cover something up, saying it was a glitch would be an absurd move. Indeed, saying it was a glitch suggests that they would fix it and that it therefore is temporary. It also suggests that the company is fairly incompetent (which is also bad for business).

I just can’t see it as being plausible that this change in nomenclature can have been done purposefully out of homophobia.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:27:18 +0000

Of the top 4 listings for Homosexuality, 2 are anti-homosexuality, in a “nice” way, and 2 are pro-homosexuality. “For the Bible Tells Me So” is a documentary including Gene Robinson’s life, and is not anti-homosexual.