What does a classic gay novel like James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room have to do with gay porn?

You’d think the answer would be pretty much “nothing.” But if that’s true, why would Amazon.com strip the sales ranks of almost all gay and lesbian books on their site — including E. Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain, Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story and 20s lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness — at the same time it’s removing the sales rankings for adult novels?

And it’s not just fiction. The blog Meta Writer said that affected titles also include The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students, Taking a Chance on God: Liberating Theology for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Lovers, Families, and Friends and The Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History of Gay & Lesbian Experience. And indeed, not one of those books has its sales ranking listed.

Asked “What’s up with that?” by a number of authors, Amazon sent out a form response:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

It’s hard to know what’s more disturbing: That they’re removing gay and lesbian books from their search results and sales rankings in the first place, or that they’re categorizing anything about our community and our lives in the stigmatized “adult” category even when there’s nothing “adult” about it.

I mean, in what universe are books like Vito Russo’s Celluloid Closet, Randy Shilts‘ The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk or Dan Savage’s The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant adult books?

I checked the gay young adult titles by AfterElton.com’s Brent Hartinger, and they all still have their sales rankings. A few other YA titles I looked at didn’t, however, including John Fox’s The Boys on the Rock, Jim Grimsley’s Dream Boy and, ironically, The Heart Has Its Reasons: Young Adult Literature with Gay/Lesbian/Queer Content, 1969-2004.

Neither did Speechless: Silencing the Christians: How Liberals and Homosexual Activists are Outlawing Christianity (and Judaism) to Force Their Sexual Agenda on America or Heather Has Two Mommies, which has got to be one of the most banned books in American history. Nice company you’re in, Amazon.

Amazon.com has not responded to a request for a comment by AfterElton.com.

The ad on the sports network’s Web site was intended to promote its NBA programming.  It featured NBA star Shaquille O’Neal and sports commentator Mike Breen. 

In the ad, Breen attempts to fist bump O’Neal, but Breen refers to it as a “fist kiss.” O’Neal recoils in revulsion saying to Breen: “You’re a weirdo man. Stay over there. Fist kiss. Disgusting.”

The ad first appeared on the weekend and drew complaints Monday from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Human Rights Campaign and 365gay brother publication AfterElton. Both AfterElton and 365Gay are owned by Logo, a division of MTV Networks.

ESPN, which in the past has reached out to the LGBT community, has now pulled the ad and issued a public apology.

“Our intent is to send a positive message about the camaraderie of sports and to do so  as  creatively  as we can. However, we understand your perspective on this ad and would like to apologize to the members of the gay community.  In addition, we have decided to remove the ad from the campaign’s online executions,” said Rob Tobias, ESPN’s Vice President for Media Relations in a statement.

“ESPN has a long-standing tradition of supporting diversity in the workplace and beyond. We are fully committed to continuing a dialogue that welcomes and recognizes diverse perspectives,” the statement said.

GLAAD said it was pleased with the speed in which ESPN acted.

“We are pleased that ESPN realized that this ad was problematic and decided to remove it so quickly,” said GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano. 

“Ads that exploit these kinds of clichéd stereotypes may elicit cheap laughs, but they also send a message that some people are less deserving than others of dignity and respect. We will continue to work with ESPN to promote media images of the LGBT community that are fair, accurate and inclusive.”

O’Neal, like ESPN, does not have a record of homophobia.

In 2005 he intervened in a gay bashing on a Miami Beach street. The 7-foot-1 star saw a man yelling gay slurs throw a bottle at a gay couple hitting one man. The suspect then got into a car and sped off, but O’Neal followed.

He flagged down a Miami Beach police officer and the suspect was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and assault with a deadly weapon.

While ESPN has pulled the offensive ad from its Web site, it remained up Tuesday on YouTube.

The awards recognize fair and inclusive portrayals of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and issues affecting them.

“How our lives are portrayed in the media doesn’t make a bit of difference, it makes all the difference,” said GLAAD president Neil G. Giuliano.

The organization announced its 185 nominees in 41 categories Tuesday.

For the second year, AfterElton.com, 365gay’s brother site, has been recognized with the nomination of James Hillis’s investigative report, Gays in Primetime (here’s Part II). Last year James was nominated (and won) with his piece Gay Newsmen: A Clearer Picture.

CBS earned four nominations and NBC nabbed two. Nominees for feature film in wide release include “Brideshead Revisited,” “Milk,” “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” “RocknRolla” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

“The nominees this year prove that the stories of LGBT Americans are interesting, compelling and will touch not only LGBT audiences, but broader audiences as well,” Giuliano said.

Special prizes will be presented to Tyra Banks and Suze Orman. Banks will receive the Excellence in Media award, and Orman will receive the Vito Russo award.

The GLAAD Media Awards – which also recognize magazine and newspaper content, theater performances, advertising and Spanish programming – will be presented at three separate ceremonies: in New York on March 28, in Los Angeles on April 19 and in San Francisco on May 9.

For a complete list of the nominees as well as a video of the announcement, head on over to GLAAD’s website.