How the Controversy Around When Harry Became Sally Boosted Its Popularity

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to stomach When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, Ryan T. Anderson’s 2018 book on gender identity in modern America. Anderson is a Catholic pundit who made a name for himself opposing same-sex marriage at a time when even many of his conservative peers had let that one go. Yet, while there’s plenty in the book for socially liberal folks (myself included) to disagree with, it isn’t brimming with blatant bigotry. One might argue that he has selectively wielded data and anecdotes, and one might disagree with the conclusions he draws—chief among them that helping people with gender dysphoria accept their birth sex may be a more effective and humane course of action than hormone treatments and surgeries. But this isn’t a wildly hateful or inflammatory book.

That’s what makes Amazon’s 2021 decision to stop selling When Harry Became Sally so strange. The megaplatform is home to all sorts of socially conservative books, including Anderson’s previous publications on marriage. It carries works from radical feminists, whose takes on transgend