The Amazon fuss
A number of people have suggested that the problem with Amazon effectively censoring the advertising of LGBT texts is due to trolling, rather than a deliberate practice on Amazon's part. It does sound like it was started by a group of fundamentalist nutters, but don't assume that everybody working at every organisation involving books is a nice friendly liberal. I've made complaints because Calibre, a charity which provides an audiobook service for the visually impaired, flags some of its books with a warning that they contain "homosexual scenes" or "homosexual practices". I'm not even talking about books with sexual content. I complained about this a while ago, and the vague excuses that I was sent in response ended up in my junk mail folder. So before I realised they'd replied, I rang and got a man who told me hotly that these warnings were there for a good reason, because people ought to be warned about such things. It looks like Calibre has removed most of the warnings since then, but not all of them. I was too disgusted to use their service after that, I gave in and now fork out £50 per year for the RNIB audiobook service, which has a much bigger library, better facilities, no homophobia, and the worst you can say is that its cataloguing is a little strange (Measure for Measure appears in the children's section, for instance). I was too ill just then to kick up a fuss beyond this point, especially since it involved the uphill struggle of explaining what was offensive to people who didn't even begin to understand the connotations of the terminology they'd used. If anyone wants to make some complaints, or better still raise the issue with an LGBT group such as Stonewall, be my guest.
ETA: The issue hits the BBC, who reveal that someone has owned up to causing it all here, though according to this chap it's a fake confession.
ETA: The issue hits the BBC, who reveal that someone has owned up to causing it all here, though according to this chap it's a fake confession.