#amazonfail

So... the internet, especially Twitter, is all a buzz with the news that Amazon has removed the sales rank from all lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender titles. What this means is that gay books are now excluded from showing up in bestseller lists, and turn up down the bottom of search lists (if at all).

But what hardly anyone is talking about (yet) is that books to do with disability and sexuality have had their rank stripped too.

Books like Tom Shakespeare et al's sociology text book "The Sexual Politics of Disability". "The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability" has also been de-ranked.

The story is starting to crop up in news articles all over the world, and most articles are citing Twitter. There have also been petitions set up protesting against Amazon's effective censorship of LGBT titles. But none of these mention that us crips are getting censored too.

If you tweet, do mention something about Amazon de-ranking books on disability and sexuality also. And make sure you use the hashtag "#amazonfail"

ETA: This of course isn't the only recent disability-related Amazon fail: http://is.gd/qC8W

ETA2: This blog post explains the importance of literature on disability and sexuality. There's also another blog post on the issue here.

ETA3: Disabled people seem to be taking a double whammy in this whole thing. First our books get de-ranked. And then the mainstream press fails to acknowledge us when writing about this. It doesn't matter if it's a glitch, a new policy, or a hack - the press should be representing us.

ETA4: Amazon have apologised and said "that the de-ranking was not limited to gay and lesbian titles.... In fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as health, mind and body, reproductive and sexual medicine." Hmmm. "Health and mind and body" - their way of saying "disability" and trying to reassure LGBT customers that it wasn't just us (I say "us" wearing my lesbian hat. And I do actually have a hat that apparently makes me look very dykey). What the press still aren't picking up on was that, yes, it wasn't just LGBT titles, it was disability titles too. I even Emailed The Guardian and asked them to even give a sentence to the fact that it affected disability titles too. They haven't.