Target removed from digital shelves a transphobic book that had been excoriated by the LGBTQ community since its July 2020 release.
However, the retailer quickly relisted the item after anti-trans users bashed them for pulling it in the first place.
The book, titled Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughter, was written by anti-trans journalist Abigail Shrier and proclaims that being a trans is a "contagion," a "craze," and an "epidemic."
Reviewers panned the work for promoting "child abuse" and "transphobia" and for damaging those who "struggle with gender dysphoria and identity."
Last Thursday, Target announced their decision to remove the book from their website after being apprised of the book's hateful and damaging rhetoric.
The company's Twitter account wrote:
"Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. We have removed this book from our assortment."
However, Target's decision incited backlash from the anti-trans community, and Shrier accused the retailer of censorship.
The author took to Twitter, saying Target.com "just made my book disappear."
She added:
"Does it bother anyone that Woke activists and spineless corporations now determine what Americans are allowed to read?"
Fellow writer Bari Weiss came to Shrier's defense in condemning Target's decision, tweeting:
"The efforts to smear my friend @AbigailShrier and to disappear her book (hi, @Target) is despicable—and a sign of what's to come."
"I regret that I didn't speak up earlier on her behalf, that I also thought to myself: is this the hill I want to die on?"
One Twitter user accused Target of submitting to "Stalinist thought policing."
In response to the criticism, Target acquiesced and said they would continue to sell the book on their website.
Customers opposed to the book were disappointed in Target for missing the mark.
Irreversible Damage is currently listed on Target.com with a rating of two-and-a-half stars.
