What is hate speech...

and who defines it as acceptable or not for all citizens?

Recently, the world’s biggest bookseller passed a rule that banned the sale of books containing “hate speech.” Their guidelines include a section against “offensive content.” They refer to hate speech as that which promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation of children, contains pornography, glorified rape or pedophilia, advocates terrorism…or other material we deem inappropriate.”

Apparently, the change in policy occurred to explain the banning of a 2018 book by Ryan Anderson, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Trans-Gender Movement. Anderson is the president of the think-tank “Ethics and Public Policy Center.”

When the author asked the bookseller, a $1.5 trillion company, why the book was banned, he did not receive a response. The company refused to say which page, or pages, committed the offense. However, the book was banned only after the author published a statement in the Washington Post that criticized the insertion of sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

I believe that Anderson raises legitimate questions regarding our civil rights. Was the Act of 1964 intended to protect the rights of a man who considers himself a woman? Evidently, more than 250 male inmates in California have requested a transfer to all-female prisons. Will these actions bring about greater equality--or equity--for all our citizens? Or, will this movement bring about re-definitions to our country's morality?