In the year since journalists and activists called out The New York Times for amplifying anti-transgender voices, the newspaper has failed to quote any out trans person in 66 percent of its articles on anti-trans legislation, according to a new study by GLAAD and Media Matters.
The organizations reviewed Times stories from February 15, 2023, to February 15, 2024. The paper carried at least 65 articles that mentioned U.S. anti-trans legislation in either their headline or lead paragraphs. But two-thirds of them did not quote a trans or gender-nonconforming person. Only one in 19 articles from July through September did. And 18 percent of the pieces overall “included anti-trans misinformation in quotes without adequate fact-checking or additional context,” a press release from the groups notes.
One, for instance, quoted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as saying gender-affirming care is a euphemism for “sex-change operations,” when in fact it includes nonsurgical treatment, and genital surgery is not recommended for minors. He also claimed that providing such care amounts to “sexualizing” children.
Six articles “obscured the anti-trans background of sources, erasing histories of extremist rhetoric or actions,” the release states. For example, a story on North Dakota banning trans girls and women from female school sports teams identified North Dakota Can simply as a “conservative advocacy group” when in fact it has called LGBTQ+ people predatory.
The paper has published Republican criticism of allowing trans people to serve in the military, with politicians claiming the public is on their side, even though polls indicate a large majority of Americans approve of trans inclusion, the study says. It has also included assertions that young people are being rushed into gender-affirming care and their parents manipulated into allowing it, when in reality there are often long wait times for care. And it has quoted anti-trans sources as saying discussions of suicide by trans youth are a way to manipulate parents, although there truly is widespread suicidality among this population.
The study comes a year after the Times received two letters criticizing its coverage of trans issues, one from a coalition of more than 150 organizations and leaders, including GLAAD, and a one signed by hundreds of Times contributors. “The newspaper attempted to conflate both efforts, dismissing all criticisms of its coverage as merely ‘protests organized by advocacy groups,’” the study says.
“The New York Times did not quote any transgender people in a majority of their articles about anti-trans legislation in the past year,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in the press release. “One of the first recommendations we make during the hundreds of LGBTQ education briefings we hold with national and local newsrooms is to include LGBTQ voices in LGBTQ stories: interview the people impacted by your coverage and include their perspectives. The New York Times failed that basic reporting lesson 101, and replaced it with a pattern of obfuscating sources’ anti-trans affiliations and allowing their misinformation to go unchecked. Our coalition of more than 150 organizations, community leaders, and notable LGBTQ people and allies remains steadfast in our calls for the Times to improve their coverage of transgender people.”
“The paper of record has an obligation to present its readers with the full human toll of the anti-trans legislative assault,” added Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director at Media Matters. “Trans people are more than theoretical curiosities to be debated from afar. Each and every anti-trans bill affects living, breathing people whose voices deserve to be heard and whose stories deserve to be told.”
“With more than 470 bills targeting LGBTQ people having already been introduced by state legislatures around the country in 2024, The New York Times has a responsibility to not feed a moral panic that is being seeded by right-wing media about trans identity and instead should focus on improving its coverage by centering the voices of those being impacted by these harmful bills,” the press release concludes.
