New York Times continues to fail on trans issues one year after demands made

On the one-year anniversary of a demand for change in The New York Times’ coverage of transgender issues, the newspaper is carrying a column by lawyer and activist Chase Strangio on the continuing attack on trans people by conservative politicians.

Strangio does not address the paper’s coverage in his piece — he has done so elsewhere — but the problematic content has recently included a much-criticized column by Pamela Paul on detransition. In noting the anniversary, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis points out that the Times has continued to print misinformation about the trans community.

“The New York Times’ inaccurate, irresponsible coverage of the transgender community is regularly utilized by extremist lawmakers to justify taking away best practice health care from youth,” Ellis said in a Thursday press release. “The Times has continued down its path of ignoring the trans community, their healthcare providers, and medical experts.

“They have not taken our coalition up on our offer to meet with leaders from the trans community, nor have they hired any trans journalists full time, and have gone so far as to discipline their employees for bringing up valid and accurate critique of the newspaper’s trans coverage.

“As the Times continues down this path, they become more irrelevant every day. We remain eager to meet with the Times to help correct these coverage failures.”

On February 15 of last year, a letter was released calling on the Times to improve its coverage of trans people and issues. Signed by more than 100 organizations, activists, journalists, and celebrities, led by GLAAD, it denounced the Times for highlighting anti-trans voices.

This included articles on transition regret, even though science shows this is rare; pieces suggesting that medical experts disagree on gender-affirming care, while in reality it is endorsed by every major medical organization; and coverage asserting that trans women in sports are taking opportunities away from cisgender women.

More than 1,000 Times contributors signed on to a separate letter critiquing the paper’s approach to trans issues.

Now, a year later, the problems at the Times are continuing. GLAAD noted that the Pamela Paul article has been debunked by journalists and medical experts pointing out the rarity of transition regret. Meanwhile, Paul’s piece has been cited by the state of Idaho, represented by the anti-LGBTQ+ Alliance Defending Freedom, in a legal brief defending the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.

Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT & HIV Project, posted on Instagram about the article’s use in the court case. “I am exhausted by the ongoing insistence to center misinformation about trans care and to give outsized attention to the minority of people who regret care,” he said.

In his column in Thursday’sTimes, Strangio pointed out the continuing legislative assault on LGBTQ+ people, with more than 400 state-level bills introduced this year, many of them specifically targeting trans people. Utah has already passed one restricting restroom use, and these bills are harmful even when they don’t pass because they provide an opportunity for lies and hate about trans people to circulate, he noted. In addition, members of Congress and Republican presidential candidates are talking about taking anti-trans laws nationwide, he wrote.

This comes at a time when film and television are making trans people more visible than ever, Strangio added, citing Will Ferrell’s documentary Will & Harper, exploring the actor’s friendship with trans woman Harper Steele, which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

“While the trans community and our allies can and should celebrate trans people on the red carpet and on our favorite TV shows, we can’t lose sight of the fact of each bill contributing to a political movement that imagines a world without us,” Strangio concluded.

The GLAAD-led coalition’s letter to the Times last year asked that the paper stop printing biased anti-trans stories immediately, hold a meeting with trans community leaders within two months, and hire at least four full-time trans writers and editors within three months. It appears that the Times has taken none of these actions, according to GLAAD’s new release. A digital billboard was stationed in front of the Times headquarters Thursday echoing these messages.