By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
For trans people, the question isn’t “Are trans advocates being too loud and strident,” but “How am I going to survive the next four years under Trump?” Riki Wilchins says.
The New York Times is at it again: “To get on the wrong side of transgender activists is often to endure their unsparing criticism…”
And to prove just how intolerant we are, writer Jeremy Peters offers up uber transphobe J.K. Rowling, Rep. Seth Moulton whom the Times says wants to blame the election loss on us (he says he doesn’t), and one trans person (one trans person??) who got heated on a White House conference call? As Rocky asked, “Is that all you got?”
Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.
The Times should be covering something actually new….as in news. Like that after nearly 2,000 state anti-trans laws have been introduced, Texas just introduced 32 more just this week. It’s the kind of story that would once have been broken by the New York Times but instead was broken by trans legislative blogger Erin Reed.
As always the “both sides-ism” of the Times is shattering. Right-wing extremists are introducing thousands of bills, literally burning books, practicing domestic terrorism that includes armed militia shutting kids’ Drag Queen Story Hours, and phoning in bomb threats that have closed 33 schools and hospitals to date.
But at the Times the big news is that trans people are pushing back by sending hundreds, maybe thousands, of really really angry tweets and emails, and aggressively protesting because they fear they will be scapegoated and the Democrats will back peddle on their rights, just when the Times is scapegoating them and Democrats are backpedaling on their rights.
The reality is that right now, the trans people I know are all trying to figure out how to get through the next four years.
For us, the question isn’t “Are trans advocates being too loud and strident,” but “How am I going to survive the next four years under Project 2025?” and “How far is down?”
Since no one knows the answers to these questions because we’ve never seen the power of the federal government used to attack one percent of the population, everyone who can is making plans to be elsewhere.
My wife and I began exploring moving to California after the hormones I’d been on for half a century suddenly became harder to get here in Florida and I was reduced to stockpiling them thanks some friendly “estrogen mules” in Mexico City.
And for the first time, anti-trans hate messages have appeared on the sidewalks around my home in sunny South Beach, a gay mecca. Anti-trans hatred is now mainstream, and it’s fashionable.
So what can we do?
The Times’ promotion of the need for incremental change and its comparison of trans rights to gay marriage have merit. But the truth is, we’re stuck in a generational fight that will take decades, just like marriage or“don’t ask, don’t tell.” And it will be more brutal than either one of these. In fact — with 2,000 anti-trans laws already introduced in red states targeting everything from name change, pronouns, to sports, bathroom use, and affirming medical care — it already is.
And while there are many ways to make progress — from direct action (a “pee-in” at the Capitol in protest the targeting of Rep. Sarah McBride, perhaps) to state and local level education and activism, let’s be clear: Media is critical.
The blame for much of where we are lands on — you guessed it — the NY Times. The Times was an early leader in the 1990s on supporting the emerging trans rights movement. But under publisher A. G. Sulzberger it now continues pushing the national conversation towards skepticism of trans people and criticism of their actions. And unfortunately, it still exercises an outsized impact on a large swath of the public and the media itself.
Media Matters’ Ari Drennan once charged the Times with being the leading publication at shifting national dialog on trans rights away from housing, employment, and health care and towards the lie that the biggest problem was “too much medical care.”
Since this is the third such article in the Times in just the past week on how trans people are somehow bullying the nation, it’s fair to add that no publication is doing more shift the conversation away from the real fears of the coming effort to wipe trans people out of civil existence and towards the idea that the biggest problem is trans people being too assertive in pushing back on it.
Or as Tom Scocca put it more pungently, “I really wish I could pound into the heads of the people at the Times that some of us are neither trans nor activist but just think their trans coverage is dogshit journalism, as journalism.”
Riki Wilchins is the founder of The Transexual Menace, the first large direct action group for trans rights and GenderPAC, the first national political organization devoted to issues of "gender identity and expression" and representing the transgender community. She writes regularly on trans issues and politics at www.medium.com/@rikiwichins. Her latest book is Bad Ink: How the New York Times Sold Out Transgender Teens.
Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ and Allied community. Visit pride.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.
