It has almost become a weekend ritual at this point. Put the coffee on, choose a record and open the blinds and test the heat of the sun on my face through the window as it rises to meet the day. Check to see what panic the New York Times is stoking about trans people.
These are stories with titles that stoke fear in the hearts of those with pearls already tightly clutched in their hands, like the recent When Students Change Gender Identity and Parents Don’t Know. A title that creates dissent and confusion, framing parents as hapless victims in a cultural war run loose from its shackles. Within the text of these stories, important context is removed entirely in favor of illustrating a bias, one that seeks to misrepresent the true reality of the situation as it pertains to the current battle for trans people, trans youth most notably, to have autonomy over their bodies.
This is why, today, an open letter is circulating that’s signed by over 180 writers and journalists demanding action on the clear bias in reporting on trans issues in the New York Times.
There are currently countless bills being introduced in state legislatures across the country that aim to paint broad targets on trans lives, seeking to impose the rule of law on trans youth accessing healthcare, engaging in sport or using washrooms that will be safe for them. There are attempts to make it illegal to present as anything other than your sex assigned at birth, loosely using drag as the impetus within which they can once again make it illegal to be trans in public. For trans people, it is an everyday reality to see the nature of these laws change in front of us as we remain powerless to do anything to stop their ceaseless spread nationwide and beyond.
And within the pages of the New York Times, long referred to as the paper of record, the lives of trans people are adjudicated without cause or concern. Sources are either not vetted or worse still, misrepresented within the context of the article. Such as people like Grace Lidinksy-Smith, a quoted source in the story The Battle Over Gender Therapy, who is not also named as the president of GCCAN, an activist organization that pushes junk science and partners with explicitly anti-trans hate groups.
What is missing in the pages of the great gray lady is not just important and necessary context, but competent and unbiased reporting. Trans people are often told we are too close to stories about our own lives and that it creates a bias, one which impedes our ability to correctly report on our stories. It is trans writers and reporters, many of whom are freelance and work tirelessly, who are the ones finding details, correcting stories, and adding context. Many of them do so at their own peril and expense, none of them have staff positions at prestigious newsrooms that carry the kind of weight the New York Times does.
We are informed of our bias and left at arms length from being able to contribute in any meaningful fashion to reported stories about the truth and reality of trans lives and yet, somehow, those with a bias against us are trusted sources used again and again and relied on to give honest testimonial to all the destructive promise of trans people living free.
There are in fact multiple instances of articles from the New York Times that cause dissent and panic about trans lives appearing in briefs of laws and acts that seek to control and eradicate trans lives. The New York Times is treated as the most prestigious and reliable source of information, a paper that hits with added heft when it drops on a courtroom table. The paper of record.
This has been an issue ongoing for some time now, the clear anti-trans bias at the New York Times a well known issue amongst many. The rare moment of respite we receive, like a recent op-ed by Jamelle Bouie with the excellent There Is No Dignity In This Kind of America, is foisted onto those the New York Times wishes to use as their conscience. But still, there are few to no trans voices present in the New York Times offering anything counter to their dominant narrative.
It’s with all this that a coalition of writers, past and current New York Times contributors themselves, organized to write a long and beautiful letter outlining the ongoing situation with the paper, showing clearly and plainly where the damage has been wrought by such a house of prestige and acclaim. To date, there are 180 signatures on the letter, not just trans writers and reporters but brave and stalwart allies. All demanding something more for the representation of our lives than the disastrous display shown so far. Stating our resentment at the light with which we are cast and the callous treatment we have received. We are a small percentage of a population that has somehow earned the heat of a magnifying lens so immense and powerful.
I am a signatory on the letter as well, and I am glad and thankful to be not alone and to be counted among many of the greatest writers and thinkers of our generation. There is also, parallel to this action, a protest happening live in front of the New York Times building as headed up by GLAAD. We have endured the slings and arrows of the bias shown in the New York Times for some time.
And it ends today.
Read the letter here: nytletter.com
Signed and shared! Thank you for covering this, Niko.
This is so goddam good thank you Niko! 💥💥💥
So glad to see this (and so frustrating that it’s necessary). Thanks for sharing the link
Went and tossed my non-contributing name onto the list.
It would be nice if we could have one mainstream outlet on our side.
After years of subscribing to the times, and genuinely loving their cooking hub with its warmth and wealth of recipes, I finally canceled my subscription over their trans coverage, and let them know why when I was doing it. I can’t keep coming back to that paper and seeing it try to make me and the people I love into some kind of cultural demon. Thanks for sharing this—so glad that at least we’re trying to get them to listen. I hope they do.
I disagree with you.
You appear to be lost. Perhaps you should stick to the countless places on the internet that agree with your charming “opinions”
<3 Fresh <3
<3 Back at you <3
Congrats? You’re allowed to disagree? Thanks for engaging with a piece you weren’t sure you agreed with in the first place and expressing your conclusion politely, that’s more than most people are willing to do.
i’m glad this is happening. i have zero confidence that the times will respond meaningfully or adequately at this point, but i hope they prove me wrong.
signed and shared! thanks Niko for writing about this
Signed!
Here to join the chorus saying thank you <3 Thank you for covering this, Niko!
Gross, they’ve published an article defending JowlingKowling today.
Yep, and today they posted response letters to that. Some great ones, put in counterpoint with some terrible ones, like they’re on even footing.
Between this letter and that exactly ONE day later they published the “In Defense of JKR” Opinion Piece, I said goodbye to my NYT subscription. It was easy and I could do it over chat so my reason for leaving is recorded accurately. Remember to join/renew A+ and support queer-run, independent media!
Maybe the Times should now be referred to as the Paper of the Status Quo or something. Cause they sure hate change & progressing with society.
The NYT thought Hitler was great too back in the day. They said, “Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so violent or genuine as it sounded.” That is the same tone news outlets are taking with Ron DeSantis. “He is using his machismo to build his brand.” No…he’s tipping his hat to Orban and doing exactly what he did to destroy Hungary. It’s the authoritarian playbook – dismantle education, rewrite history, target specific groups, make life uncomfortable for everyone but those that fall in line.
The NYT has zero credibility when it comes to actually being against authoritarianism. For that matter, not many other news sites do either. A troubled world brings people to your newsfeed, or TV channel. What they see as ad dollars and revenue, is hurting actual people on the ground. By the time they discuss the damage and dangers it’s too late.
History repeats itself. It always does. That’s why that saying exists. It’s no different here with the NYT and trans rights. They, and many others, are purposefully turning the other way because they don’t see how it impacts them. It’s ignorance and arrogance. Trans rights affects everyone. It really is that simple.
“Trans people are often told we are too close to stories about our own lives and that it creates a bias, one which impedes our ability to correctly report on our stories.”
Sooooo black people are not able to correctly report on racism, queer ppl on homophobia, etc? Yup that checks out.
jfc the “arguments” these people come up with are so fucking dumb.
Signed xx
The NYT response to the letter, and the one from GLAAD, was excessively snotty and dismissive, with maybe a whiff of threat too. And then the Rowling-fawning, making sure she doesn’t sue them in case there’s an unkind word against her somewhere in the rag.
The New York Times is Fox News for the Downton Abbey crowd.
The most vile part of that JKR opinion piece was when she tried to say that criticising a writer’s prejudices could lead to stabbings. This was a few days after a young trans girl was stabbed in the UK, likely as a result of the rampant trans moral panic stoked by the British media.
Disgusting behaviour. Nothing will get these people to stop. The British media are dreadful. Papers like the Guardian think it is ok for them to platform transphobes and their vile opinions because they interview trans People and trans supporting people too. Like it’s a both sides thing. It makes me so angry.