New York Times called out – inaccurate, harmful trans coverage

Destiny Rogers 18 February 2023

On Wednesday, the New York Times received an open letter signed by almost 1,000 of the paper’s own contributors calling out the platform’s biased trans coverage.

Tens of thousands of the paper’s subscribers also signed the letter. Additionally, over 120 community organisations and prominent individuals signed another letter echoing the call for an end to misinformation.

The following day, a billboard truck circled the paper’s Manhattan office displaying related messages. One said, “Dear New York Times: Stop questioning trans people’s right to exist & access medical care.”

The letters included examples of direct negative impacts caused by irresponsible coverage in the New York Times. Legislators in Texas, Arkansas and Nebraska have all quoted New York Times articles as justification for anti-trans legislation.

Opinion presented as objective fact

GLAAD published examples of biased coverage in the paper.

The Times Science Desk, for example, regularly presents the opinions of non-experts as objective facts. The paper thereby ignores the overwhelming consensus support for trans healthcare among major medical associations.

Rather the New York Times publishes opinion pieces by non-expert anti-trans writers who pen sensational beat-ups about ‘social contagion’ and ‘trans regret’.

The increased trans coverage in the New York Times comes at a time of unprecedented hate campaigns against trans people in the US. Republican politicians relentlessly attack trans people as a key plank of the party’s electoral strategy.

Hate is contagious and the tactic has spread globally with far-right Australian politicians among those jumping on the bandwagon.