A recent article serves as a greatest-hits album of all of the New York Times’ problematic coverage on adolescent gender-affirming care.
The New York Times helped fuel an anti-trans panic in 2022. Will 2023 be any better?
Perhaps no mainstream publication did more in 2022 than the New York Times to shift the mainstream conversation around transgender equality away from obstacles to access in housing, employment, and health care and toward the idea that the most pressing issue facing the trans community is actually too much medical care. The paper’s venerable pages featured profile after profile that platformed anti-trans extremists, fearmongered about the price of transgender acceptance, and framed rising trans identification as a social contagion. A recent article that centers the concerns of parents calling for the forced outing of transgender students shows why in 2023, the Times must improve its coverage.
NYT’s Anti-Trans Bias—by the Numbers
The New York Times used its front-page coverage primarily to wonder whether trans people's rights and access to healthcare have gone too far.
NYT Less Interested Than Ever in Trans Perspectives on Trans Issues
Even while feigning concern, the paper of record remains largely uninterested in centering trans people and perspectives in coverage of trans issues.
New York Times Sign On Letter | GLAAD
From LGBTQ and allied leaders and organizations Join 100+ organizations and leaders in calling on the New York Times to improve their coverage of transgender people, click here. 4/22/2026 - Mother of Transgender Teen Confronts New York Times Leadership about Inaccurate, Weaponized Reporting of Transgender People: “What Steps Are You Taking to be Accountable?” 6/5/2025
Fact-Checking False Claims about our Gender Identity Coverage | The New York Times Company
A recent post from Trans News Network included numerous falsehoods about New York Times stories on gender identity and maligned some of the journalists involved in the work. Our coverage is guided by…
NYT Misses What’s True and Important About an Anti-Trans School Resolution
Like most New York Times articles about trans politics that FAIR has analyzed, the piece marginalized the voices of those most impacted.
Seen but not heard: The New York Times failed to quote trans people in over 60% of 2023 stories on anti-trans legislation
A new report from Media Matters and GLAAD finds that The New York Times excluded the perspectives of trans people from two-thirds of its stories about anti-trans legislation in the year following public criticism for its handling of the topic. Media Matters previously reported that the Times helped fuel a right-wing anti-trans panic in 2022 by platforming anti-trans extremists, painting rising transgender identification as a social contagion, and fearmongering about the costs of transgender acceptance. In February 2023, the paper received two separate open letters: one from a coalition of 150+ organizations and leaders, including GLAAD, and a separate letter signed by hundreds of Times contributors that criticized the outlet's contributions to a deadly anti-LGBTQ culture war. The newspaper attempted to conflate both efforts, dismissing all criticisms of its coverage as merely “protests organized by advocacy groups.” Between February 15, 2023, when those letters were separately delivered to the Times, and February 15, 2024, the Times published at least 65 articles that mentioned U.S. anti-trans legislation in either their headline or lead paragraphs. We counted how often the paper quoted openly trans or gender-nonconforming sources, cited anti-trans misinformation or talking points without context or adequate fact-checking, and accurately represented the records of anti-trans figures mentioned in its stories. Our findings: 66% of the articles did not quote even one trans or gender-nonconforming person. 18% of the articles quoted misinformation from anti-trans activists without adequate fact-checking or additional context. 6 articles obscured the anti-trans background of sources, erasing histories of extremist rhetoric or actions.
The New York Times neglects accountability after letters call out its anti-trans coverage
The New York Times dismissed as advocacy two open letters with now thousands of signatories that raise concerns about the Times’ well-documented role in a burgeoning culture war against transgender people — a charge punctuated by the publication of a new opinion piece defending children’s author J.K. Rowling against accusations of anti-trans hatred.
New study finds Canadian trans youth rarely detransition | Xtra Magazine
A group of Canadian researchers found that 97 percent of youth who seek treatment for gender dysphoria still identify as trans years later
Anti-Trans Bills Keep Citing the New York Times
"By any objective measure, the paper seems clearly devoted to advocating against this care."
Trans Journalists Association Stylebook and Coverage Guide
The Transgender Journalists Association’s Stylebook and Coverage Guide is a tool reporters, editors, and other journalists can use to improve news coverage of trans people and the stories that affect them.
NY Times cited 29 times to justify decision limiting trans healthcare
Meanwhile, other mainstream media newsrooms treated the U.S. v. Skrmetti case as an opportunity to center coverage around the expected result.
Debunking every Anti Transgender Argument Part 1: Trans Women in Women's Sport
Google subsidizing hate group’s anti-trans and anti-diversity ads
Google’s Ad Grants program subsidizes advertisements by the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Do No Harm, including sponsored search results for the group’s so-called “Detransitioner Bill of Rights,” according to a search of Google’s ad transparency data.1 Do No Harm’s model policy, the “Detransitioner Bill of Rights,” wrongly suggests that gender-affirming healthcare can “contribute” to distress among […]
Stability of Transgender Identity in Adolescents Seen in Multidisciplinary Specialized Gender Centers: A Multicenter Study in Canada
To determine the proportions of adolescents continuing with their gender identity after referral to specialized gender clinics, the proportion continuing with gender-affirming hormones, and the proportion who detransition.
I Fact-Checked The New York Times' Response to the Trans News Network, So You Don't Have To
TNN’s recent interview with Billie Jean Sweeney cut to the heart of The New York Times’ transphobic coverage. Seems like she hit a sore spot.
