The New York Times Fails to Include Trans Voices in Majority of Articles About Trans Issues | GLAAD
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Today, Media Matters for America and GLAAD released a new study finding that The New York Times failed to quote a trans person in 66% of its stories about anti-trans legislation from February 15, 2023, through February 15, 2024.
“The paper of record has an obligation to present its readers with the full human toll of the anti-trans legislative assault,” said Ari Drennen, LGBTQ Program Director at Media Matters. “Trans people are more than theoretical curiosities to be debated from afar. Each and every anti-trans bill affects living, breathing people whose voices deserve to be heard and whose stories deserve to be told.”
Last February, a coalition of more than 150 organizations and leaders, including GLAAD, launched an open letter to the New York Times critiquing its coverage of transgender people and issues. In a wholly separate effort, hundreds of Times contributors launched a letter critiquing the Times’ trans coverage.
One year later, the Times has failed to meet any of the coalition’s demands, which were:
- Stop printing anti-trans articles [they have not stopped]
- Meet with leaders from the transgender community within one month [one year later, no meeting]
- Hire trans writers and editors [does not appear to have happened]
“The New York Times did not quote any transgender people in a majority of their articles about anti-trans legislation in the past year,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President & CEO of GLAAD. “One of the first recommendations we make during the hundreds of LGBTQ education briefings we hold with national and local newsrooms is to include LGBTQ voices in LGBTQ stories: interview the people impacted by your coverage and include their perspectives. The New York Times failed that basic reporting lesson 101, and replaced it with a pattern of obfuscating sources’ anti-trans affiliations and allowing their misinformation to go unchecked. Our coalition of more than 150 organizations, community leaders, and notable LGBTQ people and allies remains steadfast in our calls for the Times to improve their coverage of transgender people.”
Key findings from the study:
- Two-thirds – 66% — of the articles did not quote even one trans or gender-nonconforming person.
- Only 1 of 19 articles covering anti-trans legislation from July through September quoted a single member of the community.
- 18% of the articles included anti-trans misinformation in quotes without adequate fact-checking or additional context.
- One example of this comes from The New York Times’ coverage of a Florida law banning gender-affirming care for minors that repeatedly quoted DeSantis spreading anti-trans misinformation. In one instance, the Times quoted, without challenge or correction, the governor’s false claim that “gender-affirming care” is a euphemism for “sex-change operations.” Two other articles quoted DeSantis’ false and baseless claim that offering gender-affirming care to children amounts to “sexualizing” them. Only one of the articles clearly notes that the care is mainstream care supported by every major medical association, or that it can involve years of noninvasive support and mental health care.
- 6 of the articles neglected to report the anti-trans background of sources, erasing histories of extremist rhetoric or actions.
- One example of this comes from an April 12 story about a North Dakota law banning trans girls and women from participating in women’s sports. In the story, The New York Times quoted a member of North Dakota Can, an organization that has falsely called LGBTQ pride “predatory” and has ranted about “child predator apologists” in “Big Education.” Despite the organization’s documented record of false rhetoric, The New York Times merely identified it as a “conservative advocacy group.”
Read the full study here: https://www.mediamatters.org/new-york-times/seen-not-heard-new-york-times-failed-quote-trans-people-over-60-2023-stories-anti
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