Some of us suspected the following. It looks like we were right.
I guess that can be seen as some comfort.
From THEM:
Former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney has alleged that the paper of record’s management pushed writers to espouse anti-trans viewpoints. Sweeney, who is trans, worked for the Times for 11 years. Prior to her retirement in 2024, she served as the day assignment editor at the outlet’s international desk.
During a Trans News Network interview published on January 1, Sweeney claimed that the Times’ current anti-trans push began in 2022, through a new masthead assembled by executive editor Joe Kahn, publisher A.G. Sulzberger, and managing editor Carolyn Ryan. At that time, the paper began publishing a series of stories that “challenged every aspect of being trans,” from gender-inclusive language to medical science. In response, the Times received two open letters in February 2023, in which hundreds of signatories condemned its anti-trans coverage — including over 200 Times contributors. Days later, the publication responded by running a defense of Harry Potter author and notorious transphobe J.K. Rowling.
. . . Over the next year, the Times still failed to actively include trans people in its trans coverage. A March 2024 report by GLAAD and the watchdog group Media Matters for America (MMFA) found that the paper had failed to quote a single trans person in two-thirds of its articles on anti-trans legislation over the 12 months following the open letter, despite publishing at least 65 articles focusing on or featuring anti-trans legislation. Of those articles, 66% didn’t feature any quotes from a trans or gender non-conforming person, and 18% quoted anti-trans misinformation from conservative sources without added context.
. . . Sweeney also pointed to the Times’ response to the infamous Cass Review, an April 2024 U.K. report on gender-affirming care for minors which claimed that evidence in support of medical treatment like puberty blockers is “shaky.” The report has faced condemnation from advocates, professional medical groups, and researchers for its “deeply flawed” methodology.
According to Sweeney, her international desk counterpart in London initially assigned a U.K. correspondent to cover the Cass Report’s publication. Although the correspondent’s reporting acknowledged that the Cass Review was a “very contentious, very political” document, within a few hours, Times editors reassigned the story to the science desk — more specifically, to Azeen Ghorayshi, “a key reporter in a lot of other anti-trans coverage.”
Later in the article, Sweeney pointed the finger at Sulzberger, claiming that he was the main person who pushed for the anti-trans slant because he saw it as a political project which the right-wing and the Trump campaign would like.
Historically speaking, this isn't the first time The New York Times served as a roadblock to fair and objective LGBTQ coverage. Abe Rosenthal, who served as executive editor from 1977 to 1986 was described as a "raging homophobe" whose personal bias led to the NYT ignoring the AIDS crisis in its early days.
According to author Larry Gross:
Abe Rosenthal’s homophobia was felt at the Times in two ways: It ensured that lesbian and gay reporters stayed firmly in the closet, and that the word “gay” was not used in the paper to describe gay people. . . The word crept into news stories and headlines from time to time, but the paper’s official policy ruled the word “gay” out of order, while at the same time the gay liberation movement was exploding all around it. Rosenthal was not limited in his biases to anti-gay prejudice — he also refused to allow the word “Ms.” to be used until 1986 — but his homophobia proved tragic when the AIDS crisis erupted on his watch.
As the AIDS epidemic began to emerge, the silence of the media in general, and of The New York Times in particular, contributed to the magnitude of the unfolding tragedy. Although the death toll mounted in the early 1980s, the Times maintained a disdainful distance. As gay journalist Michelangelo Signorile put it, “Rosenthal, who attacks anti-Semitism in the media, never realized that the way he was treating the AIDS epidemic wasn’t much different from the way that news organizations treated the Holocaust early on.”
Related post - “A Shameful Chapter”: How Anti-Trans Disinformation Drowned Out Science and Gripped the Mainstream
