Inside the New York Times’ trans coverage: ‘I wonder if people at the top fully believe in trans people’s humanity’
Insiders say the Gray Lady is ‘too excited to question whether or not it’s OK to be trans’
Soleil Ho
Updated: Aug. 31, 2023 9:44 a.m.

Members of El/La Para TransLatinas walk in the 2022 San Francisco Trans March. Critics say the New York Times’ coverage of trans issues mirrors right-wing talking points.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle 2022

Back in March, the Chronicle held a community feedback session in its newsroom for trans San Franciscans to speak to our journalists about what the media was getting wrong about their lives. They bemoaned a lack of trans reporters and articles that read more like medical records than human stories. Most urgently, attendees discussed how some news outlets have elevated extremist right-wing talking points about trans people, helping turn their very existence into an inflammatory cultural debate.

“Don’t let them capture your platform,” one person implored.

“Not like what’s happened with the New York Times,” was the quiet part that no one said out loud.

Over the past few years, as the Republican Pary has embarked on a state-by-state campaign to systematically push trans people out of public life, critics say the country’s leading newspaper has played along. Coverage has ranged from features overplaying the health risks of chest binding, a nonsurgical method of flattening one’s chest, to opinion columns reframing gender inclusivity as misogyny.

“Month after month, story after story, the Times is pouring its attention and resources into the message that there is something seriously concerning about the way young people who identify as trans are receiving care,” wrote Tom Scocca of Popula, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
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"Biological Clothing" - Dress Codes Espoused By UK TERFs, US Conservatives
In a Sex Matters event in the Manchester, England, "Gender Critical" activists espoused gendered dress codes. The same is being pushed by US conservatives. Here's how these policies affect us all.



ERIN REED
SEP 21, 2023

Sex based uniforms are also lawful,” a slide proclaimed at a Sex Matters event in Manchester, England. “Children’s actual sex must be known by everyone in the school environment.” Meanwhile, in the United States, Harrison County School District made headlines when it announced that students would be forced to dress in clothing “consistent with their biological sex.” In Texas, the department of agriculture released a letter to employees, requiring all state employees in the department to “comply with this dress code in a manner consistent with their biological sex.” Those who oppose the existence and visibility of transgender people in public life now seemingly have turned their efforts of gender conformity to everyone.

In a Manchester museum, the Sex Matters event unfurled, steered by ardent campaigners against transgender rights, Helen Joyce and Maya Forstater. Among the aims of the events were items such as “the fight to make sure the law protects women’s rights.” Interestingly, the gathering presented a distinct dress code for its attendees: “Be the billboard for sex-based rights (Adult Human Female; This Witch Doesn’t Burn – or your preferred slogan); embody the spirit of the Suffragettes in tones of purple, green, and white; or wear whatever you like” (emphasis added). While giving the presentation, Maya Forstater could be seen in a relaxed pose, donned in trousers and sandals. Behind her, a slide loomed, advocating for stringent measures on social transition for trans people in schools. The restrictions espoused included “Sex-based rules” relating to restroom usage, pronouns, and attire, even barring students from donning “the uniform of the opposite sex.”

Meanwhile in the U.S., a flurry of gender-conformity laws and policies have emerged, seemingly in response to the rising visibility of transgender people. Earlier this year in Mississippi, a transgender girl was told she would be barred from her own graduation walk because she desired to wear the same dress the other girls were wearing. On graduation day, a cisgender girl met a similar fate, this time for her decision to wear pants. In the midst of this, her grandmother voiced her anguish: “I don’t understand how a moment this important can be taken away from a child that’s worked 12 years to get here.” The district has since solidified its clothing policies, stating that all students must wear clothing “consistent with their biological sex.”

Increasingly, policies that were originally aimed at transgender people are now being aimed at all of society. Major influencers in the modern anti-trans panic such as Ben Shapiro have advocated for local laws dictating what men and women can wear in public. PragerU, recently contracted out to major school districts, advocates for gendered dress codes. Yet, this shift isn't confined to dress codes alone.

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The GOP Has a Master Plan to Criminalize Being Trans
[size=50]By Brynn Tannehill
Aug 14, 2023[/size]

A coalition of powerful conservative organizations have put together a 900-plus-page playbook that maps out their strategy to enact a sweeping "Don't Say Gay" policy that will eradicate queer and trans lives and destroy democracy, if given the power. We can't let them.


‘Most people aren’t aware of Project 2025, or its playbook, “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise”—but you need to be. In stark terms, Project 2025 reveals the conservatives’ plan to enact a sweeping “Don’t Say Gay” policy that will effectively blot out all LGBTQ content on the internet as well as any published material with LGBTQ content, no matter how benign.

Project 2025 is a coalition of prominent conservative organizations that includes the Claremont Institute, Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Research Council, Hillsdale College, Heritage Foundation, Freedom Works, American Legislative Exchange Council, American Principles Project, and dozens of others. The organization’s goal is to lay out a “first 180 days” agenda for the next administration, and to recruit conservatives to fill positions within the federal government appointed by the executive branch.

“The Mandate for Leadership” is a 920-page document that details how the next Republican administration will implement radical and sweeping changes to the entirety of government. This blueprint assumes that the next president will be able to rule by fiat under the unitary executive theory (which posits that the president has the power to control the entire federal executive branch). It is also based on the premise that the next president will implement Schedule F, which allows the president to fire any federal employee who has policy-making authority, and replace them with a presidential appointee who is not voted on in the Senate.

The document is basically a wish list for social conservatives and mega corporations. The business wish list calls for eliminating federal agencies, stripping those that remain of regulatory power, and deregulating industries. The president would directly manage and influence Department of Justice and FBI cases, which would allow him to pursue criminal cases against political enemies. Environmental law would be gutted, and states would be prevented from enforcing their own environmental laws.’

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