A YEAR IN REVIEW: THE NEW YORK TIMES FAILED TO QUOTE ANY OUT TRANS PERSON IN TWO-THIRDS OF STORIES ABOUT ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATION

The New York Times continued to exclude perspectives of trans people from its stories about anti-trans legislation after public criticism of its coverage

WASHINGTON, D.C. – One year after The New York Times faced public criticism for its handling of coverage of transgender people and dismissed two separate open letters as merely “protests organized by advocacy groups,” a new study from Media Matters for America and GLAAD found that the newspaper 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.” 

In February 2023, The New York Times 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.

This study reviewed coverage for a full year starting on February 15, 2023, when both letters were separately delivered, until February 15, 2024, The New York Times published at least 65 articles that mentioned U.S. anti-trans legislation in either their headline or lead paragraphs.

“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 the governor’s false claim that  “gender-affirming care” is a euphemism for “sex-change operations.” Two other articles quoted DeSantis’ claim that offering gender-affirming care to children amounts to “sexualizing” them.

• 6 of the articles identified obscured 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 called LGBTQ pride “predatory” and has ranted about “child predator apologists” in “Big Education.” Despite the organization’s radical record, The New York Times merely identified it merely as a “conservative advocacy group.” 

READ THE FULL STUDY AND SEE ALL FINDINGS HERE: https://www.mediamatters.org/new-york-times/seen-not-heard-new-york-times-failed-quote-trans-people-over-60-2023-stories-anti

With more than 470 bills targeting LGBTQ people having already been introduced by state legislatures around the country in 2024, The New York Times has a responsibility to not feed a moral panic that is being seeded by right-wing media about trans identity and instead should focus on improving its coverage by centering the voices of those being impacted by these harmful bills.

Media Matters looked at how often the paper quoted openly trans or gender-nonconforming sources, instances in which articles cited anti-trans misinformation or talking points without context or adequate fact-checking, and whether the paper accurately represented the records of anti-trans figures mentioned in its stories. READ THE FULL METHODOLOGY HERE.

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The Media Matters LGBTQ Program monitors and researches media coverage of LGBTQ issues and LGBTQ-related narratives at the local, state, and national levels with a focus on dismantling conservative misinformation harmful to the LGBTQ community.

For more information about the Media Matters LGBTQ program, visit: https://www.mediamatters.org/lgbtq.