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https://hellgatenyc.com/new-york-times-writers-call-out-the-papers-anti-trans-onslaught>
'On Wednesday morning, a group of almost 200 journalists and writers released
an open letter addressed to the New York Times, sharing their "serious concerns
about editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting on transgender, non-binary,
and gender nonconforming people" and criticizing how the Times has "follow[ed]
the lead of far-right hate groups in presenting gender diversity as a new
controversy warranting new, punitive legislation."
The open letter, whose signees include regular contributors to the Times and
prominent writers and journalists like Ed Yong, Lucy Sante, Roxane Gay, and
Rebecca Solnit, comes at a time when far-right extremist groups and their
analogues in state legislatures are ramping up their attacks on trans young
people; just yesterday, South Dakota became the sixth state to ban or restrict
gender-affirming care for youth, efforts that one conservative activist
recently acknowledged was merely the first step toward their goal of banning
transition care altogether.
In recent years and months, the Times has decided to play an outsized role in
laundering anti-trans narratives and seeding the discourse with those
narratives, publishing tens of thousands of handwringing words on trans
youth—reporting that is now approvingly cited and lauded, as the letter writers
note, by those who seek to ban and criminalize gender-affirming care.
As the critic Tom Scocca wrote of the Times' reporting, "This is pretty
obviously—and yet not obviously enough—a plain old-fashioned newspaper crusade.
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." He then asked:
"If it's not a problem, why else would it be in the paper?"
Why indeed. Hell Gate spoke with Jo Livingstone, an award-winning critic and
writer who helped organize the open letter, on their criticisms of the New York
Times reporting, why they think the Times is laundering anti-trans narratives,
and what the letter signers hope to achieve.'
Via Kevin O'Brien.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
