Pinned between activists and an ever more inconvenient set of facts, the New York Times has often shied away from treating the surge in transgender identification as the fascinating news story it is. All the news that’s fit to print — unless we risk making anyone uncomfortable, in other words.
Over the past few years, the paper of record has made just a few tentative forays into serious reporting on the trans issue. In the summer of 2022, Emily Bazelon took a deep dive into the controversy over how to understand and treat gender-dysphoric youth. A November 2022 piece questioned the potential risks of puberty blockers. Just over a year ago, reporter Katie J. M. Baker explored the issue of schools socially transitioning students without informing their parents.
These articles — which would have been utterly unremarkable in their lines of inquiry and methods had they concerned any other subject under the sun — attracted intense criticism from New York Times staffers as well as outside activist groups like GLAAD, which accused the paper of “questioning trans people’s right to exist.” GLAAD even parked a truck outside the Times’ offices in midtown Manhattan to protest. Even the most cautious reporting — so the activists argue — can kill.
Today, the Times returned to the subject, printing an in-depth story by Pamela Paul titled: “As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do.”
The writer introduces the reader to three young people who transitioned as teenagers: Grace, Kasey, and Paul. To anyone who has followed this issue, their stories are achingly familiar in their outlines. Grace was isolated, bullied, and depressed. “Puberty made everything worse.” Online, Grace discovered the idea that she might be trans and seized on that explanation for the sense of wrongness she felt. She came to believe that if she didn’t transition, she would kill herself. Gender clinicians — rather than trying to understand the sources of Grace’s distress — affirmed her self-rejection.
Kasey “transitioned because I didn’t want to be gay.” She had experienced sexual abuse in early childhood and struggled with anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation — experiences she shared with her medical providers that did not in any way interfere with their rapid affirmation of her new identity with testosterone and a double mastectomy.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe