Ex-New York Times editor claims senior staff are ‘militant’ about their anti-trans stance
The New York Times has frequently faced criticism for its anti-trans reporting. (Getty)
The New York Times has frequently faced criticism for its anti-trans reporting. (Getty)
A former New York Times editor has claimed the newspaper’s management is “militant” about their anti-trans views.
Trans journalist and campaigner Billie Jean Sweeney claimed senior staff members at the 175-year-old news publication’s shut down “all avenues” of internal criticism over its reporting of trans issues in the lead-up to the 2024 US election.
Speaking to Trans News Network, she said the organisation allowed staff to raise questions and criticisms over senior staff decisions through “Employee Resource Groups” but subsequently shut the groups down.
“One the things that happened was that [NYT chairman A.G. Sulzberger] kind of came around and gave a stump speech to every part of the paper, including the international desk,” Sweeney claimed. “He talked for 40 minutes about how we were going to cover the election ‘fairly’ and that sort of thing. The international desk wasn’t really that involved in the coverage of the election, so it was a little off-key for us. We were all like, ‘why are we talking about this?'”
Around the same time, Sulzberger reportedly gave a speech at the Reuters Foundation in March 2024 claiming the New York Times had “protected” young people through its coverage of trans youth.
Sweeney said things only escalated from there, claiming that pockets of dissent from NYT’s views on trans rights were silenced through “militant” actions such as the cancellation of internal forums for voicing opinions.
The American publication’s infamous trans reporting has routinely faced criticism from a variety of human rights groups, campaigners, and media watchdogs.
In 2023, a coalition of more than 100 LGBTQ+ organisations signed an open-letter accusing the New York Times of frequently publishing inaccurate and biased articles about trans people which, they wrote, endanger the rights and safety of the community.
Journalist Ari Drennen noted in 2023 that one of the outlet’s articles, which contained misinformation about trans youth care, had been used to justify a Missouri executive order heavily restricting gender-affirming care for trans under-18s.
The open letter demanded that NYT stop printing anti-trans stories “immediately” and instead listen to members of the community.
It also demanded the publication hire at least four full-time trans writers and editors to help alleviate misinformation in its reporting.
Sweeney claimed the publication has never made any attempt to hire trans journalists, nor do they have any trans news reporters currently working at the publication.
“They still don’t have any trans journalists covering trans news in the newsroom,” she said. “They have [columnist] M. Gessen on the opinion side, but no trans news reporters.”
PinkNews has contacted the New York Times for comment.
You can read Trans News Network’s exclusive interview with Billie Jean Sweeney in full here.
