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NY Times Contributors and LGBTQ Advocates Send Open Letters Criticizing Paper's Trans Coverage

Hundreds of current and former contributors to the paper say the Times’ coverage of transgender people has violated its editorial guidelines

A sign for The New York Times
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File

Hundreds of New York Times contributors and advocacy groups sent two coordinated open letters Wednesday accusing the paper of record of publishing biased articles about trans people.

One of the letters, signed by more than 370 current and former Times contributors, several of them trans and nonbinary, said that “the Times has in recent years treated gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language, while publishing reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources.”

The letter, addressed to Philip B. Corbett, the paper’s associate managing editor for standards, included the signatures of well-known public figures and writers like Cynthia Nixon, Chelsea Manning, Roxane Gay, Jia Tolentino and Sarah Schulman.

In a second letter, more than 100 LGBTQ and civil rights groups, including GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign and PFLAG, said that they support the letter from contributors and that the Times is platforming “fringe theories” and “dangerous inaccuracies.” Among the prominent advocates and public figures signing it were “Jeopardy!” champion Amy Schneider, TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, comedian Hannah Gadsby, “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness and actors Gabrielle Union-Wade and Tommy Dorfman. They called on the Times to take a number of actions to change its coverage of transgender people. 

A billboard truck also drove around the Times’ office in Manhattan with the coalition’s messages, including: “Dear New York Times: Stop questioning trans people’s right to exist & access medical care.”

Read the full story at NBCNews.com

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