Skip to content

people

Martina Navratilova is a Czech-American tennis player and anti-transgender activist.

Navratilova is a sex segregationist whose primary concern is maintaining segregationism that keeps women and girls in inferior roles in society. Of particular interest is maintaining women’s subordinate place via sex-segregated competitive sport, primarily by attacking transgender athletes.

Background

Martina Ć ubertovĂĄ was born October 18, 1956 in Prague, Czechoslovakia to an athletic family. Martina’s stepparent Miroslav NavrĂĄtil coached Martina in tennis. Martina took that surname and went pro in 1975. Navratilova dominated professional tennis for the next three decades and is considered on of the greatest players of all time.

Navratilova was coached for a time by trans athlete RenĂ©e Richards.

Anti-transgender activism

In 2019, Navratilova made a number of comments about trans athletes that led to LGBT organizations cutting ties.

Navratilova is a member of the anti-trans organization Women’s Sports Policy Working Group and has published anti-trans views on social media and in anti-trans publications, including Quillette, The Times, and BBC.

References

Masters, James (February 18, 2019). Martina Navratilova criticized over ‘transphobic’ comments. CNN https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/18/tennis/martina-navratilova-trans-women-comments-spt-scli-intl/index.html

Padgett, Donald (July 12, 2023). Megan Rapinoe and Martina Navratilova Spar Over Trans Women in Sports. The Advocate https://www.advocate.com/sports/megan-rapinoe-martina-navratilova-transgender

Navratilova, Martina (February 17, 2019). The rules on trans athletes reward cheats and punish the innocent. The Times [Archive] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-rules-on-trans-athletes-reward-cheats-and-punish-the-innocent-klsrq6h3x

Staff report (February 20, 2019). LGBT group severs links with Navratilova over transgender comments. BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47301007

Hoffman, Joanna (February 19, 2019). Athlete Ally: Navratilova’s Statements Transphobic and Counter to our Work, Vision and Values. New York: Athlete Ally. Retrieved February 28, 2019.

Staff report (March 3, 2019). Martina Navratilova sorry for transgender ‘cheat’ language as she re-enters debate. BBC Sport https://www.bbc.com/sport/47433144

Coleman, Doriane; Navratilova, Martina; Richards-Ross, Sanya (April 29, 2019). Opinion: Pass the Equality Act, but don’t abandon Title IX. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pass-the-equality-act-but-dont-abandon-title-ix/2019/04/29/2dae7e58-65ed-11e9-a1b6-b29b90efa879_story.html

Coleman, Doriane; Navratilova, Martina (November 29, 2021). On the Issue of Female Athletics, the IOC Has Shirked Its Duty to Lead. Quillette https://quillette.com/2021/11/29/on-the-issue-of-female-athletics-the-ioc-has-shirked-its-duty-to-lead/

Navratilova, Martina (June 26, 2019). The Trans Women Athlete Dispute with Martina Navratilova. BBC One https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00069nr/the-trans-women-athlete-dispute-with-martina-navratilova

Assunção, Muri. Martina Navratilova signs letter supporting Idaho law that limits transgender student athletes. NY Daily News https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-martina-navratilova-supports-idaho-anti-transgender-sports-bill-20200804-5rbbp2kptfc27l7ybgwamzhhpu-story.html

Meet the Working Group. Women’s Sports Policy Working Group https://womenssportspolicy.org/about-us/#working-group

Brennan, Christine (February 1, 2021). Sports leaders seek to protect women’s sports while accommodating transgender girls and women. USA Today. Retrieved June 5, 2022. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/02/01/group-protect-womens-sports-accommodate-transgender-athletes/4345854001/

Resources

Martina Navratilova (martinanavratilova.com)

Women’s Sports Policy Working Group (womenssportspolicy.org)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Top Court (topcourt.com)

Dean Baquet is an American journalist who helped shape the New York Times newsroom’s anti-transgender crusade in the 21st century.

Background

Dean Paul Baquet was born on September 21, 1956 to a prominent Catholic family in New Orleans. Baquet attended Columbia University before dropping out to pursue journalism. Baquet worked at the New Orleans States-Item and The Times-Picayune before joining the Chicago Tribune in 1984, followed by the New York Times in 1990 and the Los Angeles Times in 2000. After being fired by Los Angeles Times in 2006, Baquet returned to the New York Times. Baquet became executive editor there in 2014. Baquet moved back to Los Angeles during the pandemic. After running the New York Times from LA for a time, Baquet was replaced by Joe Kahn in 2022. The Times then tapped Baquet to run a fellowship program for local investigative journalism.

Baquet’s spouse Dylan F. Landis was born December 3, 1956 and graduated from Barnard in 1978 before pursuing a writing career. Landis and Baquet married in 1986. Their child Ari Theogene Landis Baquet was born in 1989.

Anti-transgender activism

Under Baquet’s watch, The Times‘ persistently anti-trans coverage continued to escalate, particularly in the Science, Books, Politics, and Opinion sections. During that time, the paper also ended the vital Public Editor role. Without that oversight or accountability, the transphobic coverage got even worse.

Baquet’s coverage crisis reached its tipping point in 2021, when Baquet let anti-trans activist Pamela Paul hire anti-trans activist Jesse Singal to review anti-trans activist Helen Joyce’s book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.

Employee affinity group Times Out reached out to NYT leaders. Via Imara Jones at Translash:

So, almost out of desperation, Times Out leaders decided that their best bet was to go to the very top of the news food chain: Managing Editor Dean Baquet. […] But their official request to talk to Dean was rebuffed.

Times Out leader Priya Arora emailed Baquet directly, and Baquet defended Pamela Paul.

References

Bolies, Corbin (March 7, 2023). The New York Times’ Trans Coverage Debacle Was Years in the Making. The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-new-york-times-trans-coverage-debacle-was-years-in-the-making

Singal, Jesse (September 7, 2021). Trans Rights and Gender Identity. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/07/books/review/trans-helen-joyce.html

Jones, Imara (July 17, 2023). S02E05: Capturing The New York Times. The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality https://translash.org/transcript-capturing-the-new-york-times/

Staff report (September 7, 1986). Dean Paul Baquet Marries Miss Landis in Larchmont. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/07/style/dean-paul-baquet-marries-miss-landis-in-larchmont.html

Hays, Kali (July 26, 2021). Exclusive: New York Times Editor Dean Baquet Has Been Running the Gray Lady from L.A. Los Angeles Magazine https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/dean-baquet-los-angeles/

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Dylan Landis (dylanlandis.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

The Skimm (theskimm.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Erik Wemple is an American writer and anti-transgender activist. As media critic for the Washington Post, Wemple defended the New York Times during its anti-trans coverage crisis of the 2020s.

Background

Erik Boris Wemple was born August 18, 1964 in Niskayuna, New York and grew up in the Schenectady area. Wemple’s parent Marilyn Helen Greve Wemple (1930–2000) had three children: Mark, Kirk, and Erik (the youngest). Parent Clark Cullings Wemple (1927–1993) was a prominent local Republican politician and lawyer.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in 1986, Wemple earned a master’s degree from Georgetown University in 1989. After covering and consulting on US export control policy, Wemple began covering local Washington, DC news, including freelancing at Washington City Paper starting in 1994. Wemple served one term on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission in 1995, representing Dupont Circle.

From 1999 to 2000, Wemple was “Loose Lips” gossip columnist at Washington City Paper. Wemple left to work at inside.com for two years before returning to Washington City Paper as editor in 2002.

In 2006 Wemple worked for a few days as editor in chief of The Village Voice before backing out and returning to Washington City Paper until 2010. After working at TBD.com in 2010, Wemple joined the Washington Post in 2011.

Wemple’s spouse, Stephanie Mencimer (born September 1969), is also a writer. They live in Maryland and have two children, Sam (born ~2004) and Lucy (born ~2006).

New York Times anti-trans coverage crisis

Although Wemple claims the New York Times coverage of trans issues is unbiased, in 2022 Wemple at least acknowledged the controversy. Wemple confirmed that a Times employee had reportedly been accosted for their anti-trans coverage, as first reported by Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger. A Times spokesperson told Wemple: “Our employee was recognized in public. The person said something about ‘attempts to eliminate trans people’ and then spat on the employee.” The specific employee was not mentioned, and New York Times has too many anti-trans employees to make a guess.

In 2023, Jesse Singal, the anti-trans activist hired by Times anti-trans activist Pamela Paul to review a book by anti-trans activist Helen Joyce, naturally praised Wemple.

Wemple did not bother to mention that Singal’s review was the cause of an earlier newsroom revolt over anti-trans activism.

See also

Erik Wemple: Defense of New York Times’ transphobia (2023)

References

Urquhart, Evan (June 15, 2023). Erik Wemple Doesn’t Think the New York Times is Biased. Assigned Media https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/erik-wemple-doesnt-think-the-new-york-times-is-biased

Sulzberger, A.G. (April 4, 2022). 2022 State of The Times Remarks. New York Times Company https://www.nytco.com/press/2022-state-of-the-times-remarks/

Wemple, Erik (June 15, 2023 ) Opinion: A second look at the attacks on the New York Times’s trans coverage. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/15/new-york-times-transgender-coverage-controversy/

Staff report (June 15, 2006). Breaking: New ‘Voice’ EIC Erik Wemple Quits Before He Starts. Gawker https://www.gawker.com/news/village-voice/breaking-new-voice-eic-erik-wemple-quits-before-he-starts-181133.php [archive]

Wemple, Erik (August 9, 2010). Letter from the editor: TBD is a little less TBD. TBD https://web.archive.org/web/20100815213043/http://www.tbd.com/articles/2010/08/letter-from-the-editor-tbd-is-a-little-less-tbd-790.html

Calderone, Michael (February 23, 2010). Wemple to edit Allbritton local site. Politico https://www.politico.com/story/2010/02/wemple-to-edit-allbritton-local-site-033365

Nycz-Conner, Jennifer (February 23, 2010). Erik Wemple leaves Washington City Paper, joins Allbritton Communications. Washington Business Journal https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2010/02/22/daily22.html

Farhi, Paul (February 24, 2010). City Paper’s Erik Wemple to edit local news Web site. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/23/AR2010022304711.html

Beaujon, Andrew (February 23, 2010). Erik Wemple to Leave City Paper, Will Edit Startup Local News Site. Washington City Paper https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/474505/erik-wemple-to-leave-city-paper-will-edit-startup-local-news-site/

Wilkin, Jeff (November 3, 2014). On Election Day ’74, winners savored victories. https://dailygazette.com/2014/11/03/1103_scrapbook/

McGuire, Mark (September 21, 2014). Niskayuna native Erik Wemple now a D.C. fixture. The Daily Gazette https://dailygazette.com/2014/09/21/niskayuna-native-dc-fixture/

Staff report (May 31, 2006). Erik Wemple Hired to Lead the Village Voice. AAN News https://aan.org/aan/erik-wemple-hired-to-lead-the-village-voice/

Staff rpeort (February 23, 2010). Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple is leaving the paper. AAN News https://aan.org/aan/washington-city-paper-editor-erik-wemple-is-leaving-the-paper/ [archive]

Beaujon, Andrew (January 6, 2023) A Chat With Erik Wemple, One of the Washington Post’s New Editorial Writers for DC Matters. Washingtonian https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/01/06/erik-wemple-washington-post-editorial-writer-dc-md-va/

Resources

Washington Post (washingtonpost.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

TBD (tbd.com)

  • Erik Wemple [archive]
  • http://www.tbd.com/staff/erik-wemple

AAN (aan.org)

  • Erik Wemple [archive]
  • aan.org/alternative/Aan/ViewPerson?oid=oid%3A7408

Twitter (twitter.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Muck Rack (muckrack.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Megan Twohey is an American author and anti-transgender activist. Twohey co-wrote a scaremongering New York Times article about healthcare for trans and gender diverse youth titled “They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost?” The piece helped spark a newsroom revolt against management during the Times’ 2020s anti-trans coverage crisis.

Background

Megan Twohey was born on October 26, 1976 to John and Mary Jane Twohey.

Mary Jane Twohey handled PR for Northwestern University after transphobic eugenicist J. Michael Bailey arranged a live “fucksaw” demonstration for students.

Megan Twohey graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1994. After graduating from Georgetown University in 1998, Twohey worked at Washington Monthly, then National Journal from 1999 to 2001, then Moscow Times from 2001 to 2002. Twohey joined the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from 2003 to 2007.

Twohey then joined parent John Twohey at Tribune Media’s Chicago Tribune in 2007. From 2012 to 2016, Twohey was with Thomson Reuters, then joined the New York Times in 2016.

Twohey and Jodi Kantor published a 2017 exposĂ© about Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual abuse and assault that figured prominently into Weinstein’s downfall and ultimate conviction, earning a Pulitzer Prize. Their 2019 book She Said was adapted into a 2022 film of the same name.

Twohey and literary agent Vadim “Jim” Rutman (born ~1975) were married on June 12, 2016 and have one child.

Anti-trans activism

Twohey co-wrote a 2022 New York Times article on puberty blockers for gender diverse youth that culminated in a 2023 newsroom revolt against Times leadership.

The story is about “emerging evidence of potential harm” and the “long-term physical effects and other consequences” of Lupron and other medications that can manage onset of puberty. Any drug carries a risk of side effects, which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tracks via adverse event reports. FDA approved Lupron for central precocious puberty in 1993. It has since been used for trans and gender diverse youth experiencing unwanted puberty. Doctors have wide latitude to use approved drugs “off label,” including use to delay puberty for trans and gender diverse youth.

Several years earlier, co-author Christina Jewett began reporting on cisgender people who believe puberty blockers which they took as minors led to short- and long-term adverse side effects. Children whose puberty starts at 5 to 8 years old often face social problems, and those capable of pregnancy are at higher risk of unwanted sexual attention and assault. Doctors work with parents to weigh the risks and benefits before getting informed parental consent. As with any medical treatment, some people will be harmed more than they were helped.

Focusing on uncommon side effects and unknown risks is a long-used pretense to restrict or ban contraception and abortion, especially for minors. For more information, see this site’s analysis of “They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost?”

The piece was cited as part of a transphobic series by a small group of anti-trans writers within the New York Times. GLAAD stated: “In November 2022, the Times published a story by Megan Twohey and Christina Jewett that got the science of healthcare for trans people so wrong that the WPATH had to write a multi-page tear-down explaining how the Times misrepresented the facts at every turn.”

2023 correspondence

On September 3, 2023, I received an email from Twohey copied to Times external communications executive Danielle Rhoades Ha. Twohey requested that biographical information on this page be removed, all of which had been previously published.

My reply:

In 2003 J. Michael Bailey was presenting images and confidential clinical information about six-year olds from my community for laughs to future clinicians.

This vulgar misuse of our children without their knowledge or consent was part of a tour for Bailey’s transphobic book that came out under the federal imprimatur of the National Academies Press. That book is framed by the fabricated case report of a six-year-old gender diverse child whose “curing” is presented as evidence that children should not get gender affirming care.

Back when the Times still had a public editor, I expressed my concerns about your employer’s sustained support for Bailey and like-minded grifters like Alice Dreger who manipulate science and media to harm our children. The Times did worse than nothing. That Times reporter and the Science editors defamed me as payback, a major media coup that allowed Bailey and friends to continue harming children, adding years to my work getting their infamous Toronto children’s gender clinic shut down.

I won’t even get into Bailey’s sex with a book subject/patient, etc. Your mother got paid to help Bailey and employer Northwestern get out in front of his live “fucksaw” demonstration. Your family got paid to help Bailey stay tenured.

Not one journalist in America has published one article that speaks truth to power about these 50 years of attacks on our children via Archives of Sexual Behavior. A reporter from the Chicago Tribune once asked Dreger directly about Bailey’s fabrication and Dreger’s cover-up, but the story got spiked. 

In a just world, Bailey’s book would be retracted, Bailey’s editor would be fired, Dreger’s article would be retracted, and Dreger’s editor would be fired. It would just take one article. Instead we get decades of Times coverage like hand-wringing about side effects of treatment that is being banned across the country, forcing families from NBA legends to struggling single parents to join in the largest mass interstate migration since COVID.

Few organizations have done more to make trans lives harder than the New York Times. You, your family, and the organizations that have paid all of you are part of the problem. I’m simply documenting all this for historians.

PS: Your profile is standard encyclopedia fare. Your family members are all media professionals who’ve been in the public eye, and your six-year-old’s full name and age are published on the New York Times website.

Twohey ignored my outline of the Twohey family’s negative impact on hundreds of thousands of American children, merely disputing my postscript. I then provided Twohey a Times website link. Despite being under no obligation to do so, I honored part of Twohey’s request.

References

Acharya, Ustav (August 19, 2020). Megan Twohey. Bio Wikis https://biowikis.com/megan-twohey/

Klein, Charlotte (February 27, 2023). Inside the New York Times blowup over transgender coverage. Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/new-york-times-trans-coverage-debate

Jones, Imara (July 17, 2023). S02E05: Capturing The New York Times. The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality https://translash.org/transcript-capturing-the-new-york-times/

Oladipo, Gloria (February 18, 2023). Nearly 1,000 contributors protest New York Times’ coverage of trans people. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/17/new-york-times-contributors-open-letter-protest-anti-trans-coverage

Duffy, Kaiyti (November 29, 2022). Recent Anti-Trans Articles Miss the Point of Gender-Affirming Care. Teen Vogue https://www.teenvogue.com/story/recent-anti-trans-articles-miss-the-point-of-gender-affirming-care

Wulfsohn, Joseph A. (November 15, 2022). New York Times story on puberty blockers fuels critics amid trans debate: ‘Decade late on this story.’ Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/media/new-york-times-story-puberty-blockers-fuels-critics-amid-trans-debate-decade-late-story

Thiesen, Lauren (November 15, 2022). How Many Trans People Does The New York Times Believe There Should Be? Defector https://defector.com/how-many-trans-people-does-the-new-york-times-believe-there-should-be

Sonoma, Sirena (April 19, 2023). The New York Times’ Inaccurate Coverage of Transgender People is Being Weaponized Against the Transgender Community. GLAAD https://glaad.org/new-york-times-inaccurate-coverage-transgender-people-being-weaponized-against-transgender/

Eckert, AJ (December 4, 2022). What the New York Times gets wrong about puberty blockers for transgender youth. Science Based Medicine https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/what-the-new-york-times-gets-wrong-about-puberty-blockers-for-transgender-youth/

Bolies, Corbin (March 7, 2023). The New York Times’ Trans Coverage Debacle Was Years in the Making. The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-new-york-times-trans-coverage-debacle-was-years-in-the-making

Reilly, Patrick (February 15, 2023). New York Times accused of ‘editorial bias’ in coverage of transgender issues. New York Post https://nypost.com/2023/02/15/new-york-times-blasted-for-editorial-bias-in-transgender-coverage/

USPATH and WPATH respond to NY Times article “They Paused Puberty, But Is There a Cost? published on November 14, 2022 (PDF). https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2022/USPATHWPATH%20Statement%20re%20Nov%2014%202022%20NYT%20Article%20Nov%2022%202022.pdf

Urquhart, Evan (November 14, 2022). NYT Investigation Offers Biased Reporting on Puberty Blocker Concerns. Assigned https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/nyt-investigation-finds-concerns-about-puberty-blockers-for-trans-youth

Urquhart, Evan (November 17, 2022). The NYT’s big piece on puberty blockers mucked up the most important point about them. Slate https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/puberty-blockers-side-effects-controversy.html

Migdon, Brooke (February 15, 2023). NYT contributors blast paper’s coverage of transgender people. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3859501-nyt-contributors-blast-papers-coverage-of-transgender-people/

Warrington, James (February 16, 2023). How the New York Times was engulfed by a trans culture war. The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/15/new-york-times-accused-writers-anti-trans-bigotry/

Twohey, Megan; Jewett, Christina (November 14, 2022). They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost? New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/health/puberty-blockers-transgender.html

Jewett, Christina (February 2, 2017). Drug used to halt puberty in children may cause lasting health problems. Kaiser Health News https://www.statnews.com/2017/02/02/lupron-puberty-children-health-problems/

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

New York Times (nytimes.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

She Said (shesaidthebook.com)

  • About
  • https://www.shesaidthebook.com/about

Library of Congress (loc.gov)

  • Megan Twohey
  • https://www.loc.gov/events/2020-national-book-festival/authors/item/no2019132747/megan-twohey/

Christina Jewett is an American author and anti-transgender activist. Jewett co-wrote a scaremongering New York Times article about healthcare for trans and gender diverse youth titled “They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost?” The piece helped spark a newsroom revolt against management during the Times’ 2020s anti-trans coverage crisis.

Background

Christina D. Jewett was born on May 11, 1980 and grew up in Griffith, Indiana. Jewett earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 2002. Jewett reported for the Sacramento Bee from 2002 to 2008, ProPublica from 2008 to 2009, and the Center for Investigative Reporting from 2009 to 2016. Jewett was then a correspondent for Kaiser Health News from 2016 to 2021 before joining the New York Times as a correspondent focusing on federal healthcare regulation in 2021.

Jewett married Floyd Charles Marvin III (born 1974). They have two children.

Anti-trans activism

While writing for Kaiser, Jewett began reporting on cisgender people who believe puberty blockers which they took as minors led to short- and long-term adverse side effects. Children whose puberty starts at 5 to 8 years old often face social problems, and those capable of pregnancy are at higher risk of sexual harassment and assault. Doctors work with parents to weigh the risks and benefits before getting informed consent. As with any medical treatment, some people will be harmed more than they were helped.

In 2022, Megan Twohey and Jewett co-wrote a New York Times article on puberty blockers for gender diverse youth that culminated in a 2023 newsroom revolt against Times leadership.

The story is about “emerging evidence of potential harm” and the “long-term physical effects and other consequences” of Lupron and other medications that can manage onset of puberty. Any drug carries a risk of side effects, which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tracks via adverse event reports. FDA approved Lupron for central precocious puberty in 1993. It has since been used for trans and gender diverse youth experiencing unwanted puberty. Doctors have wide latitude to use approved drugs “off label,” including use to delay puberty for trans and gender diverse youth.

Focusing on uncommon side effects and unknown risks is a long-used pretense to restrict or ban contraception and abortion, especially for minors. For more information, see this site’s analysis of “They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost?”

References

Klein, Charlotte (February 27, 2023). Inside the New York Times blowup over transgender coverage. Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/new-york-times-trans-coverage-debate

Jones, Imara (July 17, 2023). S02E05: Capturing The New York Times. The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality https://translash.org/transcript-capturing-the-new-york-times/

Oladipo, Gloria (February 18, 2023). Nearly 1,000 contributors protest New York Times’ coverage of trans people. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/17/new-york-times-contributors-open-letter-protest-anti-trans-coverage

Wulfsohn, Joseph A. (November 15, 2022). New York Times story on puberty blockers fuels critics amid trans debate: ‘Decade late on this story.’ Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/media/new-york-times-story-puberty-blockers-fuels-critics-amid-trans-debate-decade-late-story

Duffy, Kaiyti (November 29, 2022). Recent Anti-Trans Articles Miss the Point of Gender-Affirming Care. Teen Vogue https://www.teenvogue.com/story/recent-anti-trans-articles-miss-the-point-of-gender-affirming-care

Thiesen, Lauren (November 15, 2022). How Many Trans People Does The New York Times Believe There Should Be? Defector https://defector.com/how-many-trans-people-does-the-new-york-times-believe-there-should-be

Bolies, Corbin (March 7, 2023). The New York Times’ Trans Coverage Debacle Was Years in the Making. The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-new-york-times-trans-coverage-debacle-was-years-in-the-making

Reilly, Patrick (February 15, 2023). New York Times accused of ‘editorial bias’ in coverage of transgender issues. New York Post https://nypost.com/2023/02/15/new-york-times-blasted-for-editorial-bias-in-transgender-coverage/

Eckert, AJ. What the New York Times gets wrong about puberty blockers for transgender youth. Science-Based Medicine https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/what-the-new-york-times-gets-wrong-about-puberty-blockers-for-transgender-youth/

USPATH and WPATH respond to NY Times article “They Paused Puberty, But Is There a Cost? published on November 14, 2022 (PDF). https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2022/USPATHWPATH%20Statement%20re%20Nov%2014%202022%20NYT%20Article%20Nov%2022%202022.pdf

Eckert, AJ (December 4, 2022). What the New York Times gets wrong about puberty blockers for transgender youth. Science Based Medicine https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/what-the-new-york-times-gets-wrong-about-puberty-blockers-for-transgender-youth/

Sonoma, Sirena (April 19, 2023). The New York Times’ Inaccurate Coverage of Transgender People is Being Weaponized Against the Transgender Community. GLAAD https://glaad.org/new-york-times-inaccurate-coverage-transgender-people-being-weaponized-against-transgender/

Rook, Erin (November 18, 2022). Reckless NY Times reporting fuels disinformation about trans youth. LGBTQ Nation https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/11/reckless-ny-times-reporting-fuels-disinformation-trans-youth/

Urquhart, Evan (November 17, 2022). The NYT’s big piece on puberty blockers mucked up the most important point about them. Slate https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/puberty-blockers-side-effects-controversy.html

Migdon, Brooke (February 15, 2023). NYT contributors blast paper’s coverage of transgender people. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3859501-nyt-contributors-blast-papers-coverage-of-transgender-people/

Warrington, James (February 16, 2023). How the New York Times was engulfed by a trans culture war. The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/15/new-york-times-accused-writers-anti-trans-bigotry/

Twohey, Megan; Jewett, Christina (November 14, 2022). They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost? New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/health/puberty-blockers-transgender.html

Staff report (October 13, 2021). Stephen Jewett. Northwest Indiana Times https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/stephen-jewett/article_00853351-ee9a-5bcd-be8b-b04c4c64b3ac.html

Resources

New York Times (nytimes.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Katie J.M. Baker is an American writer who was one of the New York Times employees at the center of the publication’s anti-trans coverage crisis of the 2020s.

Background

Baker was born on September 15, 1987 and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. Baker earned a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley in 2009. Baker freelanced for the San Francisco Chronicle and Jezebel before joining Newsweek in 2013. Baker was an investigative reporter at Buzzfeed from 2014 to 2022 and joined the Times as a correspondent in 2022, brought over on the recommendation of Virginia Hughes.

Baker has consulted on media productions about the news. Much of Baker’s writing covers sexual harassment and assault in schools and workplaces, as well as online sex and gender politics.

Transgender coverage

Baker became interested in trans issues after moving from New York to London and witnessing the transphobic moral panic among radicalized “parental rights” extremists, particularly on Mumsnet:

If Mumsnet’s women’s rights forum is popular because it responds to the experience of being stuck at home without support or community, it’s done so in a way that leaves Mumsnetters in a political cul-de-sac. The community isolates its members in a bubble of transphobic thought that leaves them free to develop their bigotries without needing to encounter the human beings affected by them. It also inculcates members with a tragically narrow idea of feminism, one that rejects other people fighting for gender liberation. And finally, it puts followers at odds with the broader left, which has been fighting for a world without gender oppression, as well as for benefits Mumsnetters say they care about, such as free child care and well-funded health care. 

Baker (2021)

Baker helped import this moral panic to the US by covering the American parental rights movement for the Times. Where the Mumsnet piece was attacked by gender critical people, anti-trans activists like Jesse Singal had nothing but good things to say about Baker’s Times piece and its framing. Via the open letter by Times contributors:

In a similar case, Katie Baker’s recent feature “When Students Change Gender Identity and Parents Don’t Know” misframed the battle over children’s right to safely transition. The piece fails to make clear that court cases brought by parents who want schools to out their trans children are part of a legal strategy pursued by anti-trans hate groups. These groups have identified trans people as an “existential threat to society” and seek to replace the American public education system with Christian homeschooling, key context Baker did not provide to Times readers.

Walker et al. (2023)

References

Urquhart, Evan (January 22, 2023). NYT Credulously Repeats Parents’ Rights Nonsense. Assigned https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/nyt-parents-rights-nonsense

Mirkinson, Jack (January 23, 2023). The New York Times Is Hooked on Transphobia. Discourse Blog https://www.discourseblog.com/p/the-new-york-times-is-hooked-on-transphobia

Bolies, Corbin (March 7, 2023). The New York Times’ Trans Coverage Debacle Was Years in the Making. The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-new-york-times-trans-coverage-debacle-was-years-in-the-making

Landers, Reba (January 31, 2023). The New York Times Is Wrong: Trans Kids Need Support, Not “Gender Skepticism.” Left Voice https://www.leftvoice.org/the-new-york-times-is-wrong-trans-kids-need-support-not-gender-skepticism/

Bolies, Corbin; Cartwright, Lachlan (February 16, 2023). New York Times blasts staffers who condemned paper’s trans coverage. The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-york-times-blast-staffers-who-condemned-papers-trans-coverage

Reilly, Patrick (February 15, 2023). New York Times accused of ‘editorial bias’ in coverage of transgender issues. New York Post https://nypost.com/2023/02/15/new-york-times-blasted-for-editorial-bias-in-transgender-coverage/

Eckert, AJ. What the New York Times gets wrong about puberty blockers for transgender youth. Science-Based Medicine https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/what-the-new-york-times-gets-wrong-about-puberty-blockers-for-transgender-youth/

Bond, Chanea (February 17, 2023). The @nytimes is an arm of the oppressive regime
 https://twitter.com/heymrsbond/status/1626565133798412288

Minton, Evan (Feb 16, 2023 ) The @nytimes is jeopardizing trans folks’ lives for click bait. Twitter https://twitter.com/EvanMMinton/status/1626462444003659776

Doyle, Jude Allison S. (February 27, 2023). What went wrong at the New York Times?  Xtra https://xtramagazine.com/power/what-went-wrong-at-the-new-york-times-246409

Sulzberger, A.G. (April 4, 2022). 2022 State of The Times Remarks. New York Times Company https://www.nytco.com/press/2022-state-of-the-times-remarks/

Walker et al. (February 15, 2023 ff.). [Open letter to Philip B. Corbett] https://nytletter.com/

Gutierrez, Claire; Yang, Jia Lynn (September 9, 2022). Katie Baker joins The Times. New York Times Company https://www.nytco.com/press/katie-baker-joins-the-times/

Baker, Katie J. M. (January 22, 2023). When Students Change Gender Identity, and Parents Don’t Know. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/us/gender-identity-students-parents.html

Baker, Katie J. M. (January 2021). The road to TERFdom. Lux https://lux-magazine.com/article/the-road-to-terfdom/

Resources

Katie J.M. Baker (katiejmbaker.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Muck Rack (muckrack.com)

Wired (wired.com)

Dissent (dissentmagazine.org)

Buzzfeed (buzzfeed.com)

New York (nymag.com)

Newsweek (newsweek.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

IMDb (imdb.com)

Jake Silverstein is an American author and anti-transgender activist. Silverstein was responsible for a 2023 anti-trans feature about gender diverse youth by Emily Bazelon in The New York Times Magazine.

Background

Jacob “Jake” Silverstein was born on October 14, 1975 and grew up in Oakland, California. Silverstein earned a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, a master’s degree from Hollins University, and a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006.

After working in local news, Silverstein was editor of Texas Monthly from 2008 to 2014, then was named editor of The New York Times Magazine.

Silverstein and spouse Mary Jillian LaMotte Silverstein (born 1970) have two children.

Anti-trans activism

This new section is under construction.

In the fall of 2021, Silverstein conceived of and assigned a story to Emily Bazelon, telling On the Media (OTM):

We understood that an interesting moment in the field of transgender care was coming up, and that was the release of this new Standards of Care which had last been published I believe it was 2012. So almost a decade ago. That was one of the original motivations for the story, to try to understand what process was going into that and get ahead of the publication of those new Standards of Care. As Emily began looking into it, we had access to this working group that was working on the chapter about adolescence. And we began to understand that there were some not only debates and discussions happening within that group, but also there was a really intense complexity to them doing their work, in the context of a proliferation of really draconian legislation restricting trans rights in various states around the country. 

Silverstein OTM 2023

Their key access point was psychiatrist Scott Leibowitz, who along with Laura Edwards-Leeper is also a key source for Jesse Singal and other anti-trans activists framing trans people as having a medical and/or psychiatric problem (“gender dysphoria,” etc.). Leibowitz leads off the article in Bazelon’s “cisgender person under siege” framing long favored by the Times when covering gender diverse people. Leibowitz and Edwards-Leeper served on the WPATH chapter on “Assessment, Support and Therapeutic Approaches for Adolescents with Gender Variance/Dysphoria.” Also serving were Annelou de Vries, Jon Arcelus, Gayathri Chelvakumar, Stephanie Roberts, and John Strang.

OTM pressed Silverstein about context.

That’s right, I think you’re quoting from Emily‘s story there. The politicization in certain state legislatures around the country around this issue has created a political debate around something that has ended up distorting a lot of the reception of articles like Emily’s.

Silverstein PTM 2023

The phrase patient zero was one of the examples of bias cited in the open letters to Times management.

This term was introduced to Emily during her interview with the patient in question, a Dutch trans man who we refer to in the story as F.G. Emily tracked him down and interviewed him at length. And he said to her, “I was patient zero.” The term also appears in a book that is cited in Emily’s story about the history of the Amsterdam clinic that uses the term patient zero to describe the same person. And in both cases the meaning was clear to Emily in these interviews and in reading this book. It described the first-ever recipient of this treatment. That’s what it meant, and I think it was pretty clear that’s what it meant from the context. Like I said, it’s not used in quotation marks. He is quoted, saying other things, and he’s quoted saying this treatment saved his life. And Emily didn’t realize that it was going to have another connotation for other people.

Silverstein OTM 2023

The phrase patient zero was removed from Bazelon’s article and replaced with the phrase first patient. The Times made the change after On the Media made an inquiry and before Silverstein came on their show.

We’ve been talking about making that particular change. Changing something to a story that we published for reasons other than a factual correction is never something that we take lightly. It’s not something we do very often. As you can imagine it’s something that requires a lot of conversations and deliberations internally. So it took a little bit of time for that to work its way through the process. But we felt it was the right thing to do. I wish we had immediately understood how some readers might take that term. 

Silverstein OTM 2023

Times coverage was quickly cited in anti-trans legislation, which Silverstein feels is beyond the Times’ control.

I don’t believe that there’s anything in this story or any other news coverage that supports banning gender therapy. I believe, and I can’t say for sure, because I obviously had nothing to do with this amicus brief, that these pieces were cited to show that there is a debate among providers about how to best perform gender care for minors. And that is what these stories document with their reporting. Once we hit publish, we don’t control how readers of any kind are going to use our stories. And I don’t know that we should. 

Silverstein OTM 2023

How they covered Genspect:

We’ve heard this criticism about not identifying Genspect. Some of the people who criticized Emily’s story wanted us to refer to Genspect as a hate group. We can’t say that without evidence, right? We can characterize groups up to a point, unless we’re going to dedicate reporting time to investigating a particular group, we can’t characterize it a certain way without evidence. 

Silverstein OTM 2023

Masha Gessen thought Bazelon’s piece was excellent, Andrew Sullivan

It’s certainly not the position of the journalist in question here, of Emily. Part of what Emily is doing in the story is she’s trying to gather in a sense of what that conversation is and what that commentary is, and the context in which these folks are doing their work. That process of doing that, of gathering in this commentary doesn’t mean that Emily endorses every single thing that she’s citing. She’s trying to give readers a sense of the atmosphere in which these gender affirming clinicians are doing their work. 

Silverstein OTM 2023

On including ex-trans activist Grace Lidinsky-Smith of Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network, who regrets top surgery requested and received as an adult.

Sure, I mean the question of how to identify people quoted in stories comes up a lot, and sometimes the decision is based on the footprint that they occupy in a story: how much the story is about them, how significant their part of the story is, and in this case, in a very long story in which the subject was a very small part, it seemed to us that we were giving the reader the information that was most relevant. 

Silverstein OTM 2023

When pressed about including an adult ex-trans activist associated with groups seeking to restrict trans healthcare. tagential to the purview of the piece, and “we didn’t get a lot of context about where she was coming from.”

Mm-hm. Yeah, I understand that.

Silverstein OTM 2023

Is there anything you wish you did differently in your coverage or your editing process?

As you can see from the fact that we changed the term “patient zero,” I certainly wish we had changed that before we hit publish on the story. But other than that, I would say no. I’m really proud of this piece. Emily‘s piece is a finalist for the National Magazine Award in the category of public interest this year. A jury of her peers said it’s one of the six most important pieces of public interest journalism published in any magazine last year. And I think that’s correct. This kind of reporting is very difficult to do. It takes a kind of focus, it takes a kind of fortitude, and it also takes the commitment to the principles of journalism that not everybody has. And Emily does. 

Silverstein OTM 2023

On June 18, 2022, Silverstein tweeted “This weekend’s @NYTmag cover is a deeply-reported story by @emilybazelon on debates among providers within the field of transgender health care over how to treat teenagers. Emily spent 8 months on this piece, and interviewed and quoted many transgender providers who have a variety of perspectives, as well as cisgender providers who have spent their careers in gender-affirming care. Reporting on subjects that are highly politicized is challenging. That’s why Emily’s methodical, principled, & deeply journalistic approach was important. I hope you’ll read her story.”

ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio noted that Silverstein’s work was immediately used to attack Texas families with gender diverse children:

This is from an expert report filed by Texas in defense of its policy of directing the “child welfare” agency to investigate medical treatment for gender dysphoria as child abuse. It is hard to watch this all unfold with such devastating harms.

Lee Leveille and Ky Schevers of Health Liberation Now! also described their involvement and reaction:

Genspect and Stella O’Malley

  • multiple Genspect members are active in clinic protests 
  • the group’s extensive collaboration with faith-based lobbying groups for SOGICE in order to undermine efforts to ban conversion therapy. 
  • training conferences held by the NHS being canceled 
  • “make sure that children are, if- if at all possible, are stopped from medical transition”

GCCAN and Grace Lidinsky-Smith

Health Liberation Now! concludes:

Media portrayals on de/retransition, particularly in the framing of regret or mental health assessment, have aggravated the very political battle that Bazelon references in the article. In doing so, the New York Times feeds into the ongoing disinformation campaign we caution about in When Ex-Trans Worlds Collide.

References

Migdon, Brooke (February 15, 2023). NYT contributors blast paper’s coverage of transgender people. The Hill https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3859501-nyt-contributors-blast-papers-coverage-of-transgender-people/

(June 22, 2022). Response to NYT Article “The Battle Over Gender Therapy.” Health Liberation Now! https://healthliberationnow.com/2022/06/22/health-liberation-nows-response-to-nyt-article-the-battle-over-gender-therapy/

The New York Times Company (March 28, 2014). The New York Times Names Jake Silverstein Editor of The New York Times Magazine. https://investors.nytco.com/news-and-events/press-releases/news-details/2014/The-New-York-Times-Names-Jake-Silverstein-Editor-of-The-New-York-Times-Magazine/default.aspx

Loewinger, Micah (August 11, 2023). Go Woke, Go Broke. On the Media https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-go-woke-go-broke

Deprang, Jo (April 27, 2010). Fact over fiction. Texas Observer https://www.texasobserver.org/fact-over-fiction/

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Sheri A. Berenbaum is an American psychologist and anti-transgender activist. Berenbaum is connected to several leading lights of academic transphobia, including J. Michael Bailey, Kenneth Zucker, and psychologists connected to the Human Behavior and Evolution Society..

Much of Berenbaum’s work is involved in shoring up the concept of “sex differences.”

Background

Sheri Ann Berenbaum was born on May 1, 1950.

Berenbaum earned a bachelor’s degree from The City College of New York, followed by a doctorate from the notoriously transphobic and conservative psychology department at University of California, Berkeley in 1977. Berenbaum’s dissertation focused on maintaining sex segregation. Berenbaum did a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral genetics at University of Minnesota.

Berenbaum then taught at University of Health Sciences / Chicago Medical School.  Berenbaum was affiliated with Southern Illinois University prior to joining PennState in 2001. Chicago Medical School

Much of Berenbaum’s work is about hormones and behavior and has been cited as a reason to force adolescents through unwanted puberty.

Anti-transgender activism

Some researchers, such as Kenneth J. Zucker, PhD, a psychologist and the head of the child and adolescent gender identity clinic at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, applaud Reiner’s study for renewing interest in the biological determinants of gender and calling into question the notion of some that gender identity is mainly socially constructed and determined by socialization.

That’s not to say, however, that socialization isn’t still a major or important factor, Zucker emphasizes. “The debate is still up in the air because there are other centers who have studied kids with the same diagnosis, and the rate of changeover from female to male is nowhere near what Reiner is reporting,” he explains. “It must be something about their social experience that is accounting for this difference.”

Contradictory evidence

Backing Zucker’s belief that socialization still plays a major role–and biology is only part of the story–is research by Sheri Berenbaum, PhD, a psychologist at Pennsylvania State University, and J. Michael Bailey, PhD, a psychologist at Northwestern University.

Berenbaum was quoted by Megan Twohey and Christina Jewett in their 2022 New York Times piece on puberty blockers for gender diverse youth. That fearmongering piece came out amid the Times’ transphobic coverage crisis on the 2020s.

References

Bailey JM, Bechtold KT, Berenbaum SA (2002). Who are tomboys and why should we study them? Archives of Sexual Behavior 10.1023/A:1016272209463

Berenbaum SA, “Beyond Pink and Blue: The Complexity of Early Androgen Effects on Gender Development,” Child Development Perspectives 12, no. 1 (2018): 58.

Berenbaum SA, Bailey JM (2003). Effects on gender identity of prenatal androgens and genital appearance: evidence from girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 88, Issue 3, 1102–1106, https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2002-020782

Berenbaum SA (1999). Effects of Early Androgens on Sex-Typed Activities and Interests in Adolescents with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. Hormones and Behavior Volume 35, Issue 1, February 1999, Pages 102-110

Chen, D. et al. (2020). Consensus Parameter: Research methodologies to evaluate neurodevelopmental effects of pubertal suppression in transgender youth. Transgender Health, 5, 246-257.

Twohey, Megan; Jewett, Christina (November 14, 2022). They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost? New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/health/puberty-blockers-transgender.html

Resources

PennState (pure.psu.edu)

  • Sheri A. Berenbaum
  • https://pure.psu.edu/en/persons/sheri-a-berenbaum
  • http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/s/a/sab31/berenbaum/bio.html

The Berenbaum Lab (berenbaumlabpsu.wixsite.com)

  • https://berenbaumlabpsu.wixsite.com/

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Elias Heino is a Finnish researcher and anti-transgender activist who has published a number of papers that promote disease models of gender diverse youth.

Background

Heino is affiliated with Tampere University Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology and frequently publishes with conservative psychiatrist Riittakerttu Kaltiala-Heino.

Heino’s path to anti-trans activism is explained in this interview:

Why did I start doing psychiatric research?

After the first year of study, I got a summer job as a research assistant. I handled material related to youth psychiatric research. At the same time, my interest in research was awakened. After the research summer, I was offered the opportunity to start doing my own research related to the transgender topic, and I am still on this path.

The subject of my research

Our study compares the adolescent development of trans and cisgender identifying youth in the adolescent normal population. Adolescent development is examined with the help of sexuality, mental health, participation in school bullying and family relationships.

Why does research related to my topic matter?

The research aims to find out to what extent the developmental tasks of adolescence are solved despite the specificity of the identity experience and whether any problems are related to the identity experience itself or to possible external factors, such as a lack of support from family or friends. Based on the research results, the support that gender identity minorities may need can be targeted correctly, and the research data can be used as an aid in planning longitudinal studies, for example.

Anti-trans activism

Heino got €3,000 from the Orion Foundation to study “Transgender identity, mental health and adolescent development in the adolescent population.”

In 2021, Heino got a grant from The Psychiatry Research Foundation for similar work.

Heino has published papers stating that trans youth perpetrate bullying and have high suicidality.

References

Tampere University (4 November 2020). [50,000 euros from the Orion Foundation for Tampere University researchers.] https://www.tuni.fi/fi/ajankohtaista/tampereen-yliopiston-tutkijoille-50-000-euroa-orionin-saatiolta

(9/12/2019). [The Kandi calendar is coming again – Fine art pearls inspire creators.] Mediuutiset https://www.mediuutiset.fi/uutiset/kandikalenteri-tulee-taas-kuvataiteen-helmet-inspiroivat-tekijoita/12fb0bf9-88db-49e4-8562-be21f86bb228

[Recipients of the 2021 grants.] Psykiatrian TutkimussÀÀtiö [Psychiatry Research Foundation] https://www.psykiatriantutkimussaatio.fi/index.php/myonnetyt-apurahat/

Resources

ReseachGate (researchgate.net)

  • Elias Heino
  • https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elias-Heino

Michal Meyer is an Israel-born writer and anti-transgender activist. Meyer is known for a credulous 2015 profile of anti-trans activist Alice Dreger, later deleted.

Background

Michal Meyer was born in February 1969. Meyer earned a bachelor’s degree from Victoria University of Wellington in 1994. Meyer was a weather forecaster in New Zealand and Fiji, then edited the Jerusalem Post Magazine from 2001 to 2003. During graduate school, Meyer edited the History of Science Society newsletter from 2003 to 2009. Meyer earned a doctorate from University of Florida in 2009.

Meyer was editor of Distillations magazine from 2009 to 2022.

Promotion of Alice Dreger (2015)

While editor of Distillations, Meyer published a glowing review of Galileo’s Middle Finger by anti-trans activist Alice Dreger. Meyer represents Dreger’s core audience: mediocre academics of a certain age who see themselves in Dreger’s fabrications. Meyer wants to believe Dreger is a fearless teller of “the truth,” because it panders to all of Meyer’s biases and fantasies.

Meyer described the book as “a love letter to evidence-based research done well.” Meyer parrots Dreger’s attacks on pediatrician Maria New and dutifully summarizes Dreger’s support of unethical behavior scientists J. Michael Bailey and Napoleon Chagnon.

After Meyer left Science History Institute in 2022, the article was quietly removed.

References

Meyer, Michal (December 20, 2015). Identity Politics. Distillations https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/identity-politics [archive]

Resources

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Science History Institute (sciencehistory.org)