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Andrew Sullivan vs. transgender people

Andrew Sullivan is a conservative gay cultural critic and anti-transgender extremist. The Advocate noted that Sullivan “represents everything wrong with the gay rights movement.”

Sullivan is an LGB separatist who subscribes to the “gay erasure” conspiracy theory that healthcare for trans and gender diverse youth is a plan to eliminate gay, lesbian, and bisexial people.

Sullivan says Catholic upbringing and values inform this conservatism. Sullivan’s gender critical views include:

  • Criticizing legal protections based on gender identity
  • Criticizing affirmative care for gender diverse youth
  • Promoting the ex-transgender movement
  • Stating that trans youth should wait until 16 for health services
  • Citing anti-trans research like Lisa Littman’s “rapid onset gender dysphoria

Sullivan believes that “Stonewall was the downfall of the gay movement” and that “the gay movement was hijacked in the seventies” by activists.

Background

In 1986, Sullivan took a role at The New Republic, rising to editor in 1991 before leaving in 1996.

Sullivan wrote for The New York Times Magazine from 1998 until getting fired in 2002. During that time Sullivan started a blog called The Dish that ran until 2015. From 2016 to 2020 Sullivan wrote for New York magazine, then moved to Substack.

Anti-trans activism

Sullivan frequently appears in the media to attack trans people, especially gender diverse children.

Sullivan has collaborated with anti-trans activists, including Katie Herzog, Megyn Kelly, Bill Maher, Konstantin Kisin, and Francis Foster.

Podcast

In October 2020, Sullivan began the Dishcast, which has hosted many anti-trans activists, including David Frum, Michelle Goldberg, Rod Dreher, Eric Kaufmann, Lionel Shriver, Nellie Bowles, Bill Maher, Richard Dawkins, Abigail Shrier, Carole Hooven, Pamela Paul, Leor Sapir, Vivek Ramaswamy, Hannah Barnes, Nicholas Wade, Ben Appel, Matt Taibbi, Glen Loury, Louise Perry, David French, Douglas Murray, Bari Weiss, Jonathan Haidt, Kathleen Stock, Christopher Rufo, Michael Shellenberger, Ann Coulter, Steven Pinker, Ross Douthat, Wesley Yang, Katie Herzog, Charles Murray, Niall Ferguson, Julie Bindel, Emily Yoffe, Sally Satel, Glenn Greenwald, Kmele Foster, Caitlin Flanagan, Meghan Daum, Matt Yglesias, and Coleman Hughes.

Sullivan has also hosted conservative trans activist Buck Angel, ex-trans activist Helena Kerschner, and centrist trans activists Mara Keisling and Dana Beyer.

References

Reis, Elizabeth (July 16, 2025). Our Bodies, Our Decisions: A Response to Andrew Sullivan’s NYT Essay. Nursing Clio https://nursingclio.org/2025/07/16/our-bodies-our-decisions-a-response-to-andrew-sullivans-nyt-essay/

Urquhart, Evan (June 26, 2025). NYT Publishes Andrew Sullivan’s Incoherent Mishmash of Anti-Trans Politics. Assigned Media https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/new-york-times-andrew-sullivan-incoherant-anti-trans-politics

Coyne, Jerry (June 26, 2025). An important article by Andrew Sullivan. Why Evolution Is True https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2025/06/26/an-important-article-by-andrew-sullivan/

Hays, Gabriel (June 26, 2025). Gay journalist says LGBTQ movement has gone from civil rights success to ‘madness.’ Fox News https://nypost.com/2025/06/26/us-news/gay-journalist-says-lgbtq-movement-has-gone-from-civil-rights-success-to-madness/

Brantley Will [ed.] (2024). Conversations with Sarah Schulman. University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 978-1-4968-4836-9 https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.10782311.10

Schindler, Paul (February 1, 2018). The Trouble With Andrew Sullivan. Gay City News https://gaycitynews.com/the-trouble-with-andrew-sullivan/

Marr, Rhuaridh (December 30, 2020). Gay conservative Andrew Sullivan complains about lesbians ‘becoming men’ in anti-trans column. Sullivan’s complaints about lesbian women not tending to him while sick led to confusion on Twitter. Metro Weekly https://www.metroweekly.com/2020/12/gay-conservative-andrew-sullivan-complains-about-lesbians-becoming-men-in-anti-trans-column/

Finke, Leigh (April 28, 2021). From Andrew Sullivan to Terry Schilling: Framing Transition as Evil. The Advocate https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2021/4/28/andrew-sullivan-terry-schilling-framing-transition-evil

Belonsky, Andrew (October 12, 2007). Andrew Sullivan Supports Barney Frank. Queerty http://www.queerty.com/andrew-sullivan-supports-barney-frank-20071012/

Selected anti-trans writing by Sullivan

Sullivan, Andrew (June 26, 2025). How the Gay Rights Movement Radicalized, and Lost Its Way. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/opinion/gay-lesbian-trans-rights.html alt headline: Gay People Won. So Why Does It Feel As if We’re Losing?

Sullivan, Andrew (October 18, 2024). Rachel Levine Must Resign. Substack https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/rachel-levine-must-resign

Sullivan, Andrew (April 12, 2024). Will Big Trans Be Held To Account? The Cass Report has definitively destroyed their case for child sex-changes. Substack https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/will-big-trans-be-held-to-account-3ad

Sullivan, Andrew (March 15, 2024). The Transqueers Take The Mask Off: Judith Butler and Andrea Long Chu explain their gender revolution. It’s wild! Substack https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-transqueers-take-the-mask-off-f7c

Sullivan, Andrew (February 2, 2024). The Meaningless Incoherence Of “LGBTQ+.” Substack https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-meaningless-incoherence-of-lgbtq-d47

Sullivan, Andrew (June 23, 2023). Gay Rights And The Limits Of Liberalism. https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/gay-rights-and-the-limits-of-liberalism-be4

Sullivan, Andrew (May 19, 2023). The Queers Versus The Homosexuals. Substack https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-queers-versus-the-homosexuals-cfd

Sullivan, Andrew (March 24, 2023). Culture War Politics And The English Language. https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/culture-war-politics-and-the-english-706

Sullivan, Andrew (April 8, 2022). Who Is Looking Out For Gay Kids? Substack https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/who-is-looking-out-for-gay-kids-a19

Sullivan, Andrew (February 18, 2022). The Backlash Against Trans Extremism. Substack https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-backlash-against-trans-extremism

Sullivan, Andrew (February 18, 2022). The Trans Movement Is Not About Rights Anymore. Substack https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-trans-movement-is-not-about-rights-67e

Sullivan, Andrew (October 8, 2021). Dave Chappelle Is Right, Isn’t He? The comedian defends reality. Which is currently under siege. Substack https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/dave-chappelle-is-right-isnt-he-b23

Sullivan, Andrew (April 9, 2021). A Truce Proposal in the Trans WarsSubstack https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/a-truce-proposal-in-the-trans-wars-c49

Sullivan, Andrew (November 1, 2019). The Hard Questions About Young People and Gender TransitionsIntelligencer http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-hard-questions-gender-transitions-for-young.html

Sullivan, Andrew (September 20, 2019). When the Ideologues Come for the KidsIntelligencer https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/andrew-sullivan-when-the-ideologues-come-for-the-kids.html

Sullivan, Andrew (February 1, 2019). The Nature of Sex. Intelligencer https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/andrew-sullivan-the-nature-of-sex.html

Sullivan, Andrew (June 2, 2014). Engaging The T. The Dish https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/threads/engaging-the-t/

Media

The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan and Brianna Wu (December 27, 2024). Brianna Wu On Trans Life. https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/brianna-wu-on-trans-life

Club Random with Bill Maher (March 2, 2023). Why Being Gay is now considered Bigoted w/ Andrew Sullivan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Gf3RRGDM0

Megyn Kelly (October 10, 2022). The Lies of “Gender Affirming Care” Grow More Extreme, with Andrew Sullivan. The Megyn Kelly Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c87CuvD5j24

TRIGGERnometry with Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster (June 29, 2022) Andrew Sullivan: “Leave Kids the F*ck Alone!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8f_f-lhuUw

Real Time with Bill Maher (June 24, 2022). Overtime: Andrew Sullivan, Katie Herzog, Christine Emba | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7QITC__mV4

Andrew Sullivan (February 26, 2021). Mara Keisling On The Trans Debate. https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/mara-keisling-on-the-trans-debate

Resources

Andrew Sullivan (andrewsullivan.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Substack (substack.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

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