Jonathan Chait is an American writer and anti-transgender activist. Chait defended the New York Times and their decades of anti-trans coverage. Chait frequently promotes and logrolls for other anti-trans activists, including Jamie Reed, Hannah Barnes, and Jesse Singal.
Background
Jonathan Benjamin “Jon” Chait was born on May 1, 1972 to Illene Seidman Chait and David Chait.
Chait is a writer for New York since 2011, including their newsletter titled “&c.”
Chait’s spouse Robin Joy Bouckris Chait (born 1972) is a “school choice” activist.
Anti-transgender activism
Chait credulously repeats the claims of anti-trans friends, most notably former coworker Jesse Singal.
After anti-trans activist Jamie Reed began the process of getting trans healthcare criminalized in Missouri, Chait approvingly cited fawning articles about Reed.
Reedās article went viral on social media, and was cited by numerousĀ conservativesĀ andĀ transphobesĀ asĀ conclusive proofĀ that too many kids are getting transition care. A couple of prominent liberals joined in as well. Matthew Yglesias cited it as credible onĀ TwitterĀ andĀ Substack. āThe picture she paints of the clinicās treatment of children is ghastly. The affidavit she signed is even worse,āĀ wrote Jonathan ChaitĀ atĀ New YorkĀ magazine. (Itās of a piece with anĀ ongoing trendĀ in liberal and centrist publications of writing anxious articles raising questions about youth transition care.)
Cooper (2023)
In Splice, Noah Berlatsky noted:
Chait has embraced the idea that trans children are able to access health care too easily. In a recentĀ New YorkĀ article, he told his readers of reports that young people were coming into trans health care clinics claiming to be rocks or mushrooms, and immediately being given hormones.
This raises questions. What hormones would you give a rock? Why would you use your platform to spew unconfirmed and nonsensical rumors? Chaitās claims wereĀ quickly debunked by local reporting in St. Louis. At which point Chait wandered onto Twitter to say he was updating his āBayesian priorsā and whine because people were mocking him for being a credulous and bigoted fool. […]
Reactionary centrists like Chait want to have it both ways. They want to oppose fascism without having to stand with marginalized people, who make them uncomfortable, or just seem less respectable than middle-aged white male pundits with sinecures at major magazines. Why canāt you fight fascismĀ andĀ deny trans people health care? āBoth sides!ā Chait bellows, as he bashes out a column warning of the dangers of the powerful governor of Florida and then turns around and bashes out a column about the dangers of human rights for a despised, marginalized minority.
Berlasky (2023)
Hanna Phifer noted in The Nation:
Jonathan Chait ofĀ New Yorkās The IntelligencerĀ publishedĀ a piece saying that the suggestion that theĀ Times, or any publication for that matter, has any systemic influence, is āunhingedā and that the blame ālies first with politicians and the party that pass them.ā But as the open letter pointed out, that is demonstratively untrue āAs recently as February 8th, 2023, attorney David Begleyās invited testimony to the Nebraska state legislature in support of a similar bill approvingly cited the Timesā reporting and relied on its reputation as the āpaper of recordā to justify criminalizing gender-affirming care.ā
Phifer (2023)
References
Phifer, Hanna (February 23, 2023). I Signed theĀ New York TimesĀ Open Letter. I Have More to Say. The Nation https://www.thenation.com/article/society/new-york-times-open-letter-more-to-say/
Berlatsky, Noah (March 3, 2023). Jonathan Chait Tries to Be Both Anti-DeSantis and Anti-Trans. Splice Today https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/jonathan-chait-tries-to-be-both-anti-desantis-and-anti-trans
Cooper, Ryan (March 2, 2023). The Useful Idiots Fueling the Right-Wing Transphobia Panic. The American Prospect https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-03-02-right-wing-transphobia-panic/
Urquhart, Evan (February 17, 2023) Jonathan Chait, Tavistock, and the Truth. Assigned Media https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/jonathan-chait-tavistock-and-the-truth
Chait, Jonathan (February 17, 2023). Fight the Anti-Trans Backlash With Accountability, Not Silence. Intelligencer https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/nytimes-letter-trans-gender-youth-accountability.html
Jonathan, Chait;Ā Singal, JesseĀ (November 16, 2016).Ā How Alarmed Should American Jews Be Right Now? Two Jews Kibitz.Ā New York Magazine https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/11/is-there-a-new-american-antisemitism.html
Media
Chait, Jonathan (2007). The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics. ISBN 978-0618685400
Chait, Jonathan (2017). Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy that Will Prevail. ISBN 978-0062426970
Resources
New York Magazine (nymag.com)
- Jonathan Chait
- nymag.com/author/jonathan-chait
Twitter (twitter.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Facebook (facebook.com)