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The Times vs. transgender people

The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London. The Times and sibling publication The Sunday Times are considered newspapers of record in the UK. Both publications produce consistently anti-transgender content.

Media critic Jane Fae of Trans Media Watch described The Times‘ trans coverage as part of “a concerted campaign of disinformation” in a 2020 submission to the UK government.

Background

The newspaper began in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register. In 1788, the name was changed to The Times. An American edition of The Times began in June 2006. In 1981, The Times and The Sunday Times were bought by Rupert Murdoch.

Notable incidents

On November 11, 2017, anti-trans extremist Janice Turner wrote a piece titled “Children sacrificed to appease trans lobby.”

On April 8, 2019, The Times published four anti-trans articles in one issue:

  • a front-page piece by Lucy Bannerman titled “Calls to end transgender ‘experiment on children.'”
  • another piece by Lucy Bannerman titled “It feels like conversion therapy for gay children, say clinicians”
  • a third piece by Lucy Bannerman titled “Families ‘exploited by gender lobby groups pushing for treatment’”
  • a piece by Carl Heneghan titled “Doubts over evidence for using drugs on the young.”

References

Owen, L. (2022). “Parasitically Occupying Bodies”: Exploring Toxifying Securitization in Anti-Trans and Genocidal Ideologies. Peace Review, 34(4), 481–494. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2022.2129000

Turnbull‐Dugarte, S. J., & McMillan, F. (2022). “Protect the women!” Trans‐exclusionary feminist issue framing and support for transgender rights. Policy Studies Journal, 51(3), 629–666. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12484

Gwenffrewi, Gina (). Punk Mood, Junk Food: Portrayals of Transgender Apocalypse. In Women and the Abuse of Power https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-334-220221008

Armitage, L. (2020). Explaining backlash to trans and non-binary genders in the context of UK Gender Recognition Act reform. Journal of the International Network for Sexual Ethics and Politics (Internet), 8, 11-35. https://doi.org/10.3224/insep.si2020.02

Serano, Julia (November 27, 2017). Transgender Agendas, Social Contagion, Peer Pressure, and Prevalence. Medium https://juliaserano.medium.com/transgender-agendas-social-contagion-peer-pressure-and-prevalence-c3694d11ed24

Stokoe, Ash; Gwenffrewi, Gina; Galpin, Charlotte (October 28, 2022). Hunting Mermaids: Exploring media representation of the trans+ community. University of Birmingham https://blog.bham.ac.uk/socialsciencesbirmingham/2022/10/28/hunting-mermaids-exploring-media-representation-of-the-trans-community/

Fae, Jane (26 November 2020). Written submission to The Women and Equalities Select Committee: Call for Evidence in respect of the Government response to Reform of the Gender Recognition Act. [auto-download Word document] https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/17432/default/

Carrell, Severin; Brooks, Libby (Fri 17 May 2019). Times editor defends paper’s coverage of transgender issues. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/17/times-editor-defends-papers-coverage-of-transgender-issues

Strudwick, Patrick (17 May 2019). The Editor Of The Times Of London Has Denied It Is Transphobic. BuzzFeed https://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/editor-times-denied-newspaper-transphobic

Nolan, Megan (December 7, 2017,). Lily Madigan and the Hunt for Past Transgressions. VICE https://www.vice.com/en/article/lily-madigan-and-the-hunt-for-past-transgressions/

Duffy, Nick (November 29, 2017). Jo Cox women’s leadership scheme rebukes The Times over attacks on transgender teen. PinkNews https://www.thepinknews.com/2017/11/29/jo-cox-womens-leadership-scheme-rebukes-the-times-over-attacks-on-transgender-teen/

McCormick, Joseph (November 25 2017). The Times attacks trans teenager for applying to Jo Cox leadership programme. PinkNews https://www.thepinknews.com/2017/11/25/the-times-attacks-trans-teenager-for-applying-to-jo-cox-leadership-programme/

Jones, Owen (15 Dec 2017). Anti-trans zealots, know this: history will judge you. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/15/trans-backlash-anti-gay-zealotry-section-28-homophobia

Jackman, Josh (Nov 12 2018). Times columnist Rod Liddle ‘identifies as young, black, trans chihuahua.’ PinkNews https://www.thepinknews.com/2018/11/12/rod-liddle-transgender-black-chihuahua/

Milton, Josh (8 April 2019). Trans people slam The Times for calling trans kids therapy an ‘experiment’: The four articles were published in today’s issue of The Times in the UK. https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/the-times-four-transphobic-articles/ [archive]

Parsons, Vic (May 26, 2022). Meet the Trans Storytellers Fighting British Transphobia. them https://www.them.us/story/trans-storytellers-fighting-british-transphobia

Coverage in anti-trans media

Kirkup, James (8 April 2019). It is now ‘transphobic’ to report doctors’ fears about trans’ children’s health. The Spectator https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/it-is-now-transphobic-to-report-doctors-fears-about-trans-children-s-health/

Selected anti-trans writing

note: see the Lucy Bannerman profile for a list of hundreds of anti-trans pieces.

Turner, Janice (November 11, 2017). Children sacrificed to appease trans lobby. The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/children-sacrificed-to-appease-trans-lobby-bq0m2mm95

Massie, Alex (May 24, 2025). If biological truth is transphobic, then we’ve lost our minds. The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/if-biological-truth-is-transphobic-then-weve-lost-our-minds-dfsqkcq3s

Resources

The Times (thetimes.com)

  • Transgender
  • thetimes.com/search?source=nav-desktop&q=transgender

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Instagram (instagram.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

TikTok (tiktok.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)