Nicholas Confessore vs. transgender people

by Andrea James Reviewed November 8, 2026 6 min read

Nicholas Confessore is an American writer and anti-transgender activist. Following the anti-trans 2025 Supreme Court decision in US v. Skrmetti, Confessore published a feature in the New York Times that framed it as the fault of progressive trans activism, rather than the outcome of a well-funded legal campaign waged against transgender youth by the Christian right.

Background

Nicholas Francis Alexander “Nick” Confessore was born on May 17, 1976 to Ralph J. and Lynda Leonard Confessore. Confessore grew up with a sibling in New York City and attended Hunter College High School. Confessore earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton in 1998.

Confessore was a staff writer at The American Prospect, then an editor at Washington Monthly and a contributor to The Atlantic and Rolling Stone. Confessore joined the New York Times in 2004, working for Metro, Politics and the Washington bureau. In 2016, Confessore joined the Investigations department and the Magazine, formally announced in 2017.

In 2009, Confessore and colleagues won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the downfall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. In 2019, Confessore and colleagues were Pulitzer finalists for an investigation of Facebook and other social media companies.

In 2013, Confessore married Anna Hoffman.

Anti-trans activism

Confessore has been a key figure in the New York Times’ anti-trans coverage crisis during the 2020s.

In 2023, after the union representing Times journalists noted the profound anti-trans discrimination and hostile workplace created by Carolyn Ryan, Jeremy Peters attacked union leadership, drafting an open letter and gathering signatures from colleagues, including Confessore. It states in part:

Every day, partisan actors seek to influence, attack, or discredit our work. We accept that. But what we don’t accept is what the Guild appears to be endorsing: A workplace in which any opinion or disagreement about Times coverage can be recast as a matter of “workplace conditions.”
Our duty is to be independent. We pursue the facts wherever they may lead. We are journalists, not activists. That line should be clear.

2025 US v Skrmetti article

Confessore argues that trans rights activists and the Biden Administration made a costly strategic error by taking a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormones for minors to the Supreme Court. Confessore focuses this criticism on ACLU’s Anthony Romero and Chase Strangio, on Biden Administration official Rachel Levine, and on the American Academy of Pediatrics and WPATH. Confessore presents SPLC-designated anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) as “a group of doctors and scientists that has called for more government regulation of pediatric gender medicine.” Confessore presents Gordon Guyatt without examining SEGM or the McMaster partnership that Guyatt formally ended weeks later. Confessore also cites conservative trans critics of progressive trans positions, including Brianna Wu, Dana Beyer, Laura Targownik, and Jo Ellis.

Critics took issue with Confessore’s framing, which echoed the Times’ ongoing reporting on trans healthcare for young people. Strangio called the case harm reduction, not a bet on liberation, noting that a well-funded right-wing movement forced the fight into the courts whether or not trans groups litigated. In analysis for New Republic, Melissa Gira Grant echoed this, noting that Christian conservative legal groups including Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation wrote model legislation and defended the bans in 25 states. Grant argues those groups pushed too far, too fast, not trans people. Grant also pointed out Confessore covers these groups in only about two paragraphs and presents this as the opinion of trans activists. Legal reporter Chris Geidner noted that Confessore presents these as a “counterattack.” It’s well documented that this was a well-funded and carefully planned first-move attack incubated and launched by the Christian right in starting in 2016, which Confessore fails to cover.

Confessore’s article was welcomed by prominent anti-trans media activists, including Jesse Singal, Andrew Sullivan, Megan McArdle, Joseph Figliola, and Benjamin Ryan. In a follow-up article in the New York Times, Andrew Sullivan presented it as evidence of “how the gay rights movement radicalized and lost its way,” which Jesse Singal repeated in an article relitigating many personal grievances about trans activists for the Dispatch.

It also became the accepted narrative in some academic circles. In an article for Reason, law professor Josh Blackman said it revealed fractures on the left, and it has been presented as the authoritative narrative in a 2026 Hastings Center report and in a Yale Law Journal article calling the decision to litigate this case a misapplication of the “winning through losing” strategy.

References

Park, Pauline (July 11, 2025). Skrmetti & the New York Times: the consequences of the misapprehension of transgender identity & transgender movement politics. https://paulinepark.com/2025/07/11/skrmetti-the-new-york-times-the-consequences-of-the-misapprehension-of-transgender-identity-transgender-movement-politics/

Gira Grant, Melissa (June 26, 2025). What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About SCOTUS’s Trans Rights Ruling The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/article/197261/supreme-court-skrmetti-transgender-ruling-everyone-wrong

Gill-Peterson, Jules (July 21, 2025). Reject Transgender Liberalism. The Baffler https://thebaffler.com/latest/reject-transgender-liberalism-gill-peterson

Geidner, Chris (June 20, 2025). Where is the outrage over Skrmetti? Law Dork https://www.lawdork.com/p/where-is-the-outrage-over-skrmetti

Goodman, Amy (June 20, 2025). “Harming Young People”: Chase Strangio on SCOTUS Trans Healthcare Ban & End of LGBTQ Suicide Hotline. Democracy Now! https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/20/chase_strangio

Caraballo, Alejandra (June 20, 2025). Anatomy of a Hit Piece: Deconstructing The New York Times’ Attack on Transgender Rights in U.S. v. Skrmetti. The Dissident https://www.thedissident.news/anatomy-of-a-hit-piece-deconstructing-the-new-york-times-attack-on-transgender-rights-in-u-s-v-skrmetti/

Riedel, Samantha (June 20, 2025). Clarence Thomas Cited the NYT 7 Times in His Skrmetti Opinion. Trans Activists Saw This Coming All Along. them https://www.them.us/story/op-ed-skrmetti-clarence-thomas-scotus-new-york-times

Reed, Erin (June 19, 2025). After Getting The Ruling It Wanted, New York Times Publishes 6 Anti-Trans Articles Erin In The Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/after-getting-the-ruling-it-wanted

Klein, Charlotte (February 21, 2023). Dozens of New York Times Journalists Hit Staff Union for Its Defense of Trans Coverage Criticism. Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/new-york-times-journalists-letter-guild

Corbett, Rebecca; Fishleder, Paul; Silverstein, Jake (March 29, 2017). A New Role for Nick Confessore. New York Times Company https://www.nytco.com/press/a-new-role-for-nick-confessore/

Staff report (July 14, 2013). Anna Hoffman, Nicholas Confessore. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/fashion/weddings/anna-hoffman-nicholas-confessore.html

Anti-trans coverage

NeJaime, Douglas. Before Losing. Yale Law Journal Forum 135 (October 10, 2025). https://yalelawjournal.org/essay/before-losing

Dresser, Rebecca (2026). Banning Gender‐Affirming Treatment for Minors: The Supreme Court Speaks. Hastings Center Report, 56(3), 6–9. https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.70057

Gutkin, Len (July 7, 2025). The Review: The big expertise question and the Supreme Court The Chronicle of Higher Education https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/the-review/2025-07-07

Singal, Jesse (June 26, 2025). Logic Trips Up the Trans Movement. The Dispatch https://thedispatch.com/article/transgender-court-skrmetti-argument/

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

Staff report (June 25, 2025). Week In Review: June 25, 2025. American College of Pediatricians / Biological Integrity https://biologicalintegrity.org/week-in-review-june-25-2025/

Waters, Clay (June 24, 2025). WashPost PUFFS First Trans Lawyer at SCOTUS; NY Times Adds Troubling Reality for Democrats. NewsBusters https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2025/06/24/washpost-puffs-first-trans-lawyer-scotus-ny-times-adds-troubling

Ryan, Benjamin (June 24, 2025). “Insidious”: The ACLU’s Chase Strangio Slams The New York Times In Leaked Audio. Hazard Ratio https://benryan.substack.com/p/insidious-the-aclus-chase-strangio

“Coddled Affluent Professional” (June 22, 2025). We won! So much winning! Time for a victory lap! Feels Desperate https://feelsdesperate.substack.com/p/we-won-so-much-winning-time-for-a

McArdle, Megan (June 21, 2025). The ACLU bet big on a trans rights case. Its loss was predictable. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/21/supreme-court-youth-gender-transition-ban/

Figliola, Joseph (June 21, 2025). Rising Legal and Scientific Debate Over Youth Gender Treatments. Manhattan Institute / Gender Debrief https://manhattan.institute/article/rising-legal-and-scientific-debate-over-youth-gender-treatments

Sullivan, Andrew (June 20, 2025). Strangio Things. The Weekly Dish https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/strangio-things-ab3

Dreher, Rod (June 20, 2025). How Big Trans Blew The Skrmetti Case. Rod Dreher’s Diary https://roddreher.substack.com/p/how-big-trans-blew-the-skrmetti-case

Blackman, Josh (June 19, 2025). N.Y. Times Magazine Reveals Internal Conflicts On The Left With Skrmetti. Reason / The Volokh Conspiracy https://reason.com/volokh/2025/06/19/n-y-times-magazine-reveals-internal-conflicts-on-the-left-with-skrmetti/

Selected writing by Confessore

Confessore, Nicholas (June 19, 2025). How the Transgender Rights Movement Bet on the Supreme Court and Lost. New York Times Magazine https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/magazine/scotus-transgender-care-tennessee-skrmetti.html

Confessore, Nicholas (April 2, 2005). Transgender Group Reaches Agreement on Restrooms. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/nyregion/transgender-group-reaches-agreement-on-restrooms.html