NYT Removes Superfluous Reference to Trans Woman’s Gender Inserted by Cis-Identified Science Reporter
Azeen Ghorayshi mentioned the trans identity of WPATH President Marci Bowers, but did not include the identities of people mentioned in the story who were cis.
by Evan Urquhart
The New York Times reported yesterday on discussions between Biden administration officials and members of WPATH, the world professional standards organization overseeing transgender healthcare. Admiral Rachel Levine, Biden’s assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, reportedly warned WPATH that including specific age guidelines in their professional standards for gender-affirming treatment of minors, which were finalized in late 2021, was likely to be highly politicized by the US right. A story by Azeen Ghorayshi, a cisgender woman, claims Levine “pressed [WPATH] to remove age limits for adolescent surgeries.”
As forecasted by Levine, conservative groups in the US would place bans on gender-affirming care among their top policy priorities in subsequent years, eventually succeeding in banning the treatments, which are supported by mainstream medical organizations in the US, in 25 GOP-led states.
Email excerpts between Levine and WPATH were made public by James Cantor, a psychologist who has appeared as an expert witness in court proceedings against gender-affirming care. The bulk of Cantor’s work has been on pedophilia, and he even once tweeted in favor of the addition of a “P” for “pedophile” to the LGBTQ+ acronym, a suggestion that was overwhelmingly rejected by the LGBTQ+ community at large.
The emails excerpts became public as part of an Alabama court case in which the judge wrote that he gave Cantor’s testimony “very little weight” because Cantor has no background in working with transgender youth.
James Cantor is also a cis man. The leadership of the New York Times are all cis men and women. The readership of the New York Times overwhelmingly identifies as cis.
In Ghorayshi’s original copy, attention was called to the gender identity of the two people mentioned in the story who were transgender, while no information was given on the gender identities of those who were not. In addition to Cantor this included Ron DeSantis and Gregg Abott, two Republican governors who identify as cisgender men. Soon after publication the story was quietly updated to remove the reference to the gender identity of Dr. Marci Bowers, president of the professional standards organization for transgender care.
screenshot from nytimes.com, taken by Alejandra Caraballo June 25, 2024
Ethical journalistic practice typically calls for transparency when news organizations make changes to the text of a story after publication, though fixing minor issues such as typos and misspellings is generally considered fair game.
This is not the first time the NYT has quietly updated a story relating to the transgender community without making clear the reason for the change. Assigned Media reported on a previous instance where an obituary for a transgender man was changed after the original used female pronoun and other incorrect gender terms.
Reached for comment, an NYT spokesperson explained, “We regularly edit web stories, especially breaking news stories. We only make note of changes if they involve an error. Making note of every change is unrealistic and would not serve the reader."
Journalistic best practices tend to emphasize practicing transparency around substantive changes made to online copy after publication, though minor spelling errors and typos are largely considered exempt. Changing language in a story that might be considered biased or offensive towards a minority community without explaining the reason for the change is something of a gray area, falling somewhere between correcting a factual error and removing a typo or fixing a grammatical mistake.
For comparison, the New York Times diligently issues corrections when they misspell a name.
Evan Urquhart is the founder of Assigned Media.