Michelle Goldberg is Better Than Nothing

The New York Times opinion columnist is skeptical of transgender youth, but still thinks parents’ rights activism goes too far.

by Evan Urquhart

The transphobic New York Times is at it again… except, wait, maybe they’re not? The first five paragraphs of an opinion column this morning by liberal columnist Michelle Goldberg are about her skepticism towards trans youth, but by the end she pivots cleanly towards common sense and tolerance in a way that may ultimately make the column more convincing to trans-skeptical readers because she shares their concerns.

And, boy, does Goldberg have concerns. She is concerned about all the things misleading recent mainstream coverage of this topic has amplified and distorted: detransition, an increase in the number of kids who identify as trans, the unproven theory that this increase is due to a social contagion, and some vaguely worded concerns related to mental health.

Here’s a sample paragraph, to give the flavor. While Goldberg doesn’t come right out and say it, her implication is that mental health issues are causing youth to become transgender, and presumably that treating these mental health issues would make their gender dysphoria disappear. (There is, once again, no evidence whatsoever that either of these things are true.)

screenshot from the New York Times

In Goldberg’s first five paragraphs she links to almost every recent article in mainstream outlets which presented a misleading or one-sided spin on the question of transgender youth. The only notable piece she fails to link to is the truly terrible NYT piece on puberty blockers, perhaps suggesting that the widespread criticism of that piece has broken through to the mainstream. Then Goldberg pivots to Sunday’s reported piece in the Times, a similarly one-sided story presenting the opinions of parents’ rights activists who believe schools should inform parents when a child says they’re trans. Here’s what she says:

screenshot from the New York Times

This is very good. Goldberg has seen to the heart of the issue, recognizing that adolescents normally gain a measure of independence at school. She recognizes that going by a nickname or wearing clothing one’s parents don’t approve of is normal, and not something schools have ever been expected to police. Goldberg understands that transphobic parents’ rights activists are asking schools to do something unprecedented, for no good reason, and that this incursion into how schools work may not stop with trans youth.
As frustrating as the multiple paragraphs of transphobic throat clearing that precede this are, those paragraphs at least serve to signal to transphobic readers that Goldberg is one of them. This means such people may be more likely to consider the possibility that supporting parents’ rights activism is a bridge too far. Although it would be better if the Times wasn’t publishing articles that whitewash parents’ rights activism, and it would be nice if they had a trans columnist who could present a full-throated version of the trans rights side of all these issues, in a time when so many readers have been misled and confused by transphobic propaganda in the Times itself, it’s good to see an opinion column like this from Goldberg that might help bring some readers back from the brink.