April 24 2026, 08:15 
The New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger came under fire Wednesday at the paper’s annual shareholders’ meeting for coverage that the mother of a transgender teen described as “deeply concerning.”
Times coverage of transgender issues has been cited by anti-trans activists and others — including Justice Clarence Thomas in his concurrence in U.S. vs Skrmetti case last year, banning gender-affirming care for trans youth in Tennessee — “to justify discrimination and harm,” she said in her comments read to attendees.
Related
Former NY Times editor says anti-trans coverage was a deliberate push from the top
“What steps are you taking to be accountable to concerns of the trans community, readers, and shareholders?” she asked.
Sulzberger, under attack for years over the outlet’s coverage of transgender rights and medical care, was unrepentant.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
Times coverage of the debate over those issues has been “incredibly rigorously reported and edited” and “respectful of the people we’re covering and sensitive to the moment,” Sulzberger said, asserting that the paper’s role is “to cover all aspects of that shift fully and fairly.”
The question to the publisher was posed by Brooke Williams, the mother of a transgender teen, and posted to Instagram by the Gender Liberation Movement.
Citing Times’ coverage of “groundbreakers in the community,” the “hopes and struggles for trans rights,” and stories documenting discrimination and violence against trans people, Sulzberger argued that readers “couldn’t read any of that and think that The New York Times is anti-trans.”
The publisher claimed the paper’s newsroom leaders have engaged extensively with critics of The Times’ coverage and concluded it “has indeed been fair and comprehensive.”
Critics disagree.
“The New York Times again failed to take responsibility for years of coverage that has been so inaccurate and biased the Trump administration, the Supreme Court, and lawmakers in states considering anti-trans legislation have specifically cited it multiple times to justify unprecedented laws and rulings against transgender Americans,” LGBTQ+ rights group GLAAD said in a statement after audio of the call was posted.
“The Times’ coverage is also regularly cited by anti-LGBTQ activist organizations that the Times continues to feature as credible sources in its reporting without noting their documented history of anti-LGBTQ pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, the Times has chosen not to report in-depth on comprehensive independent scientific research that unambiguously shows benefits of health care that affirms and supports transgender youth, research covered by other and far smaller outlets, yet somehow didn’t make it into the Times’ ‘all the news fit to print,’” GLAAD added.
Earlier this year, trans journalist and former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney claimed that “promoting disinformation and legitimizing bias” at the paper was an effort that came all the way from the top.
The coverage has inspired a backlash among both rights organizations and Times employees.
In early 2023, hundreds of New York Times contributors, LGBTQ+ rights organizations, and community leaders wrote two separate open letters berating the paper’s anti-trans pieces. One letter from over 180 Times contributors pointed out that over an eight-month period, the paper had devoted 15,000 words of front-page coverage to debating the merits of gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Nearly all major medical associations nationwide consider gender-affirming healthcare to be safe, essential, and effective for young trans people’s well-being.
“The Times has in recent years treated gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language, while publishing reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources,” the letter stated.
Since then, Times coverage continues to be cited by anti-trans advocates in their state and federal-level crusade against the trans community, in particular over the issue of gender-affirming care for trans youth. The most notorious example was Justice Thomas in Skrmetti, cherry-picking “reporting” from the Times culled from its opinion pages.
The opinion section, Sulzberger asserted on Wednesday’s call, “has explicitly championed trans rights for many years and continues to do so today,” adding that The Times continues “to make sure that this journalism meets the highest standards.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.