A.G. Sulzberger (Image: Getty Images)

A.G. Sulzberger was challenged at The New York Times’ annual shareholders meeting after a parent of a transgender teenager asked what responsibility the paper holds when its reporting is cited to justify laws and policies targeting trans people, and what it is doing to be accountable.

The parent told the meeting: “This reporting is deeply concerning to me as the mom of a trans teen,” before asking: “What steps are you taking to be accountable to concerns of the trans community, readers, and shareholders?”

Sulzberger defended the paper’s journalism, describing the reporting as “incredibly rigorously reported and edited” and saying the Times aims “to cover all aspects of that shift fully and fairly”. He also said readers “couldn’t read any of that and think that The New York Times is anti-trans”, pointing to coverage that includes discrimination and violence, as well as stories about “groundbreakers in the community” and the “hopes and struggles for trans rights”.

Sulzberger added that the opinion section “has explicitly championed trans rights for many years and continues to do so today”, and said the newsroom would continue working “to make sure that this journalism meets the highest standards”.

A spokesperson for the Times later told The Advocate that Sulzberger had “addressed [the mother’s] question fully”, and referenced prior remarks in which he argued that withholding information because it could be misused would be “unjournalistic”.

GLAAD’s response

GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organisation, criticised the response, with a spokesperson saying: “The New York Times once again failed to take responsibility for years of coverage that has been so inaccurate and biased that the Trump administration, the Supreme Court, and right-wing lawmakers in states considering anti-trans legislation have specifically cited it multiple times as justification for unprecedented laws and rulings against transgender Americans.

“The Times’ coverage is also regularly cited by anti-LGBTQ activist organisations 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’.”

Claims about legal impact

The Times’ reporting has been cited in legal and legislative contexts, including in United States v. Skrmetti, in which Justice Clarence Thomas cited the Times multiple times in a concurring opinion after the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. A joint 2024 analysis by Media Matters and GLAAD also found the Times failed to quote a transgender person in 66% of its stories about anti-trans legislation over a one-year period.

Debates over the Times’ coverage of trans issues have been a recurring flashpoint in US media criticism and LGBTQ+ advocacy circles, with an ex-editor making claims about senior staff being ‘militant’ on the issue.

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