On July 2, 2021, the company held a seminar with three transgender individuals charged with helping the newsroom learn to report on transgender issues in a “more comprehensive and inclusive way.” In yet another Zoom meeting, Tre’vell Anderson, then editor-at-large at Xtra, Bethany Grace Howe, CEO of the TransHealth Data Collective, and Kate Sosin, LGBTQ+ reporter at the 19th, lectured reporters about the inherent transphobia in their reporting.
I obtained a copy of an email from Politico editors summarizing “highlights” from the seminar. The panelists informed reporters that what they consider the “neutral” position on transgender issues was probably created by “white, cisgender men” and thus cannot be trusted to be accurate. Gendered words, they said, can be rooted in “exclusion” and can actually cause “trauma” for transgender and gender-neutral individuals. One former Politico reporter who attended the seminar said the panelists complained that the word “mother” could potentially be offensive when used by reporters, mocking reporters who had a hard time grappling with the grammatical implications of referring to individuals with the plural pronoun “they/them.” …
What do these folks consider to be anti-trans or transphobic? Sosin has said that the phrase “biological male” is an “anti-trans slur” and that it’s transphobic for women not to want to share a bathroom with a man. Howe complained on Twitter that they were called “sir” on the phone by a FedEx employee. Anderson has described bills banning biological males from women’s sports as “anti-trans” legislation. Factual language, honest mistakes and reasonable concerns about deep-rooted biological differences will not be tolerated by the trans lobby.
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