The Wrong Questions

Andrew Sullivan and the New York Times provide a series of bad answers to the “trans question.”

Jude Ellison S. Doyle

More of a bisexual lighting question, really. Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

Last week, I found myself on the phone, trying not to shout at a reporter from the New York Times.

The shouting was about Substack. I was one of several people who left the platform over its choice to pay, platform and protect transphobic writers. Unfortunately, my post about leaving Substack caught lots of traffic, and I was being treated as an “expert.” Being a trans “expert” in a conversation about transphobia is the closest any human being can get to Hell without hitting Glenn Greenwald on the way down.

There was the writer who wanted to know why I wasn’t able to share platforms with “people I don’t like,” and who ended the interview when I kept pulling the focus back to transphobia. There was the radio show that interviewed me and a trans woman, then ran quotes from neither of us, tapping a cis reporter — the same reporter who’d ended the interview with me — to read my post aloud on air and explain how unreasonable it was.

After a few of these, I’d decided not to do any more interviews. I only budged for this request because, well, it was the Times. I shouldn’t have.

It fell apart early on. Ben Smith, the reporter, told me by email that his only…

Responses (12)

What are your thoughts?

Thanks for writing this. I'm so sorry I read the comments. I hate that people don't see how all of this is killing trans people, youth especially.

--

How can an extremist agenda pass as “compromise” or “disagreement” or “free speech?”

Yes, how can your extremist agenda pass for free speech? Most trans people aren’t on board with it and more of us are speaking out. Especially about “tourists" who think just saying they’re trans means they are. Especially against well-meaning…...

--

I remember hearing my own words “explained” on a

Not so nice when someone does it to you, so why do you do it to other writers like Sullivan and Greenwald?

--