Member-only story
Politico doesn’t know how to report on trans issues
A recent expose on the publication by The Daily Beast mentioned a recent story about trans athletes
The issue of trans athletes, and specifically trans women and girl athletes in women’s sports is a nuanced one, with a lot of misunderstood and often willfully ignored science.
Given that the trans population in the US is tiny, and that people have been worried that trans women would soon take over women’s sports for the greater part of the last 50 years (which hasn’t happened and likely never will), it’s remarkable that Republicans have managed to take this niche, boutique issue and turn into something even somewhat electorally viable.
That doesn’t mean that Republicans are right, it’s just that they understand better than anyone how to turn a scary minority into an emotional wedge.
Enter Politico.
Last March, Politico reporter Gabby Orr published a piece about transgender athletes as a political issue. The article quoted 5 anti-trans or conservative political activists and operatives all spreading a largely inaccurate line that trans women would somehow usurp cis women in women’s sports. As a counterbalance, Orr included two quotes from an attorney at the Human Rights Campaign, who…
