To my science journalist colleagues at the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and elsewhere:

I write this open letter on the day the New York Times begins a podcast series about healthcare for transgender children, which based on that publication’s track record on the subject, I do not anticipate will go well. One producer of the podcast is science journalist Azeen Ghorayshi, whose ethical lapses surrounding her reporting on transgender issues are well-documented. Since criticism of Ghorayshi, Jesse Singal, and other science journalists who have lent their credentials to the attack on transgender healthcare is often taken as a personal attack, I write this letter as a science journalist, speaking to other science journalists.

This era marks widespread governmental attacks on the existence and civil rights of transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and other gender minorities (hereafter “trans people” for the purposes of this letter). You in our shared profession of science journalism have joined these attacks as willing participants: spreading misinformation; overly weighting studies that appear to question the value of trans healthcare while ignoring or downplaying studies showing opposite results; and promoting voices opposed to trans people’s existence over those of trans people themselves and their supporters. And then there’s the incredible violations of journalistic ethics.

This letter does not catalog every time you or other science journalists have used science to undermine trans civil rights, denied the right for trans people to exist, or argued against their healthcare. As we all know, throwing facts at someone doesn’t change their mind. Shared values can change minds, but I am not convinced we have any shared values left worth considering. The problem is lost trust, from your abandonment of those values and the ethics of our profession. Any restoration of that trust requires work on your part, not mine, and certainly not on the part of our trans colleagues — and given the harms you’ve caused, you have no right to expect forgiveness even if you seek it out.

So I am not expecting anything from you; if I could ask one thing, it would be ethical self-reflection. Right-wing politicians in the United States, United Kingdom, and other nations have cited your work in support of violently anti-trans legislation and executive orders, which one would hope would cause some self-doubt, but I have yet to see evidence of that.

To paraphrase a common slogan about vaccines: healthcare for trans kids makes adults. Passively or actively ignoring the research showing the benefits of puberty blockers and other gender-affirming care for kids is as much a reflection of your values as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s disavowal of vaccines and the callous disregard for the consequences of that disavowal.

Because in the end, this is not truly about science but about humanity, and the values we as science journalists need in our work. Some have chosen to blame the defense of trans kids for the rise of fascism in the US, as though — despite so much historical and contemporary evidence — sacrificing a vulnerable minorized group would satisfy Trump and his ilk. I reject the values you espouse when in particular you say that medical science aligns with the fascists who want trans eradication. When you do that, you say science is a liar when it suits, science is a weapon of the powerful against the vulnerable, science aligns with prejudice, and especially that science journalism is about supporting the powerful and hurting the afflicted. I reject those values, and the damage you do in my name. You do not speak for me, or for our profession.

I am a cisgender man, so perhaps you will listen to me even if you don’t respect our trans colleagues. Often in mainstream media circles such as yours, trans journalists are considered “biased” by their very existence, while anti-trans cisgender journalists are counted as “unbiased” and “critical thinkers”, even when they behave unethically.

Of course, you do not openly say you wish trans people were eradicated, and in fact you might not actually wish this. However, your actions are what matters, not what’s in your unknowable heart. Your actions show you are willing to throw your journalistic ethics in the garbage for the sake of harming trans people. Let my actions show that — as a science journalist as well as a human being — I stand with trans people, now and forever.