John McDermott vs. transgender people

John McDermott is an American writer who sympathetically profiled anti-trans bigots for the New York Times.

McDermott takes issue with this profile and its entire framing, stating on April 10, 2023: “Insinuating I’m anti-trans is demonstrably false. I’ve never written a single sentence that attacks trans people or gender ideology.” The term gender ideology is an anti-trans dog whistle used widely among anti-transgender activists and religious conservatives.

For the Harvard-educated journalist who serves as Africa correspondent for The Economist and graduated from London School of Economics on a Fulbright Scholarship, see John McDermott.

Background

John Michael McDermott was born October 5, 1987. McDermott grew up in Illinois and graduated from Oak Park-River Forest High School in 2006, then earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010.

McDermott has written for Inc., Advertising Age, Digiday, Esquire, and MEL Magazine. McDermott has also freelanced for The New York Times, WIRED, Politico, The Atlantic, Playboy, Vice, Fast Company and the Chicago Tribune.

2017 MEL piece

McDermott waded into the subject of transgender athletes following Andraya Yearwood’s high school track wins, using the anti-trans dog whistle “biological sex”:

The far right has framed the events as political correctness coming at the expense of fairness and common sense, while others have celebrated it as a victory for trans inclusion. A third group has adopted a mixed viewpoint, one that accepts Yearwood’s decision to transition but questions whether her biological sex gives her an unfair advantage in women’s athletics.

2019 New York Times piece

McDermott wrote a 2019 puff piece about anti-transgender media figures for the New York Times. The piece was greenlit and published in the Styles section by Choire Sicha.

As with any “cisgender people under siege” type article, McDermott’s piece presents these bigots as fearless truth-tellers akin to Galileo. McDermott interviewed zero trans people or media watchdogs critical of these bigots.

Attacking trans people is a get-rich-quick scheme that has proven effective for decades. Social scientists call McDermott’s tactic DARVO (deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender). Biologist Julia Serano calls DARVO directed at trans people “the Dregerian narrative,” named after intellectual dark web member Alice Dreger, whom McDermott mentions.

As Melissa Gira Grant noted in The New Republic:

Conspicuously absent from the Times piece are quotes and stories from the people who have been deemed—both by the canceled and their chroniclers—supporting players in the culture war debate: the trans individuals the canceled have concerned themselves with, and whose lives and health are at stake.

People profiled sympathetically include:

Katie Herzog: “Herzog became a member of a unique emerging class of people — journalists, academics, opinion writers — canceled for bad, conservative or offensive opinions.”
Jesse Singal “Mr. Singal has written frequently on trans people in ways that have upset vocal members of that community. His stature has only grown, including on Twitter, where he mocks woke culture and identity politics. He is one of many who simultaneously talk about their cancellation experience while also noting that they also haven’t really been canceled.”
The Stranger
Alice Dreger
Christina Hoff Sommers
Meghan Murphy
J. Michael Bailey
Kathleen Stock
Jonathan Kay
Quillette
Bridget Phetasy
Andrew Doyle
Mitchell Sunderland
Art Tavana
Dave Rubin / The Rubin Report
Jordan Peterson
Peter Thiel
Ben Shapiro
Cathy Young
Jamie Kilstein
Lisa Hardcastle

In 2023 McDermott posted then quickly deleted a solicitation to an alleged “detransitioner” on Twitter.

oh come on man is the grift really that fucking easy pic.twitter.com/JorH65mNfm
— alexandra (@bigmoodenergy) May 27, 2023

References

Grant, Melissa Gira (November 6, 2019). Fixating on “Cancel Culture” in an Age of Transphobia. The New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/155606/fxating-cancel-culture-age-transphobia

McDermott, John (November 2, 2019). Those people we tried to cancel? They’re all hanging out together. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/style/what-is-cancel-culture.html

Serano, Julia (March 29, 2021). The Dregerian Narrative (or why “trans activists” vs. “scientists” framings are lazy, inaccurate, and incendiary). Medium https://juliaserano.medium.com/the-dregerian-narrative-or-why-trans-activists-vs-276740045120

McDermott, John (October 24, 2018). My high school years of white privilege. Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-america-to-me-docuseries-oak-park-river-forest-high-school-1025-story.html

McDermott, John (June 7, 2017). There’s no easy answer to the debate over trans high school athletes. MEL https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/theres-no-easy-answer-to-the-debate-over-trans-high-school-athletes