A significant shift has occurred at the nation's newspaper of record, where the traditional boundaries of objective journalism have increasingly blurred into full-fledged cultural and social activism. The New York Times has effectively synonymized full-fledged activism with journalism. The scope of this editorial advocacy is remarkably broad and varied. On any given day, the newspaper’s activism is so diverse that on one day, the newspaper humanizes Islamists, on the other, it injects a woke agenda in days celebrating specific gender roles.

This ongoing editorial pattern was fully visible on the recent occasion of Father’s Day. Seizing upon the traditional holiday, the New York Times published a guest essay normalizing ‘trans dad’. This decision to use a holiday historically dedicated to biological paternal roles to advance a specific gender ideology immediately triggered a massive wave of public pushback. The NYT’s trans activism on Father’s Day, however, did not sit well with many on social media.

The highly controversial guest piece was written by Zach Ellams, a biological female who identifies as a ‘trans’ man. Instead of a traditional text column, the article appears in illustrated comic-strip format with drawings from Hannah Jacobs. This visual medium was used to present the deeply personal narrative in an approachable, stylized manner.

Zach Ellams, the author of the article headlined, “To My Daughter, My Gender Was Never Complicated”, is described as a London-based editor and motion designer. According to the biographical details provided in the piece, Ellams has lived as a trans man since the age of 18. Within the illustrated narrative, Ellams recounted experiences parenting a daughter named Elliot, with his ‘wife’.

The publication of this feature on June 21st represents more than just an individual family profile. Critics argue that the NYT piece published on 21st June not only normalizes biological females identifying as men, parenting children as fathers, but also furthers a victimhood narrative. The underlying structure of the article frames ‘fatherhood’ as aiding Zach Ellams overcome personal shaming about ‘transitioning’ from a biological female to a trans male by undergoing a gender-change procedure, and embracing his self-imposed identity fully.

Throughout the illustrated text, Ellams highlights how trans males need “thick skin” as a parent to navigate the modern social landscape. To demonstrate this resilience, the NYT piece portrays Ellams’s young daughter’s casual acceptance of her trans dad’s sexuality as supportive and progressive.

To illustrate this family dynamic, the article includes anecdotes of public or everyday moments wherein Ellams’s daughter asks questions about or comments on Ellam’s body and past. The author highlights several key conversations to show how the young child processes her parent's physical transformation:

While walking down the street, the daughter asks, “How long did you have breasts, Dad?”*
At a pool, she asks, “How did you grow a moustache if you were a lady?”*
On a playground, the daughter says, “I want to grow a beard when I grow up.” Another child replies, “You can’t grow a beard. You’re a girl.” The daughter responds, “My dad did, and he was a girl.”*

While the New York Times emphasized the child’s supposed easy navigation of complex issues like gender transition or sex change procedures, and social acceptance of what is described as trans dads, people on social media questioned the timing and deliberate framing. The choice to run the piece on a day historically reserved for men generated immediate skepticism.

A massive chorus of critics online called out the NYT for using a major traditional holiday to center a biological woman’s “transgender” identity and parenting experience while redefining “dad”. Furthermore, commentators pointed out that the use of comic format for soft peddling “trans people are dads and moms too” is interesting. Analysts noted that this specific format made the gender-related questions from the child look ‘fun’ and shareable among children for ‘gender-sensitisation’. To critics, the ultimate motive of this presentation was highly transparent, because what could be better than convincing young children that it is normal and desirable to undergo Gender-Affirming Surgery (GAS).

The backlash crossed over multiple prominent social media figures and political commentators. Criticizing the NYT for bringing in transgender woke narratives into Father’s Day, End Wokeness wrote on X, “The New York Times on Father’s Day. We do not hate the media enough.”

Taking a highly critical and ironic tone, author Alex Berenson blended criticism with sarcasm and wrote, “I want to congratulate @nytimes for perfectly catching how the cultural elite view men and fatherhood this Father’s Day – yes, to the Times, being a dad is something you do to feel better about having your tits cut off. Cannot make it up.”

Concerns regarding the impact of this media strategy on younger generations were echoed by popular podcaster Katie Miller, who wrote, “The New York Times published cartoons about being a trans dad for Father’s Day. This is how they envision corrupting our children.”

From a political and macroeconomic viewpoint, Charles Gasparino, a journalist with Fox Business, highlighted the severe cultural division the article represents, writing, “The gulf between the progressive left and the rest of the country (say around 80% of Americans) has never been wider based on this nonsense from @nytimes on Father’s Day, no less. And you wonder why Trump got elected. To My Daughter, My Gender Was Never Complicated.”

Many others called the NYT’s piece an attempt at erasing men and turning Father’s Day into ‘Trans Dads Day’. This phenomenon is not isolated to a single publication. The NYT has been joined by several other legacy media outlets in and outside the US, giving favorable coverage to non-biological/trans perspectives on Father’s Day. Observers view this as a blatant attempt by the New York Times at pushing and normalizing the idea of ‘trans dad’, ‘trans mom’ or ‘trans parents’ into the mainstream by using traditional occasions associated with fatherhood or motherhood, essentially, days celebrating gender roles.

This media campaign aligns directly with broader geopolitical and educational efforts. While trans activists have aggressively been pushing these narratives in schools across the US and many European countries, their media allies platform gender confused mothers and wokes to establish the use of cross-sex hormone injections, puberty blockers, GAS, and ‘trans parenthood’ as something equivalent to and as normal as the real biological genders and relations, sometimes better.

The overarching strategy is to embed woke gender ideology into everyday cultural touchstones. Now the trans activists are using traditional holidays and roles as vehicles for normalizing transgender identities, gender fluidity, and what could have been a better occasion than Father’s Day to decouple “parent” from biological sex. Many citizens view this cultural push not as organic evolution, but as forced inclusion.

This modern ideological movement directly challenges historical and scientific understandings of human biology. Conventionally, the terms ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ have been used interchangeably, and it has been a scientifically and logically accepted fact that there are only two genders that could be considered normal. In contrast, transgender individuals are considered a deviation from the norm and anomalous.

The movement has also fundamentally altered linguistic structures. The non-binary and ‘gender fluid’ people claim that they are not comfortable with conventional pronouns since they are associated with gender identities. This led to the coining of new pronouns like “They/Them” and “Xe/Xhrer.”

Geographically, the Western hemisphere has served as the epicenter for these radical societal redefinitions. The US and Europe have been the centre of this gender-affirmation and related political debates; the rot has metastasized to several countries across the world.

However, recent shifts in the American political landscape have introduced a temporary friction to this cultural momentum. Clearly, Donald Trump’s return to power may have slowed the trans activism wave in the US. Yet, traditionalists warn that the institutional push has not ceased entirely; rather, the ‘wokeness’ has not died down; rather, it is simmering beneath the surface. Conservative analysts conclude that once the Republicans are voted out, the normalization of transgender identities will resume in full swing.