Update (4/22/22): This article has been updated with additional information.
The Dallas Morning News is one of the largest and most established papers in one of the largest states in the country, and yet its coverage of the Texas government’s targeting of trans children in the month after the attorney general announced that health care for trans kids would now be considered “child abuse” by the state was more sparse than some of its counterparts, and was often weaker in pushing back on right-wing misinformation.
On February 21, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion classifying gender-affirming health care for trans youth – including puberty blockers and later hormone replacement therapy (HRT) endorsed as best practices by major medical associations – as child abuse under state law. In the following weeks, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services opened several investigations into the parents of trans youth at the direction of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. While the investigations were halted by a court order and no families have been forcibly separated thus far, the fallout from Paxton’s announcement has put a huge amount of stress on these families, and at least one hospital has ceased providing HRT. Some families with trans kids have already begun planning how to flee the state to protect their children.
Trans advocates have long feared that these kinds of policies will cause a spike in the rate of violent attacks against trans people and suicides by trans children. Trans youth already face higher risk of depression and suicidal ideation than their cisgender peers. Access to affirming spaces, the ability to socially transition, and affirming health care all significantly reduce this risk – and yet local coverage from Texas papers of this issue often failed to emphasize the necessity of gender-affirming care for these children.
A Media Matters review of local print media published between February 23 and March 24, 2022, found 165 articles containing substantial coverage of Paxton’s opinion targeting health care for trans youth printed in Texas-based publications. Only 13 of the 165 articles were from The Dallas Morning News, despite being the largest newspaper in Texas by circulation. The slightly smaller Houston Chronicle had the most coverage published by an individual paper, with 29 articles.
As a point of comparison, Media Matters also found 24 articles discussing Paxton’s announcement in this time period published by nonprofit news organization The Texas Tribune, which has become a significant part of local media since its founding in 2009 and features “the largest statehouse news bureau in the United States.” While the Tribune is an online-only publication, some of these articles were republished in local print newspapers such as The Victoria Advocate.
Not only did The Dallas Morning News devote less coverage to the legal opinion and the actions of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services than some of its major competitors, but also a smaller proportion of that sparse coverage actually combatted misinformation.
Only 6 of The Dallas Morning News’ 13 stories directly acknowledged that the legal opinion and resulting investigations violate trans children’s and their parents’ human and civil rights, or just 46% compared with 75% of those published by The Texas Tribune (18 of 24) and 76% of the Houston Chronicle’s stories (22 of 29).
Meanwhile, 54% of The Dallas Morning News stories (7 articles) treated both sides of the debate over the opinion with legitimacy, giving similar weight to right-wing anti-trans talking points and trans people's perspectives. By comparison, 38% of the Houston Chronicle’s stories (11) and 21% of The Texas Tribune’s articles (5) did the same. While the Chronicle had more articles that weighed trans and anti-trans perspectives equally, it also had more than double the total coverage of the Morning News.
In addition, 38% of The Dallas Morning News’ stories on the opinion (5 articles) failed to debunk right-wing claims that gender-affirming health care for trans youth is experimental or constitutes child abuse. Two of those 5 articles were focused primarily on political horse race coverage of the Texas governor; the majority of the outlet’s overall stories, particularly by beat reporters, did debunk faulty medical claims. During the same period, 14% of the Houston Chronicle’s articles (4) and 8% of The Texas Tribune’s stories (2) allowed conservatives to promote this dangerous misinformation without pushback.
In one article on the race for governor, The Dallas Morning News identified banning trans health care as a strength for Republicans in a section covering each campaign’s “issue to watch for” during upcoming debates. The piece extensively quoted anti-trans rhetoric from Abbott’s chief political strategist, who called the policy “a winning issue,” without fact-checking that gender-affirming care is widely accepted by the medical community or acknowledging the real-life damage this policy could do to Texas families: