Evan Urquhart’s Fight Against Anti-Trans Propaganda

Evan Urquhart founded Assigned Media, a news site that debunks anti-trans propaganda, in late 2022. After contributing to Slate for nearly a decade, he felt that conservative attacks on trans rights deserved a dedicated beat writer. He decided to become one—even if that meant publishing outside legacy media (Urquhart is still the community manager at Slate). 

Over the last few years, some state legislatures have banned gender-affirming care for minors, restricted access to care for trans adults, canceled drag shows, prevented classroom instruction about gender identity or sexuality, made it impossible to change the gender on your driver’s license, and criminalized trans people using the bathroom. In March of last year, anti-trans rhetoric at the notorious annual conservative conference CPAC culminated in the genocidal call to action: “Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.” 

Too often, mainstream media has helped platform and spread misinformation that’s become ammunition for anti-trans advocates’ legal battles and public fear-mongering.

Assigned’s first investigation tracked how right-wing sites such as the Daily Mail and the Daily Signal amplified a false account of a trans volleyball player refusing to leave the girl’s locker room in Vermont. In addition to the right-wing media ecosystem, Urquhart tracks mainstream outlets such as the New York Times, which has produced reporting cited by opponents of trans rights. As an example, last year, an advocate quoted directly from Megan Twohey and Christina Jewett’s story “They Paused Puberty, But is There a Cost?” before the Nebraska State Legislature in support of a gender-affirming care ban, nodding to the paper’s liberal reputation to underscore his cause’s credibility. Incidents like this preceded 1,200 New York Times contributors signing a letter accusing the newspaper of systematic bias on the subject. Recently, after Pamela Paul published a story about teenage detransitioners, Urquhart critiqued the columnist’s reliance on debunked research from anti-trans activists.

Urquhart’s goal is to improve news coverage, not just dissect the bad stuff. His new resource, the Trans Data Library, has raised over $16,000 to survey and analyze the anti-trans movement, cataloging anti-trans organizations, therapists, and activists with the goal of “de-mystifying these groups, their connections, and aims for the public.” The library is designed to be a cheat sheet for reporters, and to help counteract one of Urquhart’s bugbears: mainstream media’s tendency to obscure the clear activist backgrounds and motivations of sources speaking against trans rights. Trans Data Library has handy entries on parents rights groups that support conversion therapy and fringe groups, like American College of Pediatricians (listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) that pass themselves off as mainstream, legitimate medical organizations.

Study Hall spoke with Urquhart about his approach to mission-driven journalism, the logistics of going independent, and how he tries to support the younger trans journalists who may eventually replace him.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you first get into journalism?

In my late 20s, I really loved journalism and was a fan of journalism. Sometimes in the evening—when I was maybe a little full of pith and vinegar—I’d email editors cold and suggest stories that I could write. This is not an approach that I would normally recommend. 

[An editor of Slate] took pity on me and she said, “Well, this idea is bad. But if you send me three more ideas, maybe there’s something that you could do for us.” And that turned into my first story for Slate and something that I try and call a career.

Your work has always focused on LGBTQ+ rights, and other journalists have described you as an activist. How do you feel about that label?

Honestly, I think if I thought I would be effective as an activist, probably I would do that. But I do insist on the distinction of being a journalist and not an activist. What that means to me, in a nutshell, is just that my main focus is on the truth and  making sure that my readers or my audience come away from a story better informed. 

I believe that there’s no conflict between the truth and transgender rights, but I don’t resize a story or pick stories based on what’s gonna look good. I don’t leave out facts that are inconvenient. I try to just tell the facts to the best of my understanding and knowledge—from my perspective, of course, because I am a trans person and I have certain sympathies and certain views.

Your work centers on media criticism. How do you grapple with the fact that you might one day want to work at some of the places you critique?

That’s just the trade-off of doing this. The benefit of doing media criticism is that people in media care about it and notice your work, and I think that that allows for it to have a greater impact. But on the other hand, I understand and accept that I’m being very critical of people with a lot of power and a lot of sense of their own reputation, and that they’re not going to be happy. 

The New York Times wasn’t beating a path to my door beforehand. So you know, it’s not much of a loss.

What are the advantages to publishing your own content? 

I will honestly say that I see more disadvantages than advantages. I would love to have fact-checking, I would love to have copy-editing—I am actually pretty bad, for someone who’s a professional writer, at not introducing copy errors. I’m always very grateful when people volunteer for some of my longer, more reported stories to do some of that editing. 

The advantage is that I can tell important stories that no one else is telling, and be of service to a community that needs people who are fighting for us.

You recently launched the Trans Data Library. Can you talk about what led you to that project?

The parent of a trans kid in a state that lost access to legal gender-affirming care came to me, and we started batting this around. That person had a little bit of money that they wanted to put towards a good idea. I originally was just trying to help them develop their idea, but finally I said, “You know what, let’s do it together.”

It’s extremely fact-forward and tries not to be opinionated at all. We really rigorously tried to go through and make sure that every claim is substantiated with an outside source. It includes no independent reporting, even when we wanted to.

What were some things on your mind when putting together the Trans Data Library team?

I really wanted to give opportunities to trans people as much as possible. Everyone involved was LGBTQ+, almost everyone involved was trans. I really didn’t want to do a volunteer project.   and so we are making sure that we are paying people.

Anyone who thought that they could write, I’d give them a chance and let them try to write a sample. They got paid for the sample, whether we could use it or not, and if it was usable and they felt that they could do it in a timeframe that would lend to a reasonable hourly rate, they were in.

There are a couple of freelancers who contribute to Assigned. How did that start?

It was something that I always hoped for. [Assigned has] been a success beyond where I hoped, but not my wildest dreams, and that means I can occasionally pay some freelancers. I think that journalism right now is completely in a freefall, and that impacts marginalized people even more than anyone else. Providing some kind of opportunity for trans people to get some sort of toehold in the industry to the extent that I can—which is much more limited than I’d like—is important to me.

How did you financially prepare to start focusing on your own work?

It was more like, “Okay, if I run out of steam and I’m not making enough money that this is worth it, then it was a good try.” Luckily, from the very first day of launch, I had people who were interested in contributing and helping to keep me going. At this point, [Assigned] is a small but very significant part of my overall income. I would like to get rich, but I don’t think the way I conduct myself is likely to end there. When I get extra money, I’ll pay a trans artist or I’ll pay a trans freelancer. 

Do you worry about burnout?

This has been by far the most personally fulfilling and professionally stimulating period of my life, and I’m very glad that I took a chance on it. I assume I’m not immune to burnout. It happens to a lot of reporters who have really given their heart and soul to this issue, because things are really bleak out there. A lot of people who were covering trans issues very regularly five or 10 years ago just can’t do it currently.

That’s part of having freelancers and encouraging people who are coming up behind me—it’s just hoping there will be someone to take that ball. I try to let go of the idea that I can personally change the world and just see it as: I’m doing this job. I will keep doing it until I’m not effective.  If the time comes that I’m not able to do it effectively, someone else will take it up.

Are there any related resources you would recommend?

Erin Reed’s legislation tracker is a really important resource. Zinnia Jones has Gender Analysis, which is a great website—it’s a little bit more eclectic, but it has a lot of resources on medical stuff. It also has some background on different [anti-trans] organizations and individuals. There’s Transgender Map as well, which is a little similar to the Trans Data Library and [has] more of an activist voice but does really good work.