The activist group GLAAD is attacking CNN for a report published Monday revealing that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris expressed support for taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries.
The group concedes that there are no factual errors in the CNN report from investigative reporter Andrew Kaczynski. Rather, it is taking issue with an alleged insinuation in the report that there is "something amiss" with Harris's position.
"It is a disservice to viewers and inaccurate for CNN to insinuate there is something amiss with following the law as well as treating people with respect and dignity," GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis told the Advocate.
Federal law requires the government to provide inmates with adequate medical care, a category into which Ellis suggests gender transition surgeries, which she describes as a "basic human right," fall.
"Transgender people and migrants are being baselessly scapegoated at every turn," Ellis said.
CNN's report centered on a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire Harris completed during her maiden presidential campaign. Harris told the group she would use her executive authority if elected to ensure that "transgender and nonbinary people … including those in prison and immigration detention" have access to "comprehensive treatment associated with gender transition." She also described gender "transition treatment" as a "medical necessity."
Since then, however, some of CNN's employees have undercut the network's own reporting. Jim Acosta snapped at a former Trump official who referred to the report, asking, "Where is that coming from?" And after former president Donald Trump referred to Kaczynski's report at Tuesday night's debate, arguing that Harris "wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison," CNN host Wolf Blitzer described it as one of Trump's "most outlandish claims."
Other mainstream media outlets "fact-checked" Trump’s debate statement. The New York Times said the claim "needs context," adding that the report "drew sharp criticism from supporters of gay, lesbian and transgender people." Time was forced to correct an article that said Harris did not support taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for detained illegal immigrants.
GLAAD works with media outlets to provide what it calls "transgender resources." It also rates social media platforms for "LGBTQ safety." GLAAD advises against the use of terms such as "biologically male" and "biologically female" because "phrases like those oversimplify a complex subject." Ellis, its CEO, has an annual pay package in the "high six or low seven figures" and has spent lavishly on luxury car services and lodging, including a seven-bedroom chalet in the Swiss Alps that cost nearly $500,000 a week, the New York Times reported last month. GLAAD is a nonprofit with roughly 60 employees.
Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler was pressed on Harris's support for taxpayer-funded transgender inmate surgeries during a Tuesday morning Fox News interview. He did not say Harris no longer supports it but did say she is not "proposing or running on" the policy.