New York Times Marks Father's Day With a Comic Essay by a 'Trans Dad' — and the Backlash Was Instant

On a weekend Americans set aside to honor dads, the New York Times opinion section reached instead for gender ideology — and a wide cross-section of critics noticed.

The paper published a comic-strip-style guest essay timed to Father's Day, June 21, 2026, credited to author Zach Ellams. According to outlets that reviewed the piece, it is an illustrated first-person account by a person who was born female, identifies as male, and reflects on parenting after having a daughter. The essay is not about the role a father plays in a child's life so much as about the parent's own transition — including panels in which the daughter asks at a public pool how the parent "grew a mustache." The narrative lands on the idea that the child accepted the change easily, and that it is adults who make things complicated.

A Substitution, Not a Celebration

That framing is exactly what set critics off. The complaint, in plain terms, is one of substitution. On the one day built around dads, the nation's most influential newspaper devoted its space not to fatherhood itself but to a story in which fatherhood is a vehicle for an adult's transition and self-discovery. Ordinary fathers — the ones coaching Little League, working double shifts, showing up — got nothing.

XX/XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey flagged the piece bluntly: "This is what the @nytimes went with for Fathers Day. A cartoon 'essay' by a trans 'dad.'" Journalist Matt Taibbi, no conservative, called the editorial "an all-timer." The gender-skeptical group Genspect wrote that the Times had found "the worst take on Fatherhood possible" — focusing "not [on] the role men play in their children's lives but on a child's impact on her ... parent's trans identity."

Familiar Territory

None of this is new ground for the Times. The paper has faced years of internal and external fights over its trans coverage, and the Father's Day essay reads, to its detractors, as the editorial board once again choosing the activist frame over the common-sense one. There is a straightforward holiday — celebrate dads — and the Times managed to find a way to make even that about something else.

For a paper that bills itself as the national paper of record, the lesson critics drew is simple. Most American families don't need fatherhood reframed, redefined, or complicated. They just wanted a card, a cookout, and a day to thank the men who raised them.

Patriot FM could not independently access the original New York Times essay, which sits behind the paper's paywall. The title, author, format, and content described here are corroborated by independent outlets and the critics quoted above.