Child Compassion and Protection Act. Contributors wrote in the open letter that "the Times has in recent years treated gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language, while publishing reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources." The letter references, as one example, an article by Emily Bazelon that "uncritically used the term 'patient zero' to refer to a trans child seeking gender⁠-⁠affirming care, a phrase that vilifies transness as a disease to be feared"(referencing the term for a first-identified patient in an epidemic). Among the signatories of the letter are Cynthia Nixon, Chelsea Manning, Roxane Gay, Jia Tolentino and Sarah Schulman. A second letter was released the same day, in support of the New York Times contributors. It was co-signed by over one hundred LGBTQ and civil rights groups, including GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign and PFLAG. The letter described the Times as platforming "fringe theories" and containing "dangerous inaccuracies." Both letters used fact checkers to check sources for articles and op-eds and referenced to the Times history of homophobia from 1963-87 as evidence of previous bias against LGBTQ people. Support for this claim was a ban made by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger on using the word "gay" by anyone writing or editing at the newspaper as well as stigmatizing coverage of gay men and lesbians as well as the start of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. Within a day, The New York Times issued a response, saying, "Our journalism strives to explore, interrogate and reflect the experiences, ideas and debates in society – to help readers understand them. Our reporting did exactly that and we're proud of it." The next day, the Times published an op-ed piece entitled, "In Defense of J.K. Rowling". That same day, an internal memo was sent by the editors, saying, "Our coverage of transgender issues, including the specific pieces singled out for attack, is important, deeply reported, and sensitively written. We do not welcome, and will not tolerate, participation by Times journalists in protests organized by advocacy groups or attacks on colleagues on social media and other public forums." Reputation The Times has developed a national and international "reputation for thoroughness". Among journalists, the paper is held in high regard; a 1999 survey of newspaper editors conducted by the Columbia Journalism Review found that the Times was the "best" American paper, ahead of The Washington