Fox News editor covering LGBTQ issues is a conversion therapy proponent who says “transgender identity is dangerous”

Fox News editor Tyler O'Neil

Fox News has been dispatching an anti-LGBTQ editor to cover LGBTQ issues, including the debate over Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The editor, Tyler O’Neil, has claimed that being LGBTQ is immoral, stated that “transgender identity is dangerous,” and promoted harmful and discredited conversion therapy as a way for people to supposedly leave “the gay lifestyle.”

Fox News has been waging war against Disney after the company criticized Florida for passing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in late March. The network has heavily attacked the company both on and off the air, including through its FoxNews.com website. 

FoxNews.com has become even more right-wing during President Joe Biden’s administration. Its digital operation is led by former Hannity producer Porter Berry who, the Daily Beast noted, “has quickly remade the network’s digital properties more in the image of its conservative, culture war-heavy opinion programming.” 

O’Neil has frequently covered LGBTQ issues for FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness.com. In recent days, he has written anti-Disney stories that carry the headlines, “Teacher running for Congress warns of psychological damage Disney's LGBT agenda may do to kids”; “Disney employee issues dire warning about the economic consequences of new 'leftward lurch'”; and “'Silent majority' of Disney employees support Florida law, Disney employee running for Congress says.” Some of his pieces have received top-story placement on FoxNews.com’s front page. 

Fox News has deployed O’Neil to report on other LGBTQ issues, including conversion therapy and a book about transgender youth. 

O’Neil previously worked as a senior editor for the right-wing PJ Media until Fox News hired him last summer. At PJ Media, O’Neil frequently wrote about LGBTQ issues, including promoting “ex-gay” conversion therapy -- the harmful and discredited practice that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. He’s also said that he opposes “LGBT orthodoxy” and has written that “transgender identity is dangerous.” 

Here is a sampling of O’Neil’s work for PJ Media. 

O’Neil wrote that Christians “must uphold the Bible’s morality, which clearly conflicts with the LGBT orthodoxy that Biden and his fellow Democrats want to enforce on us.” In his farewell note to PJ Media readers, O’Neil wrote that he and PJ Media Managing Editor Paula Bolyard “both agree … that Christians must uphold the Bible’s morality, which clearly conflicts with the LGBT orthodoxy that Biden and his fellow Democrats want to enforce on us.” 

According to O’Neil, “Christians need to sympathize with those who are suffering with gender dysphoria and we need to celebrate those who nonetheless reject transgender identity to follow God.” O’Neil wrote a July 2021 piece stating that Christians must reject “transgender orthodoxy.” He concluded: “Christians need to sympathize with those who are suffering with gender dysphoria and we need to celebrate those who nonetheless reject transgender identity to follow God. The church needs to be a welcoming place for all people — but Christians must tell the truth of the gospel with clarity.” 

O’Neil credited a version of conversion therapy for supposedly helping people leave “the gay lifestyle.” “Reintegrative therapy” is a repackaged form of conversion therapy. O’Neil wrote an August 2018 piece praising the practice, writing: “Four men — Michael, Nathan, Dennis, and John — all rediscovered their masculinity through therapy. As a result, their unwanted same-sex attraction weakened or dissipated.” He tweeted of reintegrative therapy: 

Tyler O'Neil reintegrative therapy tweet

O’Neil praised conversion therapy books as giving “hope” to people. O’Neil wrote a July 2019 piece criticizing Amazon for removing pro-conversion therapy books, including those by discredited quack Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Sr. He tweeted when promoting the article: 

Tyler O'Neil Amazon reparative therapy tweet
Tyler O'Neil hope tweet

After Biden signed an executive order in January 2021 that allowed transgender soldiers to serve in the military, O’Neil wrote that Biden’s “transgender agenda threatens to undermine the military, America’s scientific and health care establishment, and women’s rights.” 

O’Neil tweeted in February 2020: “Transgender identity is dangerous.” 

Tyler O'Neil tweet dangerous

O’Neil wrote, “Transgender identity is not the right solution — and enshrining transgender ‘protections’ into law opens up a Pandora’s Box of social ills.” From a November 2020 piece in which O’Neil wrote about why he was supporting Trump after previously opposing him: 

The Obama administration endorsed transgender identity over biological sex in restrooms and changing rooms, in the military, and in Obamacare. Under Obama’s health care law, coverage for transgender “treatments” tripled under Medicare and Medicaid. Some regulations suggested that employers would have to cover transgender surgery in health plans, regardless of their convictions on biological sex.

Although people who really do struggle with gender dysphoria (the painful condition of identifying with the gender opposite your biological sex) deserve compassion, transgender identity is not the right solution — and enshrining transgender “protections” into law opens up a Pandora’s Box of social ills.

O’Neil wrote a piece criticizing Caitlyn Jenner for being a transgender woman. O’Neil wrote an April 2017 piece criticizing Jenner for having gender confirmation surgery. Fox News recently hired Jenner as a Fox News contributor. O’Neil wrote (in accordance with the Trans Journalists Association style guide, Media Matters has replaced incorrect references to Jenner’s gender with correct pronouns in brackets.): 

Ultimately, it is impossible to change from one sex to the other, because sexuality is written into human DNA. Even if Caitlyn Jenner looks like a woman, gets all the necessary physical alterations, and even has the right hormonal cocktail pulsing through [her] veins, [she] will still be a man, genetically. [She] will still have achieved great things as a man — becoming a father and winning the Olympic gold.

In another piece in January 2019, O’Neil repeatedly deadnamed Jenner in sympathetically writing about a pastor who was ousted over an anti-Jenner billboard. Deadnaming is a form of harassment that involves using a trans person’s prior name against their wishes.